ANALYSIS: Israel must do all it can to stay out of Lebanon quagmire
Ha'aretz, August 5, 2006
By Ze'ev Schiff
After a brief hiatus, Hezbollah has resumed firing rockets at northern Israel. It is trying to fire as many rockets as possible, and this week, it set a one-day record of 200 rockets. Hezbollah is primarily using short-range rockets - 122-millimeter Katyushas. Its inventory of medium- and long-range rockets has been drastically reduced, because Israel Air Force operations have knocked out many of them.
The present situation emphasizes the IAF's limited capacity for dealing with small rockets, which are tiny targets. It is just as difficult to rid southern Lebanon of small rockets as it is to stop the firing of Qassam rockets from the Gaza Strip. Judging from the data on the extent of Hezbollah's arsenal of short-range rockets, it can continue its war of attrition for another three months.
The above facts underline the gravity of the error Israel made in not immediately launching, alongside the aerial attacks, an extensive, multipronged ground campaign - obviously, including air support - in southern Lebanon, where the short-range rockets are positioned. From the start, Israel's deployment of its armed forces has been problematic. Apparently, the Israel Defense Forces' immense firepower is not being fully activated.
Now, everyone is seeking explanations - or excuses - for this state of affairs. The Prime Minister's Office says that the IDF never suggested extensive ground operations alongside the aerial attacks. One of the IDF's original objectives was to clear a one- to two-kilometer strip of territory north of Israel's border and prevent Hezbollah's return to that area. The idea was that, since its forces would not remain in Lebanon, Israel would thwart Hezbollah's attempts to return to the border by firing from within Israeli territory.
Now a decision has been made to widen the strip to six kilometers, and Israel's military operations seek to achieve that objective. Although important, this objective cannot offer an effective response to the network of short-range missiles in southern Lebanon.
In a recent cabinet debate on the ground operations, only one minister favored an extensive, immediate, multipronged ground campaign in southern Lebanon: National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who once held the defense portfolio. Justice Minister Haim Ramon backed him to an extent, proposing a multiphased ground campaign: Initially, ground operations would be confined to a strip close to the border, and only afterward would a decision be made on whether to expand them. Apparently, the basic assumption here is that the IDF still has plenty of time to achieve its operational goals. This line of thinking, along with the cabinet's decisions, has allowed Hezbollah to fire its rockets freely from southern Lebanon. And that is precisely what is happening today.
Let us assume that the government will instruct the IDF to embark on a new phase and seize extensive territory in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah would then move some of its rockets further back, and their range vis-a-vis Israeli targets would be shortened. According to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel intends to hold the parts of southern Lebanon that it captures until their transfer to a new international peacekeeping force. Two central questions must be asked: When can this force become operative, and what sort of mandate will it be given? Hezbollah has already taken this option into consideration, and plans guerrilla warfare in southern Lebanon to inflict losses on the IDF and to be able to claim that it is again fighting to banish Israeli occupation forces from Lebanese soil.
The IDF must therefore do everything possible to avoid the modus operandi it used during its protracted stay in Lebanon after the 1982 Lebanon War. Israel must not remain in southern Lebanon. It must not base its operations and deployment there on supply convoys, or on transporting soldiers for furloughs in Israel and then back to their bases in Lebanon, or even on permanent military bases in Lebanon, even if they are fortified. These are convenient targets for guerrilla fighters, and this is the kind of situation that Hezbollah anticipates.
A problem will arise if no international peacekeeping force can be found to which the IDF can hand over the territory that it now occupies in southern Lebanon. In such a scenario, Israel will be faced with a dilemma: Stay in southern Lebanon, or withdraw, even if Hezbollah returns to set up bases there? If confronted with this question, Israel must choose withdrawal - in order to avoid again finding itself waist-deep in the Lebanese quagmire.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Correction: Qana Death Toll at 28
Israel/Lebanon: Qana Death Toll at 28
International Inquiry Needed into Israeli Air Strike
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/02/lebano13899.htm
(Beirut, August 2, 2006) – A preliminary Human Rights Watch investigation into the July 30 Israeli air strike in Qana found that 28 people are confirmed dead thus far, among them 16 children, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The deaths in Qana were the predictable result of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign in Lebanon,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “Only an impartial international investigation can find out what really took place.”
The initial estimate of 54 persons killed was based on a register of 63 persons who had sought shelter in the basement of the building that was struck, and rescue teams having located nine survivors. It now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement, and 28 are confirmed dead, according to records from the Lebanese Red Cross and the government hospital in Tyre. Thirteen people remain missing, and some Qana residents fear they are buried in the rubble, although recovery efforts have stopped.
International Inquiry Needed into Israeli Air Strike
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/02/lebano13899.htm
(Beirut, August 2, 2006) – A preliminary Human Rights Watch investigation into the July 30 Israeli air strike in Qana found that 28 people are confirmed dead thus far, among them 16 children, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The deaths in Qana were the predictable result of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign in Lebanon,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. “Only an impartial international investigation can find out what really took place.”
The initial estimate of 54 persons killed was based on a register of 63 persons who had sought shelter in the basement of the building that was struck, and rescue teams having located nine survivors. It now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement, and 28 are confirmed dead, according to records from the Lebanese Red Cross and the government hospital in Tyre. Thirteen people remain missing, and some Qana residents fear they are buried in the rubble, although recovery efforts have stopped.
Comment - Britain's Daily Mail, August 3, 2006
The civilian casualties are awful but Israel is fighting for its existence
Comment - Daily Mail, August 3, 2006
There's no doubt Israel is losing the propaganda war. You don't have to be a paid-up peacenik to find some of the pictures coming out of the Middle East distressing. No one with an iota of humanity wants to see the corpses of women and children caught up in the conflict.
But you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist, either, to wonder how many of the male 'civilians' killed by the Israelis are actually Hezbollah terrorists or whether everything we're being shown from Lebanon is for real.
Islamonazis are sophisticated propagandists and they know they'll find a gullible audience in the civilised world for their carefully-strewn teddy bears, strategically-placed 'Baby Milk Factory' signs (in English) and wailing widows from central casting.
Have you ever noticed how every time a coalition air strike goes astray in Iraq, it always manages to hit a 'wedding party'?
Why is there only ever one child's shoe in the rubble, never a pair? There always seems to be a broken medicine box, too, with a handy red cross - never a red crescent, mind you - on the lid, just in case we haven't got the message.
Credulous CNN correspondents and handwringing BBC reporters fall over themselves to sign up for the Hezbollah guided tour of the ruins.
I use a rough rule of thumb whenever I watch television coverage of the Middle East. Anyone who pronounces Hezbollah as 'Hiz-bull-arrrgh' and Israeli as 'Izza-ra-ay-lee' is almost certainly telling lies.
The bien-pensant buzzword used to describe Israel's bombing is 'disproportionate'. But what's 'proportionate'? Are the thousands of rockets fired at genuine civilian targets in Israel 'proportionate'?
It is only because Israelis are hunkered down in underground shelters built out of necessity and bitter experience, or have fled out of range of Hezbollah's salvoes, that there haven't been piles of bodies on their side of the border.
What would 'world opinion' consider an acceptable death toll before acknowledging Israel's right to retaliation and self-defence - 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? 1,000,000?
Hezbollah has started a war it knows it can't win in the certain knowledge that there will be civilian casualties. Its stated aim is to kill as many Israelis as possible and if innocent Lebanese get caught in the crossfire, tough.
These fanatics have little or no regard for human life. Their tactic is to hide among civilians; to use terrified women and children as human shields; to deploy school playgrounds as rocket launch sites; hotels and apartment blocks as command centres; homes as weapons dumps; mosques as air-raid shelters.
I've heard reporters referring to Hezbollah as a 'resistance' movement. They love it, don't they? Just as they insist on calling terrorist murderers 'radicals' or 'militants' - as if there's no difference between Al Qaeda and Aslef train drivers on unofficial strike.
What they never point out is that if Hezbollah didn't exist, there would be nothing to resist. Israel is the Tony Martin of the Middle East, lashing out in fear and frustration after enduring years of provocation.
Just as Tony Martin was abandoned by the police to endure burglary after burglary at his remote farmhouse, so the 'international community' has done nothing to disarm and disband Hezbollah or prevent it and Hamas repeatedly attacking Israel.
The United Nations hasn't lifted a finger to stop Iran and Syria supporting and supplying a standing terrorist army in Lebanon. There are no sanctions against the barking mad president of Iran when he constantly threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and is hell-bent on obtaining nuclear weapons.
Iran has put Lebanese civilians in the front line of its lunatic war against Israel and the U.S. in particular and Western civilisation in general. So where's the international condemnation?
Hezbollah is the provisional wing of Iran. Would it be 'proportionate' if Israel attacked the paymasters and ringleaders of Hezbollah in Tehran?
It may yet come to that. But first Israel has to remove the immediate threat to its security.
The United Nations isn't going to do that. The UN is a busted flush, led by the laughable Kofi Annan - the Chauncey Gardiner of world diplomacy. When it left the U.S.-led coalition to go it alone in Iraq, it sent a clear message to other tyrants and rogue states that they had nothing to fear from the UN.
Listening to 'world opinion' has got Israel nowhere. It was told it should trade land for peace. So it did. It got war. Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon six years ago. Hezbollah boasts that it has spent that time preparing for this fresh assault, building tunnels and bunkers and stockpiling a deadly arsenal of 13,000 weapons, which it is now raining down on Israeli civilians.
There are hourly calls for a ceasefire, but when Tel Aviv suspended bombing for 48 hours the response was a record number of Katyusha rockets fired into Israel in return.
I saw a BBC reporter standing on a hillside trying to convince us that because missiles were still being fired from Lebanon despite three weeks of fighting, it was evidence that Israel's tactics weren't working and it couldn't win.
Hezbollah has spent six years building up its arsenal in preparation for this war. Who said an Israeli victory would only take three weeks?
If there is a ceasefire, Hezbollah will simply regroup. There's talk of a negotiated settlement, but how do you cut a deal when one side says it will not be satisfied until the other is totally eradicated?
Lasting peace has only ever followed total victory in war. Even if Israel and Hezbollah/Iran agree to walk away tomorrow, we'll be back here again in a few years.
Then there's the Palestinian question. Again, even though Israel ceded territory in pursuit of peace, terror attacks and kidnappings on Israeli soil have continued.
There's talk about dusting off the old 'road map'. Israel accepts there will have to be a two-state solution, but the only 'road map' of the Middle East its enemies will accept is one without Israel on it at all.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for the Jewish community in Britain. They're as distressed by the carnage as the rest of us and there are divisions over Israel's actions. No one wallows in the death of innocents - except, of course, Hezbollah and its Iranian puppet-masters.
THIS time of year, there are 15,000 British Jewish teenagers in Israel on the traditional summer rite of passage. And there are 30,000 British passport holders living in Israel.
Although we had wall-to-wall coverage of grumbling British passport holders being evacuated from Beirut, there doesn't seem to have been equal concern about our fellow citizens under bombardment on the other side of the border.
What struck me about the recent pro-Israel demonstration in London was the number of Union flags in the crowd. These are our people.
I didn't notice any Union flags at the Stop The War rally, though there were plenty of 'We Are All Hezbollah Now' banners. It doesn't seem to dawn on them that if you want to stop the war you've got to stop Hezbollah.
But what drives most of these 'peace campaigners' is not so much a desire for peace as a hatred of Israel.
Every time something goes off in Iraq we're told it will radicalise young Muslims back in Britain. We hear that Tony Blair's failure to call for an immediate halt to the Israeli offensive has put us at imminent risk of another Islamist homicide attack on our streets.
Despite the Hezbollah war on Israel and the mounting casualties - and the widespread condemnation of Israel in this country - I've yet to hear anyone warn that young British Jews are queueing to blow up themselves and hundreds of others at Brent Cross shopping centre.
I repeat, this war is awful. The civilian deaths are a tragedy.
But there won't be peace in the Middle East until the likes of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas recognise Israel's right to exist.
And, I'm afraid, this side of kingdom come, that just ain't gonna happen.
Israel may be losing the propaganda war, but it isn't fighting a propaganda war - it's fighting a real war for its very existence.
Comment - Daily Mail, August 3, 2006
There's no doubt Israel is losing the propaganda war. You don't have to be a paid-up peacenik to find some of the pictures coming out of the Middle East distressing. No one with an iota of humanity wants to see the corpses of women and children caught up in the conflict.
But you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist, either, to wonder how many of the male 'civilians' killed by the Israelis are actually Hezbollah terrorists or whether everything we're being shown from Lebanon is for real.
Islamonazis are sophisticated propagandists and they know they'll find a gullible audience in the civilised world for their carefully-strewn teddy bears, strategically-placed 'Baby Milk Factory' signs (in English) and wailing widows from central casting.
Have you ever noticed how every time a coalition air strike goes astray in Iraq, it always manages to hit a 'wedding party'?
Why is there only ever one child's shoe in the rubble, never a pair? There always seems to be a broken medicine box, too, with a handy red cross - never a red crescent, mind you - on the lid, just in case we haven't got the message.
Credulous CNN correspondents and handwringing BBC reporters fall over themselves to sign up for the Hezbollah guided tour of the ruins.
I use a rough rule of thumb whenever I watch television coverage of the Middle East. Anyone who pronounces Hezbollah as 'Hiz-bull-arrrgh' and Israeli as 'Izza-ra-ay-lee' is almost certainly telling lies.
The bien-pensant buzzword used to describe Israel's bombing is 'disproportionate'. But what's 'proportionate'? Are the thousands of rockets fired at genuine civilian targets in Israel 'proportionate'?
It is only because Israelis are hunkered down in underground shelters built out of necessity and bitter experience, or have fled out of range of Hezbollah's salvoes, that there haven't been piles of bodies on their side of the border.
What would 'world opinion' consider an acceptable death toll before acknowledging Israel's right to retaliation and self-defence - 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? 1,000,000?
Hezbollah has started a war it knows it can't win in the certain knowledge that there will be civilian casualties. Its stated aim is to kill as many Israelis as possible and if innocent Lebanese get caught in the crossfire, tough.
These fanatics have little or no regard for human life. Their tactic is to hide among civilians; to use terrified women and children as human shields; to deploy school playgrounds as rocket launch sites; hotels and apartment blocks as command centres; homes as weapons dumps; mosques as air-raid shelters.
I've heard reporters referring to Hezbollah as a 'resistance' movement. They love it, don't they? Just as they insist on calling terrorist murderers 'radicals' or 'militants' - as if there's no difference between Al Qaeda and Aslef train drivers on unofficial strike.
What they never point out is that if Hezbollah didn't exist, there would be nothing to resist. Israel is the Tony Martin of the Middle East, lashing out in fear and frustration after enduring years of provocation.
Just as Tony Martin was abandoned by the police to endure burglary after burglary at his remote farmhouse, so the 'international community' has done nothing to disarm and disband Hezbollah or prevent it and Hamas repeatedly attacking Israel.
The United Nations hasn't lifted a finger to stop Iran and Syria supporting and supplying a standing terrorist army in Lebanon. There are no sanctions against the barking mad president of Iran when he constantly threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and is hell-bent on obtaining nuclear weapons.
Iran has put Lebanese civilians in the front line of its lunatic war against Israel and the U.S. in particular and Western civilisation in general. So where's the international condemnation?
Hezbollah is the provisional wing of Iran. Would it be 'proportionate' if Israel attacked the paymasters and ringleaders of Hezbollah in Tehran?
It may yet come to that. But first Israel has to remove the immediate threat to its security.
The United Nations isn't going to do that. The UN is a busted flush, led by the laughable Kofi Annan - the Chauncey Gardiner of world diplomacy. When it left the U.S.-led coalition to go it alone in Iraq, it sent a clear message to other tyrants and rogue states that they had nothing to fear from the UN.
Listening to 'world opinion' has got Israel nowhere. It was told it should trade land for peace. So it did. It got war. Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon six years ago. Hezbollah boasts that it has spent that time preparing for this fresh assault, building tunnels and bunkers and stockpiling a deadly arsenal of 13,000 weapons, which it is now raining down on Israeli civilians.
There are hourly calls for a ceasefire, but when Tel Aviv suspended bombing for 48 hours the response was a record number of Katyusha rockets fired into Israel in return.
I saw a BBC reporter standing on a hillside trying to convince us that because missiles were still being fired from Lebanon despite three weeks of fighting, it was evidence that Israel's tactics weren't working and it couldn't win.
Hezbollah has spent six years building up its arsenal in preparation for this war. Who said an Israeli victory would only take three weeks?
If there is a ceasefire, Hezbollah will simply regroup. There's talk of a negotiated settlement, but how do you cut a deal when one side says it will not be satisfied until the other is totally eradicated?
Lasting peace has only ever followed total victory in war. Even if Israel and Hezbollah/Iran agree to walk away tomorrow, we'll be back here again in a few years.
Then there's the Palestinian question. Again, even though Israel ceded territory in pursuit of peace, terror attacks and kidnappings on Israeli soil have continued.
There's talk about dusting off the old 'road map'. Israel accepts there will have to be a two-state solution, but the only 'road map' of the Middle East its enemies will accept is one without Israel on it at all.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for the Jewish community in Britain. They're as distressed by the carnage as the rest of us and there are divisions over Israel's actions. No one wallows in the death of innocents - except, of course, Hezbollah and its Iranian puppet-masters.
THIS time of year, there are 15,000 British Jewish teenagers in Israel on the traditional summer rite of passage. And there are 30,000 British passport holders living in Israel.
Although we had wall-to-wall coverage of grumbling British passport holders being evacuated from Beirut, there doesn't seem to have been equal concern about our fellow citizens under bombardment on the other side of the border.
What struck me about the recent pro-Israel demonstration in London was the number of Union flags in the crowd. These are our people.
I didn't notice any Union flags at the Stop The War rally, though there were plenty of 'We Are All Hezbollah Now' banners. It doesn't seem to dawn on them that if you want to stop the war you've got to stop Hezbollah.
But what drives most of these 'peace campaigners' is not so much a desire for peace as a hatred of Israel.
Every time something goes off in Iraq we're told it will radicalise young Muslims back in Britain. We hear that Tony Blair's failure to call for an immediate halt to the Israeli offensive has put us at imminent risk of another Islamist homicide attack on our streets.
Despite the Hezbollah war on Israel and the mounting casualties - and the widespread condemnation of Israel in this country - I've yet to hear anyone warn that young British Jews are queueing to blow up themselves and hundreds of others at Brent Cross shopping centre.
I repeat, this war is awful. The civilian deaths are a tragedy.
But there won't be peace in the Middle East until the likes of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas recognise Israel's right to exist.
And, I'm afraid, this side of kingdom come, that just ain't gonna happen.
Israel may be losing the propaganda war, but it isn't fighting a propaganda war - it's fighting a real war for its very existence.
Friday, August 04, 2006
The most unsuccessful war - Ha'aretz editorial, August 4
The most unsuccessful war
Ha'aretz editorial, Friday, August 4, 2006
By Ze'ev Sternhell
No situation can continue to exist for long without an ideological reason. That's how when once it was clear that it was not achieving its aims, an unsuccessful military campaign was upgraded with the wave of a magic wand to the level of a war of survival. When everyone understood that a moral reason had to be found both for the dimensions of the destruction sowed in Lebanon and the killing of the civilian population there, and for the Israeli dead and wounded (nobody is even talking about the exposure of the entire civilian population in the North of Israel to enemy fire while people are kept in disgraceful conditions in bomb shelters), a war of survival was invented, which by nature must be long and exhausting.
That is how a campaign of collective punishment that was begun in haste, without proper judgment and on the basis of incorrect assessments, including promises that the army is incapable of fulfilling, turned into a war of life and death, if not some kind of second War of Independence. In the press there have even been embarrassing comparisons to the struggle against Nazism, comparisons that are not only a crude distortion of history, but disgrace the memory of the Jews who were exterminated.
The architect of this unsuccessful campaign has outdone himself: In order to cover up his failures, he delivered a poor man's pseudo-Churchillian speech, and promised us more "pain, tears and blood." There really is no limit to shamelessness. It must be said in favor of the government spokesmen who are in greatest demand on the foreign stations, from the Israel Defense Forces Spokesman to Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- that none of them has stooped to propaganda of this kind.
At the same time, the campaign's goals have been reduced and shrunk during these three weeks. From restoring Israel's power of deterrence, eliminating Hezbollah, and disarming it immediately -- after three weeks we have arrived at the present goal, which is the dismantling of the forward outposts of Hezbollah and the deployment of an international force to defend the North of Israel from the possibility of a repeat attack.
At this point, the average citizen, who is not working day and night in the corridors of power and is not sunning himself near the generals' command rooms, is at a loss. Is this how we are restoring the IDF's power of deterrence? Haven't we accomplished exactly the opposite? Hasn't it become clear to the entire world that our "invincible" air force not only failed for three weeks to end the barrage of rockets, but also even needs an emergency airlift of war materiel, as during the 1973 Yom Kippur War?
Moreover, the ordinary citizen is asking himself another question: If several thousand guerrilla fighters do constitute an existential danger to a country with a strike force and weaponry that are unparalleled in this part of the world, how is it that during the past five or six years we heard nothing to that effect from government leaders?
It is true that since 2000 we have not been preoccupied with anything except the Palestinian issue. Hypnotized by the "Palestinian danger," Israel turned its back during the past two years on all national efforts that preceded the disengagement from Gaza, and then the split in the Likud and the establishment of Kadima, as a prologue to the second major campaign, "convergence" behind the separation fence. And when the present government was formed, a national agenda was formulated for the next two, if not four, years, whose main component is fulfillment of the "Sharon legacy": a unilateral drawing of borders in the territories, pulverizing them into cantons and in effect eliminating the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in them. This led citizens to understand that this is the issue that will determine Israel's future.
The clearest evidence of the national order of priorities is the situation in which the IDF's fighting units find themselves. It was no secret that the army almost stopped training in large units and complex operations, and became totally immersed in the struggle against the Palestinian uprising. When infantry brigades turn into a police force specializing in breaking down doors and walls in refugee camps, or in pursuit of groups of terrorists in olive groves, when the criterion for the success of a senior officer is the number of wanted men he has managed to catch rather than his operational talents and ability to command large units -- the army deteriorates.
I cannot recall that the reserve divisions that were drafted on Yom Kippur in 1973, or the Israelis who returned as individuals from abroad in order to join the fighting, were in need of training and refresher exercises. Nevertheless, the Agranat Commission of inquiry was established to investigate, among other things, the level of the forces' battle preparedness.
The Six Day War and Yom Kippur War were wars of survival, and through them the IDF was revealed in all its greatness. The present war is the most unsuccessful we have ever had; it is much worse than the first Lebanon War, which at least was properly prepared, and in which, with the exception of gaining control over the Beirut-Damascus highway, the army more or less achieved its goals as determined by then-defense minister Ariel Sharon.
It is frightening to think that those who decided to embark on the present war did not even dream of its outcome and its destructive consequences in almost every possible realm, of the political and psychological damage, the serious blow to the government's credibility, and yes -- the killing of children in vain. The cynicism being demonstrated by government spokesmen, official and otherwise, including several military correspondents, in the face of the disaster suffered by the Lebanese, amazes even someone who has long since lost many of his youthful illusions.
Ha'aretz editorial, Friday, August 4, 2006
By Ze'ev Sternhell
No situation can continue to exist for long without an ideological reason. That's how when once it was clear that it was not achieving its aims, an unsuccessful military campaign was upgraded with the wave of a magic wand to the level of a war of survival. When everyone understood that a moral reason had to be found both for the dimensions of the destruction sowed in Lebanon and the killing of the civilian population there, and for the Israeli dead and wounded (nobody is even talking about the exposure of the entire civilian population in the North of Israel to enemy fire while people are kept in disgraceful conditions in bomb shelters), a war of survival was invented, which by nature must be long and exhausting.
That is how a campaign of collective punishment that was begun in haste, without proper judgment and on the basis of incorrect assessments, including promises that the army is incapable of fulfilling, turned into a war of life and death, if not some kind of second War of Independence. In the press there have even been embarrassing comparisons to the struggle against Nazism, comparisons that are not only a crude distortion of history, but disgrace the memory of the Jews who were exterminated.
The architect of this unsuccessful campaign has outdone himself: In order to cover up his failures, he delivered a poor man's pseudo-Churchillian speech, and promised us more "pain, tears and blood." There really is no limit to shamelessness. It must be said in favor of the government spokesmen who are in greatest demand on the foreign stations, from the Israel Defense Forces Spokesman to Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- that none of them has stooped to propaganda of this kind.
At the same time, the campaign's goals have been reduced and shrunk during these three weeks. From restoring Israel's power of deterrence, eliminating Hezbollah, and disarming it immediately -- after three weeks we have arrived at the present goal, which is the dismantling of the forward outposts of Hezbollah and the deployment of an international force to defend the North of Israel from the possibility of a repeat attack.
At this point, the average citizen, who is not working day and night in the corridors of power and is not sunning himself near the generals' command rooms, is at a loss. Is this how we are restoring the IDF's power of deterrence? Haven't we accomplished exactly the opposite? Hasn't it become clear to the entire world that our "invincible" air force not only failed for three weeks to end the barrage of rockets, but also even needs an emergency airlift of war materiel, as during the 1973 Yom Kippur War?
Moreover, the ordinary citizen is asking himself another question: If several thousand guerrilla fighters do constitute an existential danger to a country with a strike force and weaponry that are unparalleled in this part of the world, how is it that during the past five or six years we heard nothing to that effect from government leaders?
It is true that since 2000 we have not been preoccupied with anything except the Palestinian issue. Hypnotized by the "Palestinian danger," Israel turned its back during the past two years on all national efforts that preceded the disengagement from Gaza, and then the split in the Likud and the establishment of Kadima, as a prologue to the second major campaign, "convergence" behind the separation fence. And when the present government was formed, a national agenda was formulated for the next two, if not four, years, whose main component is fulfillment of the "Sharon legacy": a unilateral drawing of borders in the territories, pulverizing them into cantons and in effect eliminating the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in them. This led citizens to understand that this is the issue that will determine Israel's future.
The clearest evidence of the national order of priorities is the situation in which the IDF's fighting units find themselves. It was no secret that the army almost stopped training in large units and complex operations, and became totally immersed in the struggle against the Palestinian uprising. When infantry brigades turn into a police force specializing in breaking down doors and walls in refugee camps, or in pursuit of groups of terrorists in olive groves, when the criterion for the success of a senior officer is the number of wanted men he has managed to catch rather than his operational talents and ability to command large units -- the army deteriorates.
I cannot recall that the reserve divisions that were drafted on Yom Kippur in 1973, or the Israelis who returned as individuals from abroad in order to join the fighting, were in need of training and refresher exercises. Nevertheless, the Agranat Commission of inquiry was established to investigate, among other things, the level of the forces' battle preparedness.
The Six Day War and Yom Kippur War were wars of survival, and through them the IDF was revealed in all its greatness. The present war is the most unsuccessful we have ever had; it is much worse than the first Lebanon War, which at least was properly prepared, and in which, with the exception of gaining control over the Beirut-Damascus highway, the army more or less achieved its goals as determined by then-defense minister Ariel Sharon.
It is frightening to think that those who decided to embark on the present war did not even dream of its outcome and its destructive consequences in almost every possible realm, of the political and psychological damage, the serious blow to the government's credibility, and yes -- the killing of children in vain. The cynicism being demonstrated by government spokesmen, official and otherwise, including several military correspondents, in the face of the disaster suffered by the Lebanese, amazes even someone who has long since lost many of his youthful illusions.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Wafa Sultan - transcript(s) of interview
On February 21, 2006, a debate took place
And here's the transcript
http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1050
I hope she's still alive - I got this a while ago. I gather the debate took place on February 21.This claims to be a complete, accurate, unedited transcript unlike the one at MEMRI (see above link).http://aqoul.com/images/wafa_sultan.pdfFor the introduction, seehttp://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:_qcpmjp2Dx4J:www.aqoul.com/archives/2006/03/aljazeera_trans.php+%22wafa+sultan%22&hl=en&gl=il&ct=clnk&cd=28
And here's the transcript
http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1050
I hope she's still alive - I got this a while ago. I gather the debate took place on February 21.This claims to be a complete, accurate, unedited transcript unlike the one at MEMRI (see above link).http://aqoul.com/images/wafa_sultan.pdfFor the introduction, seehttp://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:_qcpmjp2Dx4J:www.aqoul.com/archives/2006/03/aljazeera_trans.php+%22wafa+sultan%22&hl=en&gl=il&ct=clnk&cd=28
"Israel's Peculiar Position" - Eric Hoffer, 1968
Eric Hoffer was a longshoreman who became a social philosopher, journalist, and author. Hoffer -- a non-Jew -- died in 1983, after having written nine books and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His first book, The True Believer, was published in 1951 and became widely recognized as a classic. He taught at U.C.L.A.Here is one of his columns from 1968.
ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION
by Eric Hoffer
LA Times, May 26, 1968
The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.
Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June, he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.
The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts and Jewish resources.
Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.
ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION
by Eric Hoffer
LA Times, May 26, 1968
The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.
Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.
Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June, he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.
The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts and Jewish resources.
Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.
What about the missiles? - Ha'aretz editorial
Today, five people were killed in Acre, and three from the Arab village of Tarshiha
What about the missiles?
Ha'aretz Editorial
August 3, 2006
The end of the 48-hour hiatus in the war in Lebanon during which Israel reduced its aerial attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah eased up its rocket fire on the Galilee ended yesterday with more blood, destruction and fear across the north. A record number of Katyusha rockets were launched at the Galilee yesterday; one civilian was killed at Kibbutz Sa'ar, 13 others were wounded. Hezbollah's renewed attacks came a day after the prime minister's speech at the National Security College in which he boasted of the war's achievements so far. "Israel is succeeding in this war and is making unparalleled, perhaps unprecedented, achievements," Ehud Olmert said.
Sources close to the prime minister listed the achievements - a significant weakening of Hezbollah both as an internal Lebanese power and a militant offshoot of Iran; the continued cleansing of the border of Hezbollah's presence; open support of the United States and the quieter support of several other states - including Arab ones - in Israel's struggle against Hezbollah; and the strengthening of Israel's deterrence against future missile threats. But what about the missile volleys being fired now? Even if all the achievements on the list stand the test of time, they cannot cover up the Israel Defense Forces' failure, after three weeks of fighting, to put an end to, or at least reduce, the intense fire on Israel. "Every additional day erodes the strength of this cruel enemy," Olmert said. But in reality, there is not enough cover for his statements - not at present anyway. This gap between the prime minister's statements and yesterday's events raises questions. Even if Olmert wanted to raise the nation's spirit by speaking of achievements, this cannot be done without a factual basis. Olmert cannot ignore the reality of the blood on the ground. His statements, suggesting that one of the war's achievements is that Nasrallah will no longer want to fire missiles at Israel, shatter under the test of reality. Hezbollah is continuing to fire almost to its heart's content. It is no longer possible to make do with lofty talk about achievements while Hezbollah is proving that nothing deters it from continuing its attacks on Israel. One of the war's main goals was to prevent missile fire on Israel. This goal has yet to be achieved. This must be said honestly. The Israeli public, especially the one bearing the main brunt of this war, is entitled to receive a more realistic account of the war's achievements so far. The home front, whose fortitude politicians and officers praise so much, is entitled to know which war objectives have been attained, which are still to be attained, and which perhaps will not be attained at all. Hence, this is the time to tell the people the truth, and the prime minister and the rest of the government's spokespersons would do well to spare the public their empty talk of "unprecedented achievements" as Katyusha rockets land all over the Galilee.
What about the missiles?
Ha'aretz Editorial
August 3, 2006
The end of the 48-hour hiatus in the war in Lebanon during which Israel reduced its aerial attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah eased up its rocket fire on the Galilee ended yesterday with more blood, destruction and fear across the north. A record number of Katyusha rockets were launched at the Galilee yesterday; one civilian was killed at Kibbutz Sa'ar, 13 others were wounded. Hezbollah's renewed attacks came a day after the prime minister's speech at the National Security College in which he boasted of the war's achievements so far. "Israel is succeeding in this war and is making unparalleled, perhaps unprecedented, achievements," Ehud Olmert said.
Sources close to the prime minister listed the achievements - a significant weakening of Hezbollah both as an internal Lebanese power and a militant offshoot of Iran; the continued cleansing of the border of Hezbollah's presence; open support of the United States and the quieter support of several other states - including Arab ones - in Israel's struggle against Hezbollah; and the strengthening of Israel's deterrence against future missile threats. But what about the missile volleys being fired now? Even if all the achievements on the list stand the test of time, they cannot cover up the Israel Defense Forces' failure, after three weeks of fighting, to put an end to, or at least reduce, the intense fire on Israel. "Every additional day erodes the strength of this cruel enemy," Olmert said. But in reality, there is not enough cover for his statements - not at present anyway. This gap between the prime minister's statements and yesterday's events raises questions. Even if Olmert wanted to raise the nation's spirit by speaking of achievements, this cannot be done without a factual basis. Olmert cannot ignore the reality of the blood on the ground. His statements, suggesting that one of the war's achievements is that Nasrallah will no longer want to fire missiles at Israel, shatter under the test of reality. Hezbollah is continuing to fire almost to its heart's content. It is no longer possible to make do with lofty talk about achievements while Hezbollah is proving that nothing deters it from continuing its attacks on Israel. One of the war's main goals was to prevent missile fire on Israel. This goal has yet to be achieved. This must be said honestly. The Israeli public, especially the one bearing the main brunt of this war, is entitled to receive a more realistic account of the war's achievements so far. The home front, whose fortitude politicians and officers praise so much, is entitled to know which war objectives have been attained, which are still to be attained, and which perhaps will not be attained at all. Hence, this is the time to tell the people the truth, and the prime minister and the rest of the government's spokespersons would do well to spare the public their empty talk of "unprecedented achievements" as Katyusha rockets land all over the Galilee.
A tribute to Dave Lelchuk - the "one-man SPCA"
From Gadi Bossin about Dave Lelchuk, killed on Kibbutz Sa'ar, August 2
Dear Friends,
Thank you all again for your messages of support.
Today is a very sad day for me personally. Today I won't write about myself and my family and how we are experiencing this war, but about Dave Lelchuk, 52, my teammate on the softball team for about ten years up until the mid-1990s. Dave was killed at midday Wednesday by a Katyusha rocket. He died on a pathway outside his house on Kibbutz Saar, just north of Nahariya.
Dave was an outstanding catcher and played for Israel's Maccabiah team in 1989. He was from Boston originally. In his youth, he was a Golden Gloves boxer. He loved to play the tough guy Palooka, but he was a graduate of Cornell University and extradordinarily bright. He was also a one-man SPCA, adopting dogs abandoned on his kibbutz by people who just grew tired of them.
When his softball playing days were over, he took up ballroom dancing. He was a character, one of a kind. He leaves behind his wife, Estie, and two daughters, Michal and Yael, in their early and mid-twenties.
Please remember my friend Dave in your prayers.
Gadi
Dear Friends,
Thank you all again for your messages of support.
Today is a very sad day for me personally. Today I won't write about myself and my family and how we are experiencing this war, but about Dave Lelchuk, 52, my teammate on the softball team for about ten years up until the mid-1990s. Dave was killed at midday Wednesday by a Katyusha rocket. He died on a pathway outside his house on Kibbutz Saar, just north of Nahariya.
Dave was an outstanding catcher and played for Israel's Maccabiah team in 1989. He was from Boston originally. In his youth, he was a Golden Gloves boxer. He loved to play the tough guy Palooka, but he was a graduate of Cornell University and extradordinarily bright. He was also a one-man SPCA, adopting dogs abandoned on his kibbutz by people who just grew tired of them.
When his softball playing days were over, he took up ballroom dancing. He was a character, one of a kind. He leaves behind his wife, Estie, and two daughters, Michal and Yael, in their early and mid-twenties.
Please remember my friend Dave in your prayers.
Gadi
Update from Kiryat Shmona, August 2, 2006 Erev Tisha be-Av
Dear Friends,
Shalom. I'd written more than once that we don't have sirens here in Kiryat Shmona, only the speaker system, to tell us to go into the shelters. Well, I was mistaken.
Two nights ago, I was levitated in the middle of the night by the siren "rising and falling", i.e. indicating that "this is the real thing". After that, it got quiet again. The next day, several people were discussing it; Moti, one of the two soldiers assigned to our neighborhood center, explained that it was automatic. When they think or know that rockets have been fired, they'll send us into the shelters, using the loudspeaker system. Some sort of automatic detection device, evidently capable of knowing more precisely where the Katyushot are going to hit, automatically trips the sirens in the target communities. I'd heard on the radio that the people in Haifa have about a minute after the sirens sound to get into the shelters; I assume that lead time is significantly lower here in the Galilee. The other night, no rocket fell on Kiryat Shmona after the alarm sounded, but apparently one or more fell in the area around the town.
This morning was different. Very early in the morning, we heard the loudspeakers tell us to go into the shelters. A short time after that, the sirens sounded, and then the rockets started crashing into the town and area. Suddenly, all the lights went out, which frequently happens in such circumstances: a piece of shrapnel hits a high tension wire or huge transformer up on the pole, and the neighborhood loses electricity. I was a little surprised, therefore, when the electricity came back on a short time later. But that was not to last. During the course of the day, the electricity went off and on several times. It turns out that one of the shells hit the sidewalk between two buildings, not far from an electric pole. The force of the blast bent it or pushed it, and it was listing at an angle of 30o-40o, but was still intact. Of course, the street was closed off. The electric company was trying to right it, as much as possible, and that's why the electricity was cut off intermittently throughout the day. The alternative is to replace it, a long process which would require turning off the electricity in the entire neighborhood for a day or more. Now's obviously not the time for that!
A couple of other shells fell in the town, but damage was relatively minor. Several fell in the fields and hills around us, setting off fires. Luckily, the buses to Eilat managed to get off without mishap before the rockets started falling.
We had several other barrages during the morning, and everyone was told to remain in the shelters. Of course, that meant that none of the stores or supermarkets were allowed to open. As far as I know, none of the other rockets did a lot of damage; most seem to have fallen in the area around us, rather than within the town limits.
All of that had an unexpected consequences. When the volunteers who take the meals on wheels to the elderly and disabled did their routine check of the shelters, everyone jumped on them: they were hungry. Having sat in the shelters all morning, with no chance to go out to shop, or too scared to go to their homes, those in the shelters hadn't eaten anything for most of the day. Much later in the day, a family man sheepishly came into the center. He hadn't been able to shop that day, his wife hadn't been able to cook, and his kids were hungry. He volunteered to pay for the meal.
We hope that this occurrence won't be repeated, and that the situation will revert to what we call normal here: a "window" of a few hours duration, during which people can shop, bank, etc.
Of course, there's another complication tomorrow. (We Jews do tend to create them for ourselves!) Tomorrow (actually, already today) is Tisha Ba'av - a day of fasting to commemorate the fall of the Second Temple. The meals we've been distributing are cooked at the kitchen of the "soup kitchen" - run by Chabad. When the social worker brought the meals to us this morning, he announced that Chabad is closing its kitchen for the fast day. Understandable, and those who are fasting tomorrow are worthy of respect. Although many recipients of the meals are fasting, many others are not, especially the elderly and disabled. I was quite concerned for a while.
I've mentioned in previous e-mails that people from all over the country have been extremely supportive and helpful, volunteering, sending us contributions, etc. This afternoon, the Golan Heights Regional Council contributed two vans worth of fruit, vegetable - and hot meals. No one asked them to, as far as I know, and it was not specifically coordinated for today - they've done something similar twice before. So, I'm certain that we'll manage with the meals tomorrow, too.
If I seem preoccupied with meals, baby formula, etc., I apologize. Understand that we've divided up the various jobs in the center, and I'm the one dealing with getting the meals ready for delivery, giving them out to those who pick them up, etc.
Let's hope that we, the other communities of the north, and the soldiers in Lebanon, have nothing worse to contend with tomorrow than a missed meal.
Have a quiet night,
Marsha
Shalom. I'd written more than once that we don't have sirens here in Kiryat Shmona, only the speaker system, to tell us to go into the shelters. Well, I was mistaken.
Two nights ago, I was levitated in the middle of the night by the siren "rising and falling", i.e. indicating that "this is the real thing". After that, it got quiet again. The next day, several people were discussing it; Moti, one of the two soldiers assigned to our neighborhood center, explained that it was automatic. When they think or know that rockets have been fired, they'll send us into the shelters, using the loudspeaker system. Some sort of automatic detection device, evidently capable of knowing more precisely where the Katyushot are going to hit, automatically trips the sirens in the target communities. I'd heard on the radio that the people in Haifa have about a minute after the sirens sound to get into the shelters; I assume that lead time is significantly lower here in the Galilee. The other night, no rocket fell on Kiryat Shmona after the alarm sounded, but apparently one or more fell in the area around the town.
This morning was different. Very early in the morning, we heard the loudspeakers tell us to go into the shelters. A short time after that, the sirens sounded, and then the rockets started crashing into the town and area. Suddenly, all the lights went out, which frequently happens in such circumstances: a piece of shrapnel hits a high tension wire or huge transformer up on the pole, and the neighborhood loses electricity. I was a little surprised, therefore, when the electricity came back on a short time later. But that was not to last. During the course of the day, the electricity went off and on several times. It turns out that one of the shells hit the sidewalk between two buildings, not far from an electric pole. The force of the blast bent it or pushed it, and it was listing at an angle of 30o-40o, but was still intact. Of course, the street was closed off. The electric company was trying to right it, as much as possible, and that's why the electricity was cut off intermittently throughout the day. The alternative is to replace it, a long process which would require turning off the electricity in the entire neighborhood for a day or more. Now's obviously not the time for that!
A couple of other shells fell in the town, but damage was relatively minor. Several fell in the fields and hills around us, setting off fires. Luckily, the buses to Eilat managed to get off without mishap before the rockets started falling.
We had several other barrages during the morning, and everyone was told to remain in the shelters. Of course, that meant that none of the stores or supermarkets were allowed to open. As far as I know, none of the other rockets did a lot of damage; most seem to have fallen in the area around us, rather than within the town limits.
All of that had an unexpected consequences. When the volunteers who take the meals on wheels to the elderly and disabled did their routine check of the shelters, everyone jumped on them: they were hungry. Having sat in the shelters all morning, with no chance to go out to shop, or too scared to go to their homes, those in the shelters hadn't eaten anything for most of the day. Much later in the day, a family man sheepishly came into the center. He hadn't been able to shop that day, his wife hadn't been able to cook, and his kids were hungry. He volunteered to pay for the meal.
We hope that this occurrence won't be repeated, and that the situation will revert to what we call normal here: a "window" of a few hours duration, during which people can shop, bank, etc.
Of course, there's another complication tomorrow. (We Jews do tend to create them for ourselves!) Tomorrow (actually, already today) is Tisha Ba'av - a day of fasting to commemorate the fall of the Second Temple. The meals we've been distributing are cooked at the kitchen of the "soup kitchen" - run by Chabad. When the social worker brought the meals to us this morning, he announced that Chabad is closing its kitchen for the fast day. Understandable, and those who are fasting tomorrow are worthy of respect. Although many recipients of the meals are fasting, many others are not, especially the elderly and disabled. I was quite concerned for a while.
I've mentioned in previous e-mails that people from all over the country have been extremely supportive and helpful, volunteering, sending us contributions, etc. This afternoon, the Golan Heights Regional Council contributed two vans worth of fruit, vegetable - and hot meals. No one asked them to, as far as I know, and it was not specifically coordinated for today - they've done something similar twice before. So, I'm certain that we'll manage with the meals tomorrow, too.
If I seem preoccupied with meals, baby formula, etc., I apologize. Understand that we've divided up the various jobs in the center, and I'm the one dealing with getting the meals ready for delivery, giving them out to those who pick them up, etc.
Let's hope that we, the other communities of the north, and the soldiers in Lebanon, have nothing worse to contend with tomorrow than a missed meal.
Have a quiet night,
Marsha
Ministries earmark money for abandoned animals
Ministries earmark money for abandoned animals in North
Amiram Cohen
Ha'aretz, August 3, 2006
Several ministries - Agriculture, Environment and Negev and Galilee Development - have each pledged NIS 50,000 from their budgets to help abandoned dogs and cats in the north. The funds will cover housing abandoned pets at private kennels until their owners are located. The Finance Ministry has pledged to put up a similar amount for the project if necessary. Local authorities and animal rights groups paint a grim picture of hundreds of abandoned cats and dogs. The Veterinary Service at the Agriculture Ministry and animal advocacy organizations have been busy these past three weeks feeding dogs whose owners left them on the street or tied up outside without food, water or care.
Hundreds of dogs have been taken to municipal pounds, filling these to capacity and creating urgent pressure to put the pets up at private facilities. Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon has instructed the director of the Veterinary Service, Dr. Moshe Haimovich, to establish a system for transfering the money to kennels and other service providers who will work to save the pets. Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said there have been hundreds of calls to the ministry's hotline reporting on abandoned animals.
Amiram Cohen
Ha'aretz, August 3, 2006
Several ministries - Agriculture, Environment and Negev and Galilee Development - have each pledged NIS 50,000 from their budgets to help abandoned dogs and cats in the north. The funds will cover housing abandoned pets at private kennels until their owners are located. The Finance Ministry has pledged to put up a similar amount for the project if necessary. Local authorities and animal rights groups paint a grim picture of hundreds of abandoned cats and dogs. The Veterinary Service at the Agriculture Ministry and animal advocacy organizations have been busy these past three weeks feeding dogs whose owners left them on the street or tied up outside without food, water or care.
Hundreds of dogs have been taken to municipal pounds, filling these to capacity and creating urgent pressure to put the pets up at private facilities. Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon has instructed the director of the Veterinary Service, Dr. Moshe Haimovich, to establish a system for transfering the money to kennels and other service providers who will work to save the pets. Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said there have been hundreds of calls to the ministry's hotline reporting on abandoned animals.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Dog mourns owner, killed by Katyusha
On a kibbutz just outside Nahariya, 52 year-old Dave Lelchuk was killed today.
He was on his bike nearly within reach of his house and its security room. He was one of the few kibbutz members who insisted on staying behind to look after the crops and animals.
The Katyusha scored a direct hit on his house. The security room was untouched. The rest of the house was seriously damaged. Dave was killed by the shrapnel.
His dog, a white Labrador called Doc, refused to leave the place where his owner had fallen on his bike as he died.
The Katyusha which killed Doc's owner Dave was one of more than 200 which fell on northern Israel today.
Dave, originally from Boston, is reported to have been living in Israel for 20 years. He was an animal lover and had recently been looking after a number of other animals in addition to Doc.
CNN will be covering his funeral.
A tribute by his friend Gadi Bossin appears later in this blog.
A picture of Doc can be seen in Yediot Ahronot at:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3285385,00.html
He was on his bike nearly within reach of his house and its security room. He was one of the few kibbutz members who insisted on staying behind to look after the crops and animals.
The Katyusha scored a direct hit on his house. The security room was untouched. The rest of the house was seriously damaged. Dave was killed by the shrapnel.
His dog, a white Labrador called Doc, refused to leave the place where his owner had fallen on his bike as he died.
The Katyusha which killed Doc's owner Dave was one of more than 200 which fell on northern Israel today.
Dave, originally from Boston, is reported to have been living in Israel for 20 years. He was an animal lover and had recently been looking after a number of other animals in addition to Doc.
CNN will be covering his funeral.
A tribute by his friend Gadi Bossin appears later in this blog.
A picture of Doc can be seen in Yediot Ahronot at:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3285385,00.html
Gallipoli and the Lebanese quagmire
Ha'aretz, August 2, 2005
Gallipoli and the Lebanese quagmire
By Moshe Arens
At the outbreak of World War I, Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty - in American parlance, Secretary of the Navy. Hoping to bypass the attrition of trench warfare in France, he initiated the plan for a landing in the Dardanelles Straits - the Gallipoli campaign (a campaign in which Yosef Trumpeldor participated at the head of the Zion Mule Corps). It began in February 1915, and by the time British forces withdrew at the end of the year, they had suffered over 250,000 casualties. The campaign was a complete fiasco and tarnished Churchill's reputation, eventually sending him into the political wilderness for many years. It is quite likely that when, as prime minister during World War II almost 30 years later, he initially opposed the plans for an Allied amphibious landing in Normandy, he was influenced by the traumatic memories of the Gallipoli campaign. But his hesitations were overcome and Franklin Roosevelt's opinion prevailed. Israel's invasion of Lebanon similarly tarnished the reputation of Ariel Sharon, sending him into the political wilderness for many years and leaving behind a traumatic memory of the "Lebanese quagmire." There is little doubt that Israeli government decision makers were obsessed by traumatic memories of Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 - which stretched into an Israel Defense Forces presence in Lebanon that ended in 2000 - when they decided to limit Israel's response to the latest Hezbollah provocation to aerial attacks against targets in Lebanon. "We will not be dragged into the Lebanese quagmire," our leaders declared over and over again, wanting to believe that the job could be done cleanly and neatly from the air.
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who seems to have a good knowledge of Israeli society, its fears and trepidations, played on this psychological block, announcing that his fighters had prepared a proper reception for the IDF soldiers if they were to enter Lebanon. The Israeli response was that we were not going to be dragged into this trap - the air force would do the job. The inescapable conclusion is that Nasrallah is pretty good at psychological warfare. So for over two weeks, the Israel Air Force bombed Lebanon, while Hezbollah launched an average of a hundred rockets a day against Israel's cities and villages, and over a million Israelis took to the shelters or abandoned their homes.
There is probably no better air force than the IAF, but it should have been clear from the start that suppressing the rocket attacks against Israel could not be left to the IAF alone. And suppressing these rocket attacks must be the IDF's primary objective in this war. Not only to protect Israeli civilians, but because the outcome of Israel's war against Hezbollah will be measured in the minds of the Arab world by the degree to which Israel was successful in suppressing the Hezbollah rocket assault. The accomplishment of the government's stated aims for this war - the substantial weakening of Hezbollah's military capabilities and its removal from southern Lebanon - is dependent on that. On the other hand, the perception that Nasrallah was victorious in this war will have dire consequences for Israel and for the entire Middle East. If the IAF is not successful in suppressing the rocket attacks, can a major campaign by ground forces supported by the IAF do it? When the IDF reaches many of the areas from which rockets are being launched against northern Israel, rocket attacks will be substantially reduced. The IDF has not told us what percentage of the hundred or so rockets a day are being launched from southern Lebanon and what percentage of the rockets in Hezbollah's arsenal do not have the range to hit Israel from launching sites beyond southern Lebanon. That information, which is surely available, would make it clear that the entry of ground forces into Lebanon would substantially reduce the number of rockets hitting Israel. That is what suppression is all about. It does not lose its effectiveness even if some rockets capable of hitting Israel from more distant launching sites remain in Hezbollah's arsenal. In addition, the bigger, longer-range rockets and their launchers are more easily located and destroyed from the air than are the smaller, short-range rockets. Can IDF ground forces, given air support by the IAF, gain control of much of southern Lebanon? Considering the IDF's superiority in numbers and equipment over the few thousand Hezbollah fighters there, this should not be in doubt. So why has this not been done? The obsession with the traumatic memories of the "Lebanese quagmire" seems to have unduly influenced our decision makers. Such memories may be hard to shake off, but they should not be the basis of the government's decisions in waging this war, which is so fateful for Israel's future.
Gallipoli and the Lebanese quagmire
By Moshe Arens
At the outbreak of World War I, Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty - in American parlance, Secretary of the Navy. Hoping to bypass the attrition of trench warfare in France, he initiated the plan for a landing in the Dardanelles Straits - the Gallipoli campaign (a campaign in which Yosef Trumpeldor participated at the head of the Zion Mule Corps). It began in February 1915, and by the time British forces withdrew at the end of the year, they had suffered over 250,000 casualties. The campaign was a complete fiasco and tarnished Churchill's reputation, eventually sending him into the political wilderness for many years. It is quite likely that when, as prime minister during World War II almost 30 years later, he initially opposed the plans for an Allied amphibious landing in Normandy, he was influenced by the traumatic memories of the Gallipoli campaign. But his hesitations were overcome and Franklin Roosevelt's opinion prevailed. Israel's invasion of Lebanon similarly tarnished the reputation of Ariel Sharon, sending him into the political wilderness for many years and leaving behind a traumatic memory of the "Lebanese quagmire." There is little doubt that Israeli government decision makers were obsessed by traumatic memories of Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 - which stretched into an Israel Defense Forces presence in Lebanon that ended in 2000 - when they decided to limit Israel's response to the latest Hezbollah provocation to aerial attacks against targets in Lebanon. "We will not be dragged into the Lebanese quagmire," our leaders declared over and over again, wanting to believe that the job could be done cleanly and neatly from the air.
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who seems to have a good knowledge of Israeli society, its fears and trepidations, played on this psychological block, announcing that his fighters had prepared a proper reception for the IDF soldiers if they were to enter Lebanon. The Israeli response was that we were not going to be dragged into this trap - the air force would do the job. The inescapable conclusion is that Nasrallah is pretty good at psychological warfare. So for over two weeks, the Israel Air Force bombed Lebanon, while Hezbollah launched an average of a hundred rockets a day against Israel's cities and villages, and over a million Israelis took to the shelters or abandoned their homes.
There is probably no better air force than the IAF, but it should have been clear from the start that suppressing the rocket attacks against Israel could not be left to the IAF alone. And suppressing these rocket attacks must be the IDF's primary objective in this war. Not only to protect Israeli civilians, but because the outcome of Israel's war against Hezbollah will be measured in the minds of the Arab world by the degree to which Israel was successful in suppressing the Hezbollah rocket assault. The accomplishment of the government's stated aims for this war - the substantial weakening of Hezbollah's military capabilities and its removal from southern Lebanon - is dependent on that. On the other hand, the perception that Nasrallah was victorious in this war will have dire consequences for Israel and for the entire Middle East. If the IAF is not successful in suppressing the rocket attacks, can a major campaign by ground forces supported by the IAF do it? When the IDF reaches many of the areas from which rockets are being launched against northern Israel, rocket attacks will be substantially reduced. The IDF has not told us what percentage of the hundred or so rockets a day are being launched from southern Lebanon and what percentage of the rockets in Hezbollah's arsenal do not have the range to hit Israel from launching sites beyond southern Lebanon. That information, which is surely available, would make it clear that the entry of ground forces into Lebanon would substantially reduce the number of rockets hitting Israel. That is what suppression is all about. It does not lose its effectiveness even if some rockets capable of hitting Israel from more distant launching sites remain in Hezbollah's arsenal. In addition, the bigger, longer-range rockets and their launchers are more easily located and destroyed from the air than are the smaller, short-range rockets. Can IDF ground forces, given air support by the IAF, gain control of much of southern Lebanon? Considering the IDF's superiority in numbers and equipment over the few thousand Hezbollah fighters there, this should not be in doubt. So why has this not been done? The obsession with the traumatic memories of the "Lebanese quagmire" seems to have unduly influenced our decision makers. Such memories may be hard to shake off, but they should not be the basis of the government's decisions in waging this war, which is so fateful for Israel's future.
Writers and the war...
The pen - mightier than the sword?
By Shiri Lev-Ari
This week a group of some 60 young literary personalities - authors, song writers, critics and editors - got together and published a letter calling for an immediate halt to the war in Lebanon. The letter is part of the beginning of a series of planned activities that will apparently continue during the meeting of the signatories - mainly members of Israeli literature's younger generation - and may include a demonstration. Among the initiators of the letter, which was sent to Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and others, are authors Shimon Adaf, Dudu Busi and Nir Baram. "We believe that after over two weeks of fighting, the campaign being waged in the north should be halted immediately," they wrote. "There is no doubt that Israel has the right to defend herself against the aggression that infringes on her sovereignty and harms her citizens. Nevertheless, the exercising of unreasonable force, mainly toward civilians, attests to neither might nor deterrent power. On the contrary, it is an expression of hysteria, of the loss of ability to distinguish between a localized threat and existential danger, between a reasonable response and an excessive show of strength." In the letter, the authors write that the Israel Defense Forces is dragging the political echelon and Israeli society into a ground war in Lebanon whose goals are unclear. In the early days of the war, they write, they still believed that the campaign would be short, whereas now "we are viewing scenes reminiscent of the grim days of Operation Peace for Galilee, which also initially enjoyed broad consensus."
"Since it is clear that the war will end in diplomatic negotiations between Israel, the Lebanese government and international mediators, and since there are already international initiatives toward a cease-fire, which Israel is consistently rejecting, we call on the Israeli government to declare a cease-fire and to begin negotiations now." The signatories to the letter include: Maya Arad, Sayed Kashua, Dror Burstein, Gabi Nitzan, Gilad Kahana, Roi Arad, Hagar Yanai, Orna Coussin, Yehezkel Nafshi, Amalia Rosenblum, Tal Nitzan, Roi Chen and Erez Schweitzer.
A 'war of no choice'
A different perspective is taken by more than a few literary personalities who support Israel's policy and view the current war as a "war of no choice." Yoram Kaniuk, Yehoshua Sobol and Prof. Zohar Shavit of Tel Aviv University, for example, published a response to the young literati's letter on the Ynet web site. "I signed petitions and demonstrated against the IDF's involvement in Lebanon in 1982," writes Shavit. "I signed petitions and demonstrated against government policies when the intifada erupted in 1987. I was and remain a leftist. But that petition I will not sign - it gives the impression that there is a small group of left-wing radicals in Israel, whose support for the other side is automatic. Intellectuals in Israel must also take a sober look at reality." This seems to be an intergenerational struggle, as the literati's letter voices mainly the sentiments of the young artists in the Israeli literary scene. Still, there are also more than a few authors from that generation expressing their reservations about the letter. Etgar Keret, for example, knew about the letter and the planning of activities, but did not sign it and was not interested in relating to it. Author Eshkol Nevo also knew about the letter but did not sign it. "Young people of my generation whom I highly esteem are behind that petition," said Nevo. "I too am terrified by the pictures of destruction and death in Haifa and Beirut, and I too am certain that this war will end in negotiations, but unlike them, I think that there is tremendous importance in our arriving at the negotiating table after we exact a painful and unequivocal price from Hezbollah." Author Amir Gutfreund, who lives with his family in the community of Tzurit, near Carmiel, had not heard of the letter's existence. "Perhaps because they know that they have no chance with me," he says. "I am in favor of continuing the war and increasing the pressure at the stage. I sit in my home in the north, where the Katyushas are falling, and I am raising small children, so my opinion is completely different than the authors of that letter."
By Shiri Lev-Ari
This week a group of some 60 young literary personalities - authors, song writers, critics and editors - got together and published a letter calling for an immediate halt to the war in Lebanon. The letter is part of the beginning of a series of planned activities that will apparently continue during the meeting of the signatories - mainly members of Israeli literature's younger generation - and may include a demonstration. Among the initiators of the letter, which was sent to Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and others, are authors Shimon Adaf, Dudu Busi and Nir Baram. "We believe that after over two weeks of fighting, the campaign being waged in the north should be halted immediately," they wrote. "There is no doubt that Israel has the right to defend herself against the aggression that infringes on her sovereignty and harms her citizens. Nevertheless, the exercising of unreasonable force, mainly toward civilians, attests to neither might nor deterrent power. On the contrary, it is an expression of hysteria, of the loss of ability to distinguish between a localized threat and existential danger, between a reasonable response and an excessive show of strength." In the letter, the authors write that the Israel Defense Forces is dragging the political echelon and Israeli society into a ground war in Lebanon whose goals are unclear. In the early days of the war, they write, they still believed that the campaign would be short, whereas now "we are viewing scenes reminiscent of the grim days of Operation Peace for Galilee, which also initially enjoyed broad consensus."
"Since it is clear that the war will end in diplomatic negotiations between Israel, the Lebanese government and international mediators, and since there are already international initiatives toward a cease-fire, which Israel is consistently rejecting, we call on the Israeli government to declare a cease-fire and to begin negotiations now." The signatories to the letter include: Maya Arad, Sayed Kashua, Dror Burstein, Gabi Nitzan, Gilad Kahana, Roi Arad, Hagar Yanai, Orna Coussin, Yehezkel Nafshi, Amalia Rosenblum, Tal Nitzan, Roi Chen and Erez Schweitzer.
A 'war of no choice'
A different perspective is taken by more than a few literary personalities who support Israel's policy and view the current war as a "war of no choice." Yoram Kaniuk, Yehoshua Sobol and Prof. Zohar Shavit of Tel Aviv University, for example, published a response to the young literati's letter on the Ynet web site. "I signed petitions and demonstrated against the IDF's involvement in Lebanon in 1982," writes Shavit. "I signed petitions and demonstrated against government policies when the intifada erupted in 1987. I was and remain a leftist. But that petition I will not sign - it gives the impression that there is a small group of left-wing radicals in Israel, whose support for the other side is automatic. Intellectuals in Israel must also take a sober look at reality." This seems to be an intergenerational struggle, as the literati's letter voices mainly the sentiments of the young artists in the Israeli literary scene. Still, there are also more than a few authors from that generation expressing their reservations about the letter. Etgar Keret, for example, knew about the letter and the planning of activities, but did not sign it and was not interested in relating to it. Author Eshkol Nevo also knew about the letter but did not sign it. "Young people of my generation whom I highly esteem are behind that petition," said Nevo. "I too am terrified by the pictures of destruction and death in Haifa and Beirut, and I too am certain that this war will end in negotiations, but unlike them, I think that there is tremendous importance in our arriving at the negotiating table after we exact a painful and unequivocal price from Hezbollah." Author Amir Gutfreund, who lives with his family in the community of Tzurit, near Carmiel, had not heard of the letter's existence. "Perhaps because they know that they have no chance with me," he says. "I am in favor of continuing the war and increasing the pressure at the stage. I sit in my home in the north, where the Katyushas are falling, and I am raising small children, so my opinion is completely different than the authors of that letter."
Llamas helping Israel's war effort
I just caught an interview of a zoologist from Jerusalem's Biblical Museum about llamas, which the IDF are using as pack animals to carry supplies to our troops in Lebanon.
Different!
July 31, 2006
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - It may have one of the world's mightiest militaries, but Israel has turned to imported beasts of burden to help troops wage a 20-day-old offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Israeli newspapers carried pictures of South American llamas accompanying commandos out of southern Lebanon, their saddlebags full of fighting gear.
Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted a senior Israeli military commander as saying the white-furred pack animals could carry up to 27 kg each over rough terrain, were quiet and required feeding only once every two days.
Different!
July 31, 2006
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - It may have one of the world's mightiest militaries, but Israel has turned to imported beasts of burden to help troops wage a 20-day-old offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Israeli newspapers carried pictures of South American llamas accompanying commandos out of southern Lebanon, their saddlebags full of fighting gear.
Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted a senior Israeli military commander as saying the white-furred pack animals could carry up to 27 kg each over rough terrain, were quiet and required feeding only once every two days.
The air-conditioning technician returns to Kiryat Shmona!
Dear Friends,
First, I want to explain that everything is fine, and things are fairly quiet here (except for the usual outgoing artillery). I actually had to do some paying work before I could send you my daily update, hence the lateness of this missive.
Also, those of you who have purchased the packages sold by Hyperneto and other chain supermarkets, thank you. We received and distributed the first truckloads yesterday afternoon.
Several people have asked me how I manage to sit and write, apparently so calmly, in a war zone. One of the secrets is that, unlike almost everyone in Israel, I'm not glued to the television set. I get all of my news from radio, on-line news or newspapers, and occasionally manage to catch the 9:00 p.m. news on Channel One. As a result, I'm not subject to all of the sensationalism of pictures, reporters looking for scoops, or endless analyses of every detail.
For instance, several people have told me that they've heard that Kiryat Shmona is a "ghost town", with 75% - the figure varies - of its residents having left. I have no way of knowing if that's true or not, or where the figures come from. What I see is that the situation is very dynamic. People leave and return all the time. For example, friends Ofer and Jacqueline, who had left with their children at the very beginning of the war and hadn't been here for two weeks, returned yesterday. And thank goodness - Ofer is the air-conditioning technician with the municipality, and finally fixed the air conditioner in the room in which I've been working! I mentioned that Ziona, my next-door neighbor, had stuck it out until Sunday, but after the Katyusha landed on the mall across the street, she and her daughter left. However, the neighbor across the hall, Zina, who has been gone for over a week, returned from Rishon Lezion today. "How long can you stay with family?" she asked. (The names have not been changed - Zina's here, Ziona's not.) The fact is, with people being told to stay indoors and/or in shelters, you don't see a lot of people in the streets. And anyway, there's nowhere to go: except for grocery stores, the pharmacy and supermarkets, everything's closed.
Another thing I heard only today on the radio was that last night, a woman from Kiryat Shmona, Mrs. Tuito, was interviewed on television. She complained bitterly that she wanted organized evacuation, and that the mayor's family and that of the municipal administrator had been evacuated, saying in so many words that the people with political pull got taken care of first. (I'll address that below.) In fact, there has been no organized evacuation, for many reasons. I've been telling people that, as far as I'm concerned, those who live in Nahariya should take priority in any evacuation. Nevertheless, Kiryat Shmona has seen organized evacuations before, and after Sunday, pressure mounted for such an evacuation.
This morning, Gabi Gazit interviewed Mrs. Tuito on the radio, and during the course of the interview, said arrangements were being made for a hotel in Eilat for some people. I knew that the neighborhood center would be active. In fact, even before we got the official word, the calls and requests started coming in. Tomorrow, 4 buses each from the 4 neighborhoods, 16 in all, will be leaving for a hotel(s) in Eilat, to return on Sunday evening. Our instructions were that we were to recruit 150 people to fill 3 buses, and the social services office would fill the fourth bus in each neighborhood; priority was on families with young children. Of course, we didn't have to go knocking on shelter doors! Each of us who have been volunteering there recommended several families, (some of whom actually refused), and people throughout the neighborhood called in or came to register. Incidentally, when Alex came in to pick up some fruit - still refusing the hot meals - I asked him if he and his family would be interested in going. He said he wouldn't leave, but did want his wife and children to, and as far as I know, they will be going. Of course, there was a lot of pressure. Our neighborhood seems to have the most considerate people or something; when other centers have come under real pressure from the residents, ours has not. The situation is helped by Amir's patience, Limor's popularity, and respect for the volunteers who go to the shelters. (Limor is the principal of the junior high school, who takes volunteers and soldier-teachers into the shelters to work with kids, and runs around "in the field" all day.) Today, evidently, some of the other centers were besieged and actually closed their doors for a while. We filled our buses in two hours, and while Amir had to field a lot of telephone calls demanding places no longer available, we really didn't have a lot of trouble.
One woman, whom I don't know by name, came in with a friend. She'd received a call from a psychologist with the social services office, advising her to come to our center and register for the trip to Eilat, but was reluctant to go. She said she was useless without her husband, but he was a policeman, and she barely saw him anyway. Together, the friend and I convinced her to go. The clinching argument was that her husband would be better able to do his job as a policeman, if he weren't worrying about her and the children. I explained (without knowing him personally) that he was torn between his official responsibilities, and his concern for her and the children.
That is the point about the mayor, the municipal administrator, and many, many others who have been working for the community. In order to function, they first have to make sure that their families are safe. Although I have my differences with the mayor and the administrator, I know that they didn't use any "pull" or public funds for their personal families. There was no organized evacuation; each person made his or her own personal arrangements. For example, Amir's wife and 4 children, one of them an infant only 3 months old, are staying with his mother in the center of the country. Limor's son, here the first few days, is now with her mother in the center of the country.
As if I needed further illustration, I got it late this afternoon. Shaul's wife and children are still at home. This afternoon, we were leaving the center together, and he was in a terrible hurry. It turned out that his wife was walking home (I don't know from where), they live at the top of a hill, no one else was around, and she was very frightened. She called to have him pick her up. We've been parking in an area that was once a basketball court behind the school. A low stone wall separates the driveway from the roadway below it, and Shaul was so worried about his wife, and rushing so much, that he turned the corner too closely. Not only did his front tire blow out completely, but he seriously dented his car on the stone wall. Trying to change a tire under that kind of time pressure is no picnic; while doing so, his wife called again, practically putting him into a frenzy. I ended up driving his wife home, while he and a volunteer changed the tire. Luckily, Shaul's spare is brand new: he won't be able to buy a new one here until the war is over.
I wish everyone a peaceful night.
Marsh
First, I want to explain that everything is fine, and things are fairly quiet here (except for the usual outgoing artillery). I actually had to do some paying work before I could send you my daily update, hence the lateness of this missive.
Also, those of you who have purchased the packages sold by Hyperneto and other chain supermarkets, thank you. We received and distributed the first truckloads yesterday afternoon.
Several people have asked me how I manage to sit and write, apparently so calmly, in a war zone. One of the secrets is that, unlike almost everyone in Israel, I'm not glued to the television set. I get all of my news from radio, on-line news or newspapers, and occasionally manage to catch the 9:00 p.m. news on Channel One. As a result, I'm not subject to all of the sensationalism of pictures, reporters looking for scoops, or endless analyses of every detail.
For instance, several people have told me that they've heard that Kiryat Shmona is a "ghost town", with 75% - the figure varies - of its residents having left. I have no way of knowing if that's true or not, or where the figures come from. What I see is that the situation is very dynamic. People leave and return all the time. For example, friends Ofer and Jacqueline, who had left with their children at the very beginning of the war and hadn't been here for two weeks, returned yesterday. And thank goodness - Ofer is the air-conditioning technician with the municipality, and finally fixed the air conditioner in the room in which I've been working! I mentioned that Ziona, my next-door neighbor, had stuck it out until Sunday, but after the Katyusha landed on the mall across the street, she and her daughter left. However, the neighbor across the hall, Zina, who has been gone for over a week, returned from Rishon Lezion today. "How long can you stay with family?" she asked. (The names have not been changed - Zina's here, Ziona's not.) The fact is, with people being told to stay indoors and/or in shelters, you don't see a lot of people in the streets. And anyway, there's nowhere to go: except for grocery stores, the pharmacy and supermarkets, everything's closed.
Another thing I heard only today on the radio was that last night, a woman from Kiryat Shmona, Mrs. Tuito, was interviewed on television. She complained bitterly that she wanted organized evacuation, and that the mayor's family and that of the municipal administrator had been evacuated, saying in so many words that the people with political pull got taken care of first. (I'll address that below.) In fact, there has been no organized evacuation, for many reasons. I've been telling people that, as far as I'm concerned, those who live in Nahariya should take priority in any evacuation. Nevertheless, Kiryat Shmona has seen organized evacuations before, and after Sunday, pressure mounted for such an evacuation.
This morning, Gabi Gazit interviewed Mrs. Tuito on the radio, and during the course of the interview, said arrangements were being made for a hotel in Eilat for some people. I knew that the neighborhood center would be active. In fact, even before we got the official word, the calls and requests started coming in. Tomorrow, 4 buses each from the 4 neighborhoods, 16 in all, will be leaving for a hotel(s) in Eilat, to return on Sunday evening. Our instructions were that we were to recruit 150 people to fill 3 buses, and the social services office would fill the fourth bus in each neighborhood; priority was on families with young children. Of course, we didn't have to go knocking on shelter doors! Each of us who have been volunteering there recommended several families, (some of whom actually refused), and people throughout the neighborhood called in or came to register. Incidentally, when Alex came in to pick up some fruit - still refusing the hot meals - I asked him if he and his family would be interested in going. He said he wouldn't leave, but did want his wife and children to, and as far as I know, they will be going. Of course, there was a lot of pressure. Our neighborhood seems to have the most considerate people or something; when other centers have come under real pressure from the residents, ours has not. The situation is helped by Amir's patience, Limor's popularity, and respect for the volunteers who go to the shelters. (Limor is the principal of the junior high school, who takes volunteers and soldier-teachers into the shelters to work with kids, and runs around "in the field" all day.) Today, evidently, some of the other centers were besieged and actually closed their doors for a while. We filled our buses in two hours, and while Amir had to field a lot of telephone calls demanding places no longer available, we really didn't have a lot of trouble.
One woman, whom I don't know by name, came in with a friend. She'd received a call from a psychologist with the social services office, advising her to come to our center and register for the trip to Eilat, but was reluctant to go. She said she was useless without her husband, but he was a policeman, and she barely saw him anyway. Together, the friend and I convinced her to go. The clinching argument was that her husband would be better able to do his job as a policeman, if he weren't worrying about her and the children. I explained (without knowing him personally) that he was torn between his official responsibilities, and his concern for her and the children.
That is the point about the mayor, the municipal administrator, and many, many others who have been working for the community. In order to function, they first have to make sure that their families are safe. Although I have my differences with the mayor and the administrator, I know that they didn't use any "pull" or public funds for their personal families. There was no organized evacuation; each person made his or her own personal arrangements. For example, Amir's wife and 4 children, one of them an infant only 3 months old, are staying with his mother in the center of the country. Limor's son, here the first few days, is now with her mother in the center of the country.
As if I needed further illustration, I got it late this afternoon. Shaul's wife and children are still at home. This afternoon, we were leaving the center together, and he was in a terrible hurry. It turned out that his wife was walking home (I don't know from where), they live at the top of a hill, no one else was around, and she was very frightened. She called to have him pick her up. We've been parking in an area that was once a basketball court behind the school. A low stone wall separates the driveway from the roadway below it, and Shaul was so worried about his wife, and rushing so much, that he turned the corner too closely. Not only did his front tire blow out completely, but he seriously dented his car on the stone wall. Trying to change a tire under that kind of time pressure is no picnic; while doing so, his wife called again, practically putting him into a frenzy. I ended up driving his wife home, while he and a volunteer changed the tire. Luckily, Shaul's spare is brand new: he won't be able to buy a new one here until the war is over.
I wish everyone a peaceful night.
Marsh
"Europe - Thy Name is Cowardice" (Die Welt editorial)
EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer AG)
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements. Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for decades, inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us. Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European Appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians. Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement. How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic Fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany? I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists .One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving thel aughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler and declaring European "Peace in our time". What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction. It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for Anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against Democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed. In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China. On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass. For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on theAmerican economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything.While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour working week or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive". These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house. Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer AG)
A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe - your family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head because it's so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives, as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements. Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe, where for decades, inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work for us. Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European Appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians. Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement. How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic Fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany? I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists .One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving thel aughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler and declaring European "Peace in our time". What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction. It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for Anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against Democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed. In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China. On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass. For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on theAmerican economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything.While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour working week or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to terrorists. To understand and forgive". These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber breaking into a neighbor's house. Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
A journalist proposes a text for the Prime Minister
We Will Not Capitulate
Ma'ariv journalist Ben Caspit proposes the text for a speech by the Prime Minister that would explain to the world exactly what we’re fighting for
Ma'ariv, August 2, 2006
July 31, 2006
Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.
We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.[]A voice for six million citizensToday I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims.
And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.
Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.
Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.
The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy.
What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly.
We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more.
In a loud and clear voiceAnd Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London.
An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us.
So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't?
In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late.
Ma'ariv journalist Ben Caspit proposes the text for a speech by the Prime Minister that would explain to the world exactly what we’re fighting for
Ma'ariv, August 2, 2006
July 31, 2006
Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.
We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.[]A voice for six million citizensToday I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims.
And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.
Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.
Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.
The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy.
What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly.
We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more.
In a loud and clear voiceAnd Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London.
An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us.
So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't?
In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late.
Monday, July 31, 2006
The impact of the war on ordinary people
Marsh's update from Kiryat Shmona
Monday night, July 31, 2006 (Day 19)It's been a quiet day in Lake Wobegon. er, Kiryat Shmona. Well, fairly quiet, if you don't count the noise of the artillery. Even that was less constant and dreadful than it has been for the last two and a half weeks.
What many of you have seen on TV here horrifies many of the residents; a few loud and belligerent people are in no way reflective of the town as a whole. The frustrations of living in the shelters, not working, and primarily, of having to be dependent on others, can sometimes bring out the worst in people. Each neighborhood center has seen its share of demanding people, but for the most part, people are grateful for the help and the donations. Many are embarrassed by the fact of needing such support. One woman brings her own dark plastic bag to collect the hot meals she needs for herself and children, so that other people won't see her carrying them.
Yesterday, we got a call from the social services office [Lishkat Harevacha], authorizing such meals for a family, and a few minutes later, the father of the family showed up. Alex (not Russian born, despite the name) needed Similac, Gerber, diapers [nappies], milk, whatever we could give him, and seemed at first to be quite demanding. But as we started gathering what he needed, and explaining what was available, he became much friendlier and more appreciative. When I went to give him the hot meals, he wouldn't accept them, saying his kids wouldn't eat them, and so he wouldn't take them; he had food enough at home. That emboldened me to mention that the supermarket and Superpharm were open, and stocked all of the items we were giving him.
So he explained that he would gladly buy them, only he had literally run out of money. That was why he seemed demanding at first - he was uncomfortable finding himself in the position he was in. Alex is a sub-contractor - a driver. He works for another contractor, whose business is in Nahariya. Neither Alex nor his "boss" have worked for almost three weeks, since the war began. His boss cannot afford to pay Alex, and so Alex has maxed out his withdrawals at the ATM [Caspomat]. He doesn't have a credit card. I was a little skeptical about that, seeing that he had a cellular phone, and the cellular phone companies require a credit card. However, he explained to me that even the cellular phone belongs to his boss from Nahariya. Alex has 4 children at home, plus his married daughter and her infant, who is staying with her parents for the duration.
Kiryat Shmona is not a rich town, although many residents are well off. Of course we have a sizeable number of really needy people, which is the image most people have of Kiryat Shmona and other development towns. The reality is that most of the town's population are hard-working people. They own apartments or even houses, cars, color TV sets, all the trappings of modern Israeli life. However, many, many people are like Alex, and live hand-to-mouth. The loss of even one pay check can have very serious, even disastrous, repercussions.
A similar situation is faced by our neighbors in the surrounding moshavim and moshvot, even the kibbutzim. The fruit is literally rotting on the trees; even if they had people to pick them, in many cases the army is not letting the farmers into their orchards. They have spent all year investing in this year's crop of fruit; some farmers go deeply into debt during the year, until they sell their produce. If they don't receive government compensation, many will face bankruptcy, even some acquaintances of mine, who are considered leaders in their communities.
The chickens aren't laying eggs, nor are the cows producing their regular quantities of milk. There is virtually no branch of agriculture in the region that isn't being seriously and devastatingly affected by the war.
Many owners of tzimmers - bed and breakfasts - are facing financial problems as wel.. For many years, many moshavniks have been unable to make a living at farming, and turned to tourism for their income. Investing heavily in constructing and maintaining the facilities, and working hard in providing services, such families depend on the summer tourists for their annual income. Even if the war ends tomorrow, experience has been that the tourists won't return in significant numbers this summer. I was visiting friends last week at a moshav (yes, even in the midst of the threat, we do some visiting) who make their living at renting out their tzimmers. Their facilities had been booked solid throughout the summer; three weeks have already gone by, and of course not one guest had shown up.
Tomorrow, the Knesset is voting on the compensation for salaried employees. The politicians will debate about which employees should get compensation, who pays for it, and how much they will get. No one in government has even seriously begun to address the issues of small businessmen, like Alex (yes, he's a businessman, too), or of Suzy the hairdresser, or David in Metulla, the Davidpors in Margaliot, the Asafs or Levis or Tzurs or .. who own tzimmers in the moshavim.
A poor town, of mostly hard-working people, has suddenly become much, much poorer. A great deal of energy is required now, to withstand the shells and the noise. Even more energy and resources will be required to rebuild, but that will be out of the public spotlight. National interest will have shifted elsewhere, and the resources will follow those interests. Promises made now will perforce be reduced by budgetary constraints, and the vast size and scope of the rebuilding required. My concern is that the Alexes of the community and the region will fall between the cracks.
And that's the news from Kiryat Shmona. Or should I call it Mt. Wobegon?
JNF's Emergency Campaign for Israel
JNF's Emergency Campaign for Israel
http://www.jnf.org/site/PageServer
Operation Security Blanket
Responding immediately to the situation in northern Israel and around Gaza, Jewish National Fund / Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael has launched Operation Security Blanket.
Click here to donate and send Israeli children, cooped up in bomb shelters, to JNF-KKL summer camps in central Israel, out of range of rocket fire. We now have a video of kids in camps on our Operation Security Blanket page.
Help us build security roads on the border with Gaza by clicking here. Your donation will allow for the safe passage of residents to school and work.
Donate here to help JNF purchase emergency response vehicles/fire trucks, bulletproof vests and helmets for firefighters and emergency response personnel.
Jewish National Fund is on the ground with actions, not words. We are continuing to be a security blanket for Israel’s families.
Join us for an Emergency JNF FOR ISRAEL DAY. Bring your friends and your cell phones and make calls to support Israel at this critical time. Call 1-888-JNF-0099 to volunteer
http://www.jnf.org/site/PageServer
Operation Security Blanket
Responding immediately to the situation in northern Israel and around Gaza, Jewish National Fund / Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael has launched Operation Security Blanket.
Click here to donate and send Israeli children, cooped up in bomb shelters, to JNF-KKL summer camps in central Israel, out of range of rocket fire. We now have a video of kids in camps on our Operation Security Blanket page.
Help us build security roads on the border with Gaza by clicking here. Your donation will allow for the safe passage of residents to school and work.
Donate here to help JNF purchase emergency response vehicles/fire trucks, bulletproof vests and helmets for firefighters and emergency response personnel.
Jewish National Fund is on the ground with actions, not words. We are continuing to be a security blanket for Israel’s families.
Join us for an Emergency JNF FOR ISRAEL DAY. Bring your friends and your cell phones and make calls to support Israel at this critical time. Call 1-888-JNF-0099 to volunteer
Hezbollah and civilians
Hezbollah's human shields
The Washington Times
The Washington Times
TODAY'S EDITORIAL
July 31, 2006
Israel is being vilified by opportunistic politicians and the international media over the air strike that killed 56 persons early yesterday in the Lebanese village of Qana. In the rush to blame Israel, a number of relevant facts are ignored: 1) the sad fact of the matter is that, no matter how much is done to minimize the risk to civilians, civilians inevitably die in wars; 2) Israel has placed its soldiers at risk in order to minimize civilian casualties in Lebanon, while Hezbollah, in flagrant violation of international law, including the Geneva Conventions, deliberately behaves in ways to maximize harm to Israeli and Lebanese civilians; 3) in Qana there were indisputable military targets, including locations from which Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel; 4) pending the outcome of an investigation, there is no way to tell whether all of those killed in the airstrike were "civilians," as Israel's critics confidently tell us, or whether the dead were actually a mix of combatants and noncombatants. Senior Israeli officials said yesterday that Hezbollah rocket launchers were concealed in civilian buildings in the village, from which 150 rockets were fired over the past 20 days. They showed reporters video footage of rocket launchers being driven into Qana, from whence rockets were fired at northern Israeli towns, including Kiryat Shemona, Afula and Ma'alot. Israel targeted the building hit early yesterday because intelligence reports indicated that Hezbollah operatives were inside, along with Katyusha rockets and launchers. Typically Hezbollah fighters fire rockets at Israeli targets and then dart into nearby buildings. Indeed, as it has repeatedly done in the course of the 19-day-old military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces have relinquished the element of surprise by dropping leaflets on Qana and many other Lebanese towns telling residents that they should leave the area because the IDF is preparing to conduct military operations against Hezbollah. Just as Israel tries to move Lebanese civilians out of the line of fire, Hezbollah does its best to put them in danger and peril. In a dispatch published yesterday in Australia, the Sydney Sunday Herald Sun demonstrates just how Hezbollah wages war. The photographs, from a Christian area of eastern Beirut called Wadi Chahrour, were smuggled out of Lebanon. One photograph depicts a fighter with an AK-47 rifle guarding "no-go" zones after an Israeli attack, and another with a group of men and youths preparing to fire an anti-aircraft gun in an apartment block, with sheets hanging out to dry on a balcony. Another shows the remnants of a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the middle of a residential block destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. An Australian was standing just down the street when the block was obliterated. "Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said. "Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then, it was totally devastated...It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more." (The pictures are posted online at www.news.com.au/heraldsun.)
Hezbollah's treatment of both Israeli and Lebanese civilians violates international law. Article 51 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention states that: "The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the subject of attack." Moreover, by using Lebanese civilians as human shields, Hezbollah appears to be violating Article 58 of Protocol 1, which requires parties to a conflict to "Avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas." Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan falsely accuses Israel of deliberately attacking members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), even as Hezbollah repeatedly targets U.N. peacekeepers. Last Monday, an Internet site called Little Green Footballs notes that the United Nations issued a press release reporting that an unarmed U.N. observer was critically wounded by small arms fire originating from a position controlled by Hezbollah. He was airlifted to an Israeli hospital for treatment. The following day, Hezbollah opened fire on a U.N. convoy, forcing it to turn back. On Friday, U.N. forces issued a press release reporting that "Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of five U.N. positions" in southern Lebanon, and that the number of troops in a Ghanaian battalion of the U.N. is "somewhat reduced" due to Hezbollah firing from near the U.N. positions, which provokes retaliatory shelling from the Israeli side. In sum, Hezbollah -- along with its enablers in Tehran and Damascus -- bears full responsibility for the carnage in both Israel and Lebanon.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Enough on both sides!
After the terrible tragedy in Kfar Qana - again - (the last time was in 1996, when 102 civilians were killed during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" operation), what can I write? Except to say:
Enough - on both sides!
And since I have a report from "Marsh" in Kiryat Shmona, I'll post it because this is what the army is fighting to prevent.
Except, as somebody once famously said, "fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity".
Excuse my French, but I trust the sentiment is clear.
This evening, as usual, the army gave its press briefing.
Of the three Israeli stations, only one showed it in full.
It did not go out live on the foreign stations, not even interpreted on CNN.
This war is not about press briefings and press conferences.
It is about pictures. Sounds. And images.
And hatred.
An acquaintance was visiting us with her dog this evening.
Here is a selection of some of the statements she made:
"I don't trust the Arabs."
"I've heard they tie bombs to their babies, to make them look like that, so that when the cameras came along, they got all these horrible shots."
"The Israelis told them to leave, and they didn't. In any case, if they didn't, they were families of the Hizbollah and they deserved what they got - women and children."
"What do you expect of the Arabs?"
My husband David told her that he didn't want to and didn't need to hear the hate, and to stop talking all this hate - that this was his house, and he didn't want to hear it.
He had told her before, and she wasn't listening.
"I'm tired of hearing about all this hate."
She took her dog and left.
A posting from Marsh in Kiryat Shmona
July 29, 2006
Dear Friends,
I've told you all about the loud artillery, and the shattering noise of the incoming Katyushot. Sometimes, especially late at night when it's quiet, you not only hear the artillery being fired off, but a very distant thud denoting its landing in Lebanon.
If it's quiet enough, you can even hear the Katyushot being fired from Lebanon. That's what happened this morning.
Around 6:30 a.m., they announced that we should go into the shelters - Kiryat Shmona's equivalent of sirens. Consequently, whoever might have been out and about wasn't, and it was very, very quiet. A little after 7:00 a.m., I heard the distant blast of the rockets being fired. As I came into my room and looked out the window, the first shell landed a couple of blocks away. The second landed on the building opposite mine, a mall (that can now be said openly - I refrained from doing so until the media covered it). I saw the shell hit in an explosive burst of light, making a small hole in the roof, and shattering the plastic panels that serve as its sun roof. The noise itself was devastating. I immediately called the municipality's "war room" to report on it: with no damage from the outside, no one on the street would know that the building had been hit. It took them a while to absorb what I was telling them; a few minutes later, I saw the police and fire departments arrive.
By my calculations, it fell into the open mall part, and not into any of the stores; from what I saw on the news, my assessment was correct, although the damage to at least one store on the upper floor is considerable. No one was in the building or the vicinity: it was 7:12 in the morning, before the mall opens, and people had heeded the warnings.
What with one thing and another, I only walked into the kitchen about an hour later. I immediately noticed that the small pantry off the kitchen had sunlight streaming in. The pantry has louvered plastic shutters, which I keep closed because this is the pigeon headquarters for town, and I don't want to find myself eating feather garnish on my meals. The shock wave from the blast, 11 stories below, across a parking lot and a 2-way street, had knocked out all of the slats of plastic on one panel, and about half of those on the adjacent panel. Then I noticed that 2 of the 10 glass slats in the small louvered kitchen window had also been knocked out. One slat, in fact, is still balanced on the outside of the window. The kitchen and adjoining pantry are in a deep niche of the building, and I assume the shock waves echoed inside the niche, thereby magnifying the effect.
There was no other damage, nor any plastic or glass inside the apartment. I suppose that all of the apartments on my line had similar damage; I know my downstairs neighbor did. I covered the gap with plastic, so the pigeons don't decide to make my apartment their headquarters, and went to the neighborhood center where I've been volunteering (more below).
Much later in the day, I managed to call the "property tax" office, to report on the damage. I almost felt guilty in doing so; so much more serious damage has been done, including a house in Kiryat Shmona sustaining a direct hit today and suffering extensive damage. However, if the property tax people aren't called immediately, no compensation can be made, and with more than just a few slats out, compensation will be necessary to replace them. The person answering my call sounded exhausted and harried. The property tax people send an assessor out as soon as they can, and he said they'd try to get someone out today or tomorrow, but he couldn't promise that. I assured him that there was no hurry, it wasn't a major problem - I just needed to replace the slats before the winter started, and I thanked him for their hard work. The property tax people are pretty universally vilified for their supposedly low assessments on damage, and sometimes for their insensitivity, but in the past two weeks, they've been doing yeomen's work. At any rate, I'll be able to report to you on the process from a very personal point of view.
The Neighborhood Center
You may recall that the high school in which the neighborhood center operates was also hit, late in the day on Thursday. Because part of the building didn't have electricity, the maintenance man was concerned that there might be live, dangerous wires somewhere, and so he shut off the electricity in the entire building. On Friday, the wing in which the center operates was turned back on. We still didn't have phones in the offices, so none of the neighborhood people could call us. Although Bezeq [the phone company] sent a repairman, he couldn't find the phone box, or where the cable had been cut by the Katyusha. Friday was only a half day, and so none of this was critical.
Today, with everything gearing up again, we needed electricity in the rest of the building, especially since the shelter in the adjoining wing serves as the bedroom for the many young volunteers who keep the children in the shelters busy. They'd left on Thursday, but by this afternoon, there were already 50 of them. When I left the center at around 3:30, the electricians were still to get there, the Bezeq man, aided by the maintenance man, had finally located the phone box and promised that at least some of the phones would be working tomorrow.
We delivered all the meals to the incapacitated who can't get out. Many people on the social services list who usually come to pick up their meals didn't come today; evidently, they've left town. Since the phones weren't working, we were unable to call them and find out if they're here or not. Judging from my neighbor, who stayed until today but who was packing when I got home, and others I saw hurrying to the bus station, a lot more families seem to be leaving today.
There's still another reason for people to leave: several of our young family men have received call-up notices. One of the two assistant principals at the school, who had worked in the neighborhood center last week, called today: he's already been called up. Amir, the principal, also received a call-up notice, although the mayor is trying to get it cancelled. It really is important for key people like Amir to stay here. BTW, Amir served in a fighting unit, by choice.
Right now, after several more barrages and an afternoon of outgoing artillery, it's beautifully peaceful here during a lull, as the sun sets. Would that it could stay this way, for everyone.
Marsh
Enough - on both sides!
And since I have a report from "Marsh" in Kiryat Shmona, I'll post it because this is what the army is fighting to prevent.
Except, as somebody once famously said, "fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity".
Excuse my French, but I trust the sentiment is clear.
This evening, as usual, the army gave its press briefing.
Of the three Israeli stations, only one showed it in full.
It did not go out live on the foreign stations, not even interpreted on CNN.
This war is not about press briefings and press conferences.
It is about pictures. Sounds. And images.
And hatred.
An acquaintance was visiting us with her dog this evening.
Here is a selection of some of the statements she made:
"I don't trust the Arabs."
"I've heard they tie bombs to their babies, to make them look like that, so that when the cameras came along, they got all these horrible shots."
"The Israelis told them to leave, and they didn't. In any case, if they didn't, they were families of the Hizbollah and they deserved what they got - women and children."
"What do you expect of the Arabs?"
My husband David told her that he didn't want to and didn't need to hear the hate, and to stop talking all this hate - that this was his house, and he didn't want to hear it.
He had told her before, and she wasn't listening.
"I'm tired of hearing about all this hate."
She took her dog and left.
A posting from Marsh in Kiryat Shmona
July 29, 2006
Dear Friends,
I've told you all about the loud artillery, and the shattering noise of the incoming Katyushot. Sometimes, especially late at night when it's quiet, you not only hear the artillery being fired off, but a very distant thud denoting its landing in Lebanon.
If it's quiet enough, you can even hear the Katyushot being fired from Lebanon. That's what happened this morning.
Around 6:30 a.m., they announced that we should go into the shelters - Kiryat Shmona's equivalent of sirens. Consequently, whoever might have been out and about wasn't, and it was very, very quiet. A little after 7:00 a.m., I heard the distant blast of the rockets being fired. As I came into my room and looked out the window, the first shell landed a couple of blocks away. The second landed on the building opposite mine, a mall (that can now be said openly - I refrained from doing so until the media covered it). I saw the shell hit in an explosive burst of light, making a small hole in the roof, and shattering the plastic panels that serve as its sun roof. The noise itself was devastating. I immediately called the municipality's "war room" to report on it: with no damage from the outside, no one on the street would know that the building had been hit. It took them a while to absorb what I was telling them; a few minutes later, I saw the police and fire departments arrive.
By my calculations, it fell into the open mall part, and not into any of the stores; from what I saw on the news, my assessment was correct, although the damage to at least one store on the upper floor is considerable. No one was in the building or the vicinity: it was 7:12 in the morning, before the mall opens, and people had heeded the warnings.
What with one thing and another, I only walked into the kitchen about an hour later. I immediately noticed that the small pantry off the kitchen had sunlight streaming in. The pantry has louvered plastic shutters, which I keep closed because this is the pigeon headquarters for town, and I don't want to find myself eating feather garnish on my meals. The shock wave from the blast, 11 stories below, across a parking lot and a 2-way street, had knocked out all of the slats of plastic on one panel, and about half of those on the adjacent panel. Then I noticed that 2 of the 10 glass slats in the small louvered kitchen window had also been knocked out. One slat, in fact, is still balanced on the outside of the window. The kitchen and adjoining pantry are in a deep niche of the building, and I assume the shock waves echoed inside the niche, thereby magnifying the effect.
There was no other damage, nor any plastic or glass inside the apartment. I suppose that all of the apartments on my line had similar damage; I know my downstairs neighbor did. I covered the gap with plastic, so the pigeons don't decide to make my apartment their headquarters, and went to the neighborhood center where I've been volunteering (more below).
Much later in the day, I managed to call the "property tax" office, to report on the damage. I almost felt guilty in doing so; so much more serious damage has been done, including a house in Kiryat Shmona sustaining a direct hit today and suffering extensive damage. However, if the property tax people aren't called immediately, no compensation can be made, and with more than just a few slats out, compensation will be necessary to replace them. The person answering my call sounded exhausted and harried. The property tax people send an assessor out as soon as they can, and he said they'd try to get someone out today or tomorrow, but he couldn't promise that. I assured him that there was no hurry, it wasn't a major problem - I just needed to replace the slats before the winter started, and I thanked him for their hard work. The property tax people are pretty universally vilified for their supposedly low assessments on damage, and sometimes for their insensitivity, but in the past two weeks, they've been doing yeomen's work. At any rate, I'll be able to report to you on the process from a very personal point of view.
The Neighborhood Center
You may recall that the high school in which the neighborhood center operates was also hit, late in the day on Thursday. Because part of the building didn't have electricity, the maintenance man was concerned that there might be live, dangerous wires somewhere, and so he shut off the electricity in the entire building. On Friday, the wing in which the center operates was turned back on. We still didn't have phones in the offices, so none of the neighborhood people could call us. Although Bezeq [the phone company] sent a repairman, he couldn't find the phone box, or where the cable had been cut by the Katyusha. Friday was only a half day, and so none of this was critical.
Today, with everything gearing up again, we needed electricity in the rest of the building, especially since the shelter in the adjoining wing serves as the bedroom for the many young volunteers who keep the children in the shelters busy. They'd left on Thursday, but by this afternoon, there were already 50 of them. When I left the center at around 3:30, the electricians were still to get there, the Bezeq man, aided by the maintenance man, had finally located the phone box and promised that at least some of the phones would be working tomorrow.
We delivered all the meals to the incapacitated who can't get out. Many people on the social services list who usually come to pick up their meals didn't come today; evidently, they've left town. Since the phones weren't working, we were unable to call them and find out if they're here or not. Judging from my neighbor, who stayed until today but who was packing when I got home, and others I saw hurrying to the bus station, a lot more families seem to be leaving today.
There's still another reason for people to leave: several of our young family men have received call-up notices. One of the two assistant principals at the school, who had worked in the neighborhood center last week, called today: he's already been called up. Amir, the principal, also received a call-up notice, although the mayor is trying to get it cancelled. It really is important for key people like Amir to stay here. BTW, Amir served in a fighting unit, by choice.
Right now, after several more barrages and an afternoon of outgoing artillery, it's beautifully peaceful here during a lull, as the sun sets. Would that it could stay this way, for everyone.
Marsh
Pray for us, my friends, pray for us all!
On July 14, 2006, I posted the first piece to my blog, from Ha'aretz, called "A Most Unnecessary War".
That was Day 3.
Today, July 30, 2006, I posted a piece from Ha'aretz called "Days of Darkness."
This is Day 19.
I recommend both pieces to my reader. The original posting can be found in the archives.
Pray, pray for us, my friends.
As I write, some 54 women and children refugees in Kfar Kana have been killed as a result of Israeli bombing.
It is reported that the hospital in Haifa has been hit.
Demonstrators in Beirut are trying to break into the UN headquarters.
Pray for us, my friends, pray for us.
That was Day 3.
Today, July 30, 2006, I posted a piece from Ha'aretz called "Days of Darkness."
This is Day 19.
I recommend both pieces to my reader. The original posting can be found in the archives.
Pray, pray for us, my friends.
As I write, some 54 women and children refugees in Kfar Kana have been killed as a result of Israeli bombing.
It is reported that the hospital in Haifa has been hit.
Demonstrators in Beirut are trying to break into the UN headquarters.
Pray for us, my friends, pray for us.
Days of darkness...
Days of darkness
By Gideon Levy
Ha'aretz, July 30, 2006
In war as in war: Israel is sinking into a strident, nationalistic atmosphere and darkness is beginning to cover everything. The brakes we still had are eroding, the insensitivity and blindness that characterized Israeli society in recent years is intensifying. The home front is cut in half: the north suffers and the center is serene. But both have been taken over by tones of jingoism, ruthlessness and vengeance, and the voices of extremism that previously characterized the camp's margins are now expressing its heart. The left has once again lost its way, wrapped in silence or "admitting mistakes." Israel is exposing a unified, nationalistic face. The devastation we are sowing in Lebanon doesn't touch anyone here and most of it is not even shown to Israelis. Those who want to know what Tyre looks like now have to turn to foreign channels - the BBC reporter brings chilling images from there, the likes of which won't be seen here. How can one not be shocked by the suffering of the other, at our hands, even when our north suffers? The death we are sowing at the same time, right now in Gaza, with close to 120 dead since the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, 27 last Wednesday alone, touches us even less. The hospitals in Gaza are full of burned children, but who cares? The darkness of the war in the north covers them, too. Since we've grown accustomed to thinking collective punishment a legitimate weapon, it is no wonder no debate has sparked here over the cruel punishment of Lebanon for Hezbollah's actions. If it was okay in Nablus, why not Beirut? The only criticism being heard about this war is over tactics. Everyone is a general now and they are mostly pushing the IDF to deepen its activities. Commentators, ex-generals and politicians compete at raising the stakes with extreme proposals.
Haim Ramon "doesn't understand" why there is still electricity in Baalbek; Eli Yishai proposes turning south Lebanon into a "sandbox"; Yoav Limor, a Channel 1 military correspondent, proposes an exhibition of Hezbollah corpses and the next day to conduct a parade of prisoners in their underwear, "to strengthen the home front's morale." It's not difficult to guess what we would think about an Arab TV station whose commentators would say something like that, but another few casualties or failures by the IDF, and Limor's proposal will be implemented. Is there any better sign of how we have lost our senses and our humanity? Chauvinism and an appetite for vengeance are raising their heads. If two weeks ago only lunatics such as Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu spoke about "wiping out every village where a Katyusha is fired," now a senior officer in the IDF speaks that way in Yedioth Aharonoth's main headlines. Lebanese villages may not have been wiped out yet, but we have long since wiped out our own red lines. A bereaved father, Haim Avraham, whose son was kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah in October 2000, fires an artillery shell into Lebanon for the reporters. It's vengeance for his son. His image, embracing the decorated artillery shell is one of the most disgraceful images of this war. And it's only the first. A group of young girls also have their picture taken decorating IDF shells with slogans. Maariv, which has turned into the Fox News of Israel, fills its pages with chauvinist slogans reminiscent of particularly inferior propaganda machines, such as "Israel is strong" - which is indicative of weakness, actually - while a TV commentator calls for the bombing of a TV station. Lebanon, which has never fought Israel and has 40 daily newspapers, 42 colleges and universities and hundreds of different banks, is being destroyed by our planes and cannon and nobody is taking into account the amount of hatred we are sowing. In international public opinion, Israel has been turned into a monster, and that still hasn't been calculated into the debit column of this war. Israel is badly stained, a moral stain that can't be easily and quickly removed. And only we don't want to see it. The people want victory, and nobody knows what that is and what its price will be. The Zionist left has also been made irrelevant. As in every difficult test in the past - the two intifadas for example - this time too the left has failed just when its voice was so necessary as a counterweight to the stridency of the beating tom-toms of war. Why have a left if at every real test it joins the national chorus? Peace Now stands silently, so does Meretz, except for brave Zehava Gal-On. A few days of a war of choice and already Yehoshua Sobol is admitting he was wrong all along. Peace Now is suddenly an "infantile slogan" for him. His colleagues are silent and their silence is no less resounding. Only the extreme left makes its voice heard, but it is a voice nobody listens to. Long before this war is decided, it can already be stated that its spiraling cost will include the moral blackout that is surrounding and covering us all, threatening our existence and image no less than Hezbollah's Katyushas.
By Gideon Levy
Ha'aretz, July 30, 2006
In war as in war: Israel is sinking into a strident, nationalistic atmosphere and darkness is beginning to cover everything. The brakes we still had are eroding, the insensitivity and blindness that characterized Israeli society in recent years is intensifying. The home front is cut in half: the north suffers and the center is serene. But both have been taken over by tones of jingoism, ruthlessness and vengeance, and the voices of extremism that previously characterized the camp's margins are now expressing its heart. The left has once again lost its way, wrapped in silence or "admitting mistakes." Israel is exposing a unified, nationalistic face. The devastation we are sowing in Lebanon doesn't touch anyone here and most of it is not even shown to Israelis. Those who want to know what Tyre looks like now have to turn to foreign channels - the BBC reporter brings chilling images from there, the likes of which won't be seen here. How can one not be shocked by the suffering of the other, at our hands, even when our north suffers? The death we are sowing at the same time, right now in Gaza, with close to 120 dead since the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, 27 last Wednesday alone, touches us even less. The hospitals in Gaza are full of burned children, but who cares? The darkness of the war in the north covers them, too. Since we've grown accustomed to thinking collective punishment a legitimate weapon, it is no wonder no debate has sparked here over the cruel punishment of Lebanon for Hezbollah's actions. If it was okay in Nablus, why not Beirut? The only criticism being heard about this war is over tactics. Everyone is a general now and they are mostly pushing the IDF to deepen its activities. Commentators, ex-generals and politicians compete at raising the stakes with extreme proposals.
Haim Ramon "doesn't understand" why there is still electricity in Baalbek; Eli Yishai proposes turning south Lebanon into a "sandbox"; Yoav Limor, a Channel 1 military correspondent, proposes an exhibition of Hezbollah corpses and the next day to conduct a parade of prisoners in their underwear, "to strengthen the home front's morale." It's not difficult to guess what we would think about an Arab TV station whose commentators would say something like that, but another few casualties or failures by the IDF, and Limor's proposal will be implemented. Is there any better sign of how we have lost our senses and our humanity? Chauvinism and an appetite for vengeance are raising their heads. If two weeks ago only lunatics such as Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu spoke about "wiping out every village where a Katyusha is fired," now a senior officer in the IDF speaks that way in Yedioth Aharonoth's main headlines. Lebanese villages may not have been wiped out yet, but we have long since wiped out our own red lines. A bereaved father, Haim Avraham, whose son was kidnapped and killed by Hezbollah in October 2000, fires an artillery shell into Lebanon for the reporters. It's vengeance for his son. His image, embracing the decorated artillery shell is one of the most disgraceful images of this war. And it's only the first. A group of young girls also have their picture taken decorating IDF shells with slogans. Maariv, which has turned into the Fox News of Israel, fills its pages with chauvinist slogans reminiscent of particularly inferior propaganda machines, such as "Israel is strong" - which is indicative of weakness, actually - while a TV commentator calls for the bombing of a TV station. Lebanon, which has never fought Israel and has 40 daily newspapers, 42 colleges and universities and hundreds of different banks, is being destroyed by our planes and cannon and nobody is taking into account the amount of hatred we are sowing. In international public opinion, Israel has been turned into a monster, and that still hasn't been calculated into the debit column of this war. Israel is badly stained, a moral stain that can't be easily and quickly removed. And only we don't want to see it. The people want victory, and nobody knows what that is and what its price will be. The Zionist left has also been made irrelevant. As in every difficult test in the past - the two intifadas for example - this time too the left has failed just when its voice was so necessary as a counterweight to the stridency of the beating tom-toms of war. Why have a left if at every real test it joins the national chorus? Peace Now stands silently, so does Meretz, except for brave Zehava Gal-On. A few days of a war of choice and already Yehoshua Sobol is admitting he was wrong all along. Peace Now is suddenly an "infantile slogan" for him. His colleagues are silent and their silence is no less resounding. Only the extreme left makes its voice heard, but it is a voice nobody listens to. Long before this war is decided, it can already be stated that its spiraling cost will include the moral blackout that is surrounding and covering us all, threatening our existence and image no less than Hezbollah's Katyushas.
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