hey, come on, they hit everywhere in beirut (and not only beirut). come on, not only houses with rocket launchers. I understand that you can get emotive with the current bombing of haifa, i send you all my solidariety, but don't tell lies.
Notice that i would say the same to a lebanese that would write the same of you but from the other side.
Lies? oh no. I didn't say it was the ONLY reason, only one of the main ones. Hence: "I think our actions went out of control after hitting my home town. I justify having an action, not the *proportions* of it.".
You basically called me a liar, don't you think you went to far? Even if I wasn't clear enough (hey, English is not my native language), you should not jump to such an extreme conclusion without giving me a chance to explain my opinions.
Lies? oh no. I didn't say it was the ONLY reason, only one of the main ones. Hence: "I think our actions went out of control after hitting my home town. I justify having an action, not the *proportions* of it.".
You basically called me a liar, don't you think you went to far? Even if I wasn't clear enough (hey, English is not my native language), you should not jump to such an extreme conclusion without giving me a chance to explain my opinions.
sorry, i didn't want to offend you: english is not my native language and in my language liar is not that offensive as it looks like it sounded to you. i apologise. I just wanted to underline: don't say that civilians are killed in lebanon because they have rocket launchers in their homes, that's not true. and the reason is neither that it happened after that they bombed haifa or other towns: that would be revenge.
PS for shiraz: in Kosovo the majority of Albanian is muslim, but they're not Arab. Same for Turkey: they're muslim but not Aram. same for Iran: that's a country that was occupied by arabs, now they're muslim, but they're not arab...
Ok, so lets focus on the peace process with Eygpt & Jurdan, the help we offer them in times of need, the economic collaborations we have with Jurdan (mainly in agricultural matters), the fact that many Israeli tourists visiting these countries etc'. Does that sound like Israel is trying to destroy the arab world?
Come on, were are doing lots of bad things, but it doesn't mean its ok to ignore the good things and believe me, there are LOTS of them.
Ok, so lets focus on the peace process with Eygpt & Jurdan, the help we offer them in times of need, the economic collaborations we have with Jurdan (mainly in agricultural matters), the fact that many Israeli tourists visiting these countries etc'. Does that sound like Israel is trying to destroy the arab world?
Come on, were are doing lots of bad things, but it doesn't mean its ok to ignore the good things and believe me, there are LOTS of them.
oh, don't worry, if you remember i wrote that it was stupid to say that Israel wants the distruction of the arab world. I was just unsure what you meant when you took kosovo in the discussion.
sorry, i didn't want to offend you: english is not my native language and in my language liar is not that offensive as it looks like it sounded to you. i apologise. I just wanted to underline: don't say that civilians are killed in lebanon because they have rocket launchers in their homes, that's not true. and the reason is neither that it happened after that they bombed haifa or other towns: that would be revenge.
But unfortunately it is true. I wrote it before in some other thread: After Israel moved out of Lebanon there were some Lebanese refugees (soliders of the Southeren Lebanon Defence Force) who came to live here. I know one of them, and the day the whole story erupted (before Israel reacted) he contacted his friends from back home to check up on them, and they told him that the terrorists are taking over people's homes all over southern Lebanon village, entering all kinds of weapons including rocket launchers by force and preventing civilians from running away. This is not something I made up and of course, non of us here thinks it was the civilians fault.
Also, I've mentioned hitting Haifa as a point of escalation- things went even worse after that. I know many civilians were killed after we fired at main roads, bridges etc'. At first 3 days, destroying some of southern Lebanon's infrastructure looked ok to me - we didn't want our kidnapped soliders to be taken far away as had happened many times before. But the cost appeared to be too expensive, and then came the Haifa escalation point which caused both sides loosing control.
But unfortunately it is true. I wrote it before in some other thread: After Israel moved out of Lebanon there were some Lebanese refugees (soliders of the Southeren Lebanon Defence Force) who came to live here. I know one of them, and the day the whole story erupted (before Israel reacted) he contacted his friends from back home to check up on them, and they told him that the terrorists are taking over people's homes all over southern Lebanon village, entering all kinds of weapons including rocket launchers by force and preventing civilians from running away. This is not something I made up and of course, non of us here thinks it was the civilians fault.
there were surely some cases of rocket launchers in civilians homes, but not in all the places hit by the Israeli offensive, come on. If you believe in that, you believe in propaganda.
there were surely some cases of rocket launchers in civilians homes, but not in all the places hit by the Israeli offensive
Of course! Hence "the cost appeared to be too expensive".
BTW, things are looking a bit better right now (well, its all relative). There hasn't been too much of (if any) air-force action today, the whole thing is now conducted mainly in the area across the border. At least for northern Israel it seems to be a bit calmer than other days. Hope it'll all be over quickly...
A Montreal journalist and activist manages to get out of Lebanon, while tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped
by STEFAN CHRISTOFF
DAMASCUS—Lebanon is under military attack. For the past week, the country has endured a brutal campaign of violence at the hands of Israeli planes and artillery. The Lebanese government estimates that roughly 300 people have lost their lives since Israel began its attacks, which have essentially dismantled the public infrastructure of the country.
The latest round of fighting began on Tuesday, July 11, when two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah, the armed political organization credited liberating southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000. In return for the release of the Israeli soldiers, Hezbollah demanded the release of the hundreds of Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails who in some cases have remained in prison for over 20 years.
In response to the request for a prisoner exchange by Hezbollah, Israel has launched an all-out war on the Lebanese people, inflicting far-reaching misery, and capturing the world’s attention.
Israeli missile strikes have knocked out most of the bridges in the country, all three runways of Beirut’s international airport, major highways, power plants, cell phone communication towers and sea ports throughout the country.
Countless thousands are currently fleeing the Israeli military bombardment of Lebanon. All land borders to Syria have become escape routes for Lebanese and foreign nationals attempting to flee the country. The majority of Lebanese who are unable to escape are faced with an unprecedented attack on Lebanon’s civilian population, national infrastructure and political resistance movements.
Witnessing a country’s destruction
For the first week of the violence, I remained in Beirut as a witness to vast human suffering imposed on the nation. From the Hamra district in central Beirut, explosions could be heard throughout the night as the blaring sirens of ambulances racing through the city with the countless wounded in the Israeli missile strikes illustrated the realities of full-out war.
Witnessing Israel’s attack on Lebanon is unforgettable. On the second night of bombing I called to check on friends in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj el-Barajneh, within the southern suburbs of Beirut—Hezbollah’s political stronghold—which was under attack.
“People in the camp are remembering the 1982 Israeli invasion,” said Samir Mahmoud, a Palestinian refugee, “although what we experienced throughout the civil war and past invasions gives us strength to continue.”
Beirut’s southern suburbs have become a rubble-strewn ghost town. After three days of consistent bombing, a friend from the area fled the bombing to stay at my Beirut apartment.
“Hezbollah is winning!” exclaimed my friend Mohammed. “They aren’t an official military army, but they are professional and have been consistently hitting Israeli military targets.”
Despite Hezbollah’s Islamic origins, many secular Lebanese that I have gotten to know in my previous visits to Beirut support and respect the armed political party.
Getting out
In an attempt to crush Hezbollah, Israel has imposed a full-out land, air and naval siege on Lebanon, as the bombings the Beirut international airport, all major highways and the blockade of all naval traffic have isolated Lebanon completely.
Throughout the first three days of bombing I placed numerous unanswered phone calls to the Canadian Embassy in Beirut in an attempt to register my presence in Lebanon. It seemed that Canadian officials decided to take a vacation in the face of the Israeli assault, perhaps reflecting the Canadian governments’ position on Israeli attack.
In the increasing terror of Israeli missile strikes on Lebanon, I, along with thousands of others, decided to flee as the bombs began to strike closer to central Beirut. As major roads leading out of Lebanon have been targets of Israeli military strikes, the land route to Syria was jarring.
As we drove to Syria in a crammed taxi from Beirut at maximum speed down Lebanon’s northern highways, we sped past various bombing sites, including the main commercial ports of Beirut and Tripoli. The Syrian border was chaos, filled with thousands of Lebanese fleeing their homeland. After hours of line-ups and refugee queues, we arrived in Syria.
Speeding down the Syrian highways to Damascus, the Lebanese radio stated news that the northern Lebanese highway—the highway we had just taken to flee—had been hit by Israeli missiles.
Refugees in their own land
Throughout the first days and nights of Israel’s attack, military planes buzzed in the skies over the capital and missiles hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, creating widespread destruction to Hezbollah’s urban political base.
In Haret Hreik, an area in south Beirut, many housing complexes, local stores, gas stations and roads have been obliterated by air strikes. In the capital’s centre, refugees fleeing the bombardment tell stories of terror. City parks have become refugee camps for the thousands fleeing the affected areas.
“Israel is hitting anywhere and everywhere in our neighborhoods,” shouted a refugee sleeping in Sanayeh Garden, a public park in the central Hamra district of Beirut. “Our situation is rotten—since the beginning of the bombing we have been going from one place to the other, moving with all of our children.”
Sanayeh Garden is one of many places of refuge for the thousands of internal refugees of Lebanon. Masses of people are sleeping in the open air, between mattresses on the dirt and Israeli warplanes in the sky. Last week I shared cigarettes and tea with refugees in Sanayeh Garden in Beirut, discussing the realities of their predicament and their perspectives on the war.
“I have a question to ask Bush. Where is the democracy he talks about?” stated another internally displaced refugee. “Thousands of us are fleeing south Beirut, running away from the random bombings that are hitting the women, the children and the elderly. How does the U.S. still encourage the democracy of Israel, [the same one] that is doing this to us Lebanese today and [that] stole Palestine?”
“We are now living in a miserable situation. Personally, I don’t have anywhere to sleep,” explained one refugee named Ali from southern Beirut. He joked: “Bush, can I maybe come and sleep at your place? Or maybe you can come and take my place and sleep here and then you will really understand the facts on the ground in Lebanon today.”
Civilians in the middle
“The last update we have from the Lebanese authorities suggests 65,000 people could be displaced,” Hicham Hassan, spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Beirut, told me. “It’s now a more difficult situation because bombings have increased and there’s little information available. People are stranded, and villages in the south are isolated from one another and the rest of the country.”
Southern Lebanon, occupied by Israel until 2000, has been worst hit by the Israeli military assault. Towns such as Nabatiyeh, Khiam and Tyre have experienced widespread destruction and death.
Multiple targeted killings of Lebanese civilians have taken place in southern Lebanon.
On Saturday, July 16, 21 civilians were killed in a one-minute massacre when Israeli warplanes bombed a bus carrying refugees near the city of Tyre–after they were told by the Isreali military to evacuate. This targeted killing was widely reported on by the Arabic press, including detailed coverage on Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV. The Red Cross of Lebanon also confirmed the civilian bus massacre.
Simply put, the Canadian government has reacted quickly to the war on Lebanon by offering their full political support to Israel in the first days of the military offensive. International political support from Canada and the U.S. is crucial to Israeli military actions in Lebanon, as it provides political legitimacy to a military campaign that, from the ground in Lebanon, could be called state terrorism.
Stefan Christoff is a media activist and community organizer. For more information, analysis and news on the current situation in Lebanon, visit Electronic Lebanon at http://electroniclebanon.net. You can reach Stefan at: christoff@resist.ca
"L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers"
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Wake up, the UN WAS the solution 6 years ago, they were told to help the Lebanese army to take control over southern Lebanon, disarm & dismiss the terrorists. As you may see now, It didn't happend. Instead, UNIFIL allowed Nasaralla to do what ever he wanted, and didn't stop him and his group of terrorists from using civilians for their evil needs. UN was pruved to be useless when it comes to deal with situations like this many times before, and not only in this area. Remember Srebrenica 1995?
...I am not sure if I wanna wake up...
maybe you are right. But the UN seems to me a solution out of this dead end road .. and I do not have any other suggestion.
But I take your post towards my statement to kinda thank you.
I followed the discussion between puck and you and I learned alot.
It is good to hear opinions first hand, from someone who actually live there
vs. someone who refers to amnesty.org in his/her signature line
and p.s. I never believed that Israel wants to get rid of the Arab world.
I just think that you wanna be and have a home
and to me, you have all the rights to be...
...I just wish that human kind (all sorts of them) finally stop to solve conflicts with violance and military.
I am so tired of war and pain... aren't we all?
so I walk in circles and wish for an UN that probably isn't what I wish it should.
:( speakless
there is no way to peace, peace is the way!
...the world is come undone, I like to change it everyday but change don't come at once, it's a wave, building before it breaks.
Gotta add something I've just heared: Local media reported the bunker in the middle of Beirut (the one who was bombed via 23 bombs early in the morning) is actually located more than 10 meter below the ground, where parts of a mosque are still standing! they even interviewed a local resident who said "everything in this area was totaly ruined except this site".
Gotta add something I've just heared: Local media reported the bunker in the middle of Beirut (the one who was bombed via 23 bombs early in the morning) is actually located more than 10 meter below the ground, where parts of a mosque are still standing! they even interviewed a local resident who said "everything in this area was totaly ruined except this site".
What on earth did Hezbollah build there?
i'm most probably wrong, but here the media said it was a mosque, Hezbollah seem to confirm that their bunker was not hit...
"L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers"
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
i've long since given up trying to argue specific points with the israel-bashers on here, since they don't even listen to anything except self-referential "independent" media that jives with their preconceived notions.
i'll just say that the israel-bashers on moving train are almost invariably without any moral or intellectual integrity, whatsoever.
they cast their arguments against israel in terms of high-minded, internationalist, universalist, principles. they say they are not hateful, not antisemitic, just sickened by israel's actions and speaking their minds. they can't keep silent in the face of israel's "atrocities".
[sarcasm]that must by why there are so many threads on the moving train every day speaking out against russia in chechnya. or china in tibet. or sudan in darfur. [/sarcasm]
and no, this post does not ignore the real suffering of the palestinians and now the lebanese. i'll just say that now to preempt that utterly predictable and played-out response.
it would just be nice if the frequency with which posters on moving train express their sanctimonious outrage at human suffering, was commeasurate with the actual amount of suffering they are against, instead of the "coincidential" nationality of the people they are condemning.
i'm most probably wrong, but here the media said it was a mosque, Hezbollah seem to confirm that their bunker was not hit...
Hence, it is located deep into the ground under that mosque, a place that bunker penetrable bombs can not reach... Amazing, and all of it is in the middle of a neighborhood in Beirut. Fucking bastards.
Hence, it is located deep into the ground under that mosque, a place that bunker penetrable bombs can not reach... Amazing, and all of it is in the middle of a neighborhood in Beirut. Fucking bastards.
well again, i don't want to dispute you, but they say that the bunker was not at the mosque location, it was a mosque under construction that had nothing to do with hezbollah, the bunker is not there, it's probably close in the neighbourhood, but it seem like they miss the target.
"L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers"
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
well again, i don't want to dispute you, but they say that the bunker was not at the mosque location, it was a mosque under construction that had nothing to do with hezbollah, the bunker is not there, it's probably close in the neighbourhood, but it seem like they miss the target.
so how come the mosque's foundations were not damaged and the rest of its surroundings were ruined? It is very odd. 23 massive bombs are not likely to miss one specific target...
so how come the mosque's foundations were not damaged and the rest of its surroundings were ruined? It is very odd. 23 massive bombs are not likely to miss one specific target...
I don't know what to think.
:(... me neither, i don't know... but it seem to me that 23 massive bombs would get rid of any bunker, if it was a bunker then great, the faster they find em (if they ever do), the faster it stop...
edit: what seem to be certain though, is that they have not killed anyone with that attack, terrorist or civillians. Terrorist were not there, and civillians have deserted the area...
"L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers"
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
:(... me neither, i don't know... but it seem to me that 23 massive bombs would get rid of any bunker, if it was a bunker then great, the faster they find em (if they ever do), the faster it stop...
edit: what seem to be certain though, is that they have not killed anyone with that attack, terrorist or civillians. Terrorist were not there, and civillians have deserted the area...
They can not get rid of a bunker which was built like a well protected nuclear facility: V-E-R-Y deep into the ground, covered with e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s amount of concrete. The best that money from Iran could buy inside of a southern Beirut neighborhood. Have you seen Nasaralla today? He looked so contented, made me sick to my stomech. God knows how many orban bunkers he has in Lebanon, and how the hell he was able to build them with no interfering.
They can not get rid of a bunker which was built like a well protected nuclear facility: V-E-R-Y deep into the ground, covered with e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s amount of concrete. The best that money from Iran could buy inside of a southern Beirut neighborhood. Have you seen Nasaralla today? He looked so contented, made me sick to my stomech. God knows how many orban bunkers he has in Lebanon, and how the hell he was able to build them with no interfering.
well, you know medias were allowed in that area, and it doesn't look like there was a bunker there, at best if there was something from Hezbollah, it was a basement with thick concrete walls and yes it was destroyed. Also they say it's 23 tons and not 23 bombs, i don'T know which one is real, but it doesn't really matter now anyway...
edit: i saw that Nasrallah on CNN via Al Jazeera, he sure think he's invest with some power he obviously don't have, he must be arrest, but then someone else will take his place, and then another, and then another. I believe the problem need to be adress diferently this time around, again i don't know how...
"L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers"
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Comments
Lies? oh no. I didn't say it was the ONLY reason, only one of the main ones. Hence: "I think our actions went out of control after hitting my home town. I justify having an action, not the *proportions* of it.".
You basically called me a liar, don't you think you went to far? Even if I wasn't clear enough (hey, English is not my native language), you should not jump to such an extreme conclusion without giving me a chance to explain my opinions.
www.amnesty.org.uk
Ok, so lets focus on the peace process with Eygpt & Jurdan, the help we offer them in times of need, the economic collaborations we have with Jurdan (mainly in agricultural matters), the fact that many Israeli tourists visiting these countries etc'. Does that sound like Israel is trying to destroy the arab world?
Come on, were are doing lots of bad things, but it doesn't mean its ok to ignore the good things and believe me, there are LOTS of them.
www.amnesty.org.uk
But unfortunately it is true. I wrote it before in some other thread: After Israel moved out of Lebanon there were some Lebanese refugees (soliders of the Southeren Lebanon Defence Force) who came to live here. I know one of them, and the day the whole story erupted (before Israel reacted) he contacted his friends from back home to check up on them, and they told him that the terrorists are taking over people's homes all over southern Lebanon village, entering all kinds of weapons including rocket launchers by force and preventing civilians from running away. This is not something I made up and of course, non of us here thinks it was the civilians fault.
Also, I've mentioned hitting Haifa as a point of escalation- things went even worse after that. I know many civilians were killed after we fired at main roads, bridges etc'. At first 3 days, destroying some of southern Lebanon's infrastructure looked ok to me - we didn't want our kidnapped soliders to be taken far away as had happened many times before. But the cost appeared to be too expensive, and then came the Haifa escalation point which caused both sides loosing control.
Hope I was clear now.
www.amnesty.org.uk
Of course! Hence "the cost appeared to be too expensive".
BTW, things are looking a bit better right now (well, its all relative). There hasn't been too much of (if any) air-force action today, the whole thing is now conducted mainly in the area across the border. At least for northern Israel it seems to be a bit calmer than other days. Hope it'll all be over quickly...
A Montreal journalist and activist manages to get out of Lebanon, while tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped
by STEFAN CHRISTOFF
DAMASCUS—Lebanon is under military attack. For the past week, the country has endured a brutal campaign of violence at the hands of Israeli planes and artillery. The Lebanese government estimates that roughly 300 people have lost their lives since Israel began its attacks, which have essentially dismantled the public infrastructure of the country.
The latest round of fighting began on Tuesday, July 11, when two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah, the armed political organization credited liberating southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000. In return for the release of the Israeli soldiers, Hezbollah demanded the release of the hundreds of Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails who in some cases have remained in prison for over 20 years.
In response to the request for a prisoner exchange by Hezbollah, Israel has launched an all-out war on the Lebanese people, inflicting far-reaching misery, and capturing the world’s attention.
Israeli missile strikes have knocked out most of the bridges in the country, all three runways of Beirut’s international airport, major highways, power plants, cell phone communication towers and sea ports throughout the country.
Countless thousands are currently fleeing the Israeli military bombardment of Lebanon. All land borders to Syria have become escape routes for Lebanese and foreign nationals attempting to flee the country. The majority of Lebanese who are unable to escape are faced with an unprecedented attack on Lebanon’s civilian population, national infrastructure and political resistance movements.
Witnessing a country’s destruction
For the first week of the violence, I remained in Beirut as a witness to vast human suffering imposed on the nation. From the Hamra district in central Beirut, explosions could be heard throughout the night as the blaring sirens of ambulances racing through the city with the countless wounded in the Israeli missile strikes illustrated the realities of full-out war.
Witnessing Israel’s attack on Lebanon is unforgettable. On the second night of bombing I called to check on friends in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj el-Barajneh, within the southern suburbs of Beirut—Hezbollah’s political stronghold—which was under attack.
“People in the camp are remembering the 1982 Israeli invasion,” said Samir Mahmoud, a Palestinian refugee, “although what we experienced throughout the civil war and past invasions gives us strength to continue.”
Beirut’s southern suburbs have become a rubble-strewn ghost town. After three days of consistent bombing, a friend from the area fled the bombing to stay at my Beirut apartment.
“Hezbollah is winning!” exclaimed my friend Mohammed. “They aren’t an official military army, but they are professional and have been consistently hitting Israeli military targets.”
Despite Hezbollah’s Islamic origins, many secular Lebanese that I have gotten to know in my previous visits to Beirut support and respect the armed political party.
Getting out
In an attempt to crush Hezbollah, Israel has imposed a full-out land, air and naval siege on Lebanon, as the bombings the Beirut international airport, all major highways and the blockade of all naval traffic have isolated Lebanon completely.
Throughout the first three days of bombing I placed numerous unanswered phone calls to the Canadian Embassy in Beirut in an attempt to register my presence in Lebanon. It seemed that Canadian officials decided to take a vacation in the face of the Israeli assault, perhaps reflecting the Canadian governments’ position on Israeli attack.
In the increasing terror of Israeli missile strikes on Lebanon, I, along with thousands of others, decided to flee as the bombs began to strike closer to central Beirut. As major roads leading out of Lebanon have been targets of Israeli military strikes, the land route to Syria was jarring.
As we drove to Syria in a crammed taxi from Beirut at maximum speed down Lebanon’s northern highways, we sped past various bombing sites, including the main commercial ports of Beirut and Tripoli. The Syrian border was chaos, filled with thousands of Lebanese fleeing their homeland. After hours of line-ups and refugee queues, we arrived in Syria.
Speeding down the Syrian highways to Damascus, the Lebanese radio stated news that the northern Lebanese highway—the highway we had just taken to flee—had been hit by Israeli missiles.
Refugees in their own land
Throughout the first days and nights of Israel’s attack, military planes buzzed in the skies over the capital and missiles hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, creating widespread destruction to Hezbollah’s urban political base.
In Haret Hreik, an area in south Beirut, many housing complexes, local stores, gas stations and roads have been obliterated by air strikes. In the capital’s centre, refugees fleeing the bombardment tell stories of terror. City parks have become refugee camps for the thousands fleeing the affected areas.
“Israel is hitting anywhere and everywhere in our neighborhoods,” shouted a refugee sleeping in Sanayeh Garden, a public park in the central Hamra district of Beirut. “Our situation is rotten—since the beginning of the bombing we have been going from one place to the other, moving with all of our children.”
Sanayeh Garden is one of many places of refuge for the thousands of internal refugees of Lebanon. Masses of people are sleeping in the open air, between mattresses on the dirt and Israeli warplanes in the sky. Last week I shared cigarettes and tea with refugees in Sanayeh Garden in Beirut, discussing the realities of their predicament and their perspectives on the war.
“I have a question to ask Bush. Where is the democracy he talks about?” stated another internally displaced refugee. “Thousands of us are fleeing south Beirut, running away from the random bombings that are hitting the women, the children and the elderly. How does the U.S. still encourage the democracy of Israel, [the same one] that is doing this to us Lebanese today and [that] stole Palestine?”
“We are now living in a miserable situation. Personally, I don’t have anywhere to sleep,” explained one refugee named Ali from southern Beirut. He joked: “Bush, can I maybe come and sleep at your place? Or maybe you can come and take my place and sleep here and then you will really understand the facts on the ground in Lebanon today.”
Civilians in the middle
“The last update we have from the Lebanese authorities suggests 65,000 people could be displaced,” Hicham Hassan, spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Beirut, told me. “It’s now a more difficult situation because bombings have increased and there’s little information available. People are stranded, and villages in the south are isolated from one another and the rest of the country.”
Southern Lebanon, occupied by Israel until 2000, has been worst hit by the Israeli military assault. Towns such as Nabatiyeh, Khiam and Tyre have experienced widespread destruction and death.
Multiple targeted killings of Lebanese civilians have taken place in southern Lebanon.
On Saturday, July 16, 21 civilians were killed in a one-minute massacre when Israeli warplanes bombed a bus carrying refugees near the city of Tyre–after they were told by the Isreali military to evacuate. This targeted killing was widely reported on by the Arabic press, including detailed coverage on Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV. The Red Cross of Lebanon also confirmed the civilian bus massacre.
Simply put, the Canadian government has reacted quickly to the war on Lebanon by offering their full political support to Israel in the first days of the military offensive. International political support from Canada and the U.S. is crucial to Israeli military actions in Lebanon, as it provides political legitimacy to a military campaign that, from the ground in Lebanon, could be called state terrorism.
Stefan Christoff is a media activist and community organizer. For more information, analysis and news on the current situation in Lebanon, visit Electronic Lebanon at http://electroniclebanon.net. You can reach Stefan at: christoff@resist.ca
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
...I am not sure if I wanna wake up...
maybe you are right. But the UN seems to me a solution out of this dead end road .. and I do not have any other suggestion.
But I take your post towards my statement to kinda thank you.
I followed the discussion between puck and you and I learned alot.
It is good to hear opinions first hand, from someone who actually live there
vs. someone who refers to amnesty.org in his/her signature line
and p.s. I never believed that Israel wants to get rid of the Arab world.
I just think that you wanna be and have a home
and to me, you have all the rights to be...
...I just wish that human kind (all sorts of them) finally stop to solve conflicts with violance and military.
I am so tired of war and pain... aren't we all?
so I walk in circles and wish for an UN that probably isn't what I wish it should.
:( speakless
...the world is come undone, I like to change it everyday but change don't come at once, it's a wave, building before it breaks.
What on earth did Hezbollah build there?
i'm most probably wrong, but here the media said it was a mosque, Hezbollah seem to confirm that their bunker was not hit...
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
i'll just say that the israel-bashers on moving train are almost invariably without any moral or intellectual integrity, whatsoever.
they cast their arguments against israel in terms of high-minded, internationalist, universalist, principles. they say they are not hateful, not antisemitic, just sickened by israel's actions and speaking their minds. they can't keep silent in the face of israel's "atrocities".
[sarcasm]that must by why there are so many threads on the moving train every day speaking out against russia in chechnya. or china in tibet. or sudan in darfur. [/sarcasm]
and no, this post does not ignore the real suffering of the palestinians and now the lebanese. i'll just say that now to preempt that utterly predictable and played-out response.
it would just be nice if the frequency with which posters on moving train express their sanctimonious outrage at human suffering, was commeasurate with the actual amount of suffering they are against, instead of the "coincidential" nationality of the people they are condemning.
Most antizionists are antisemites
Hence, it is located deep into the ground under that mosque, a place that bunker penetrable bombs can not reach... Amazing, and all of it is in the middle of a neighborhood in Beirut. Fucking bastards.
well again, i don't want to dispute you, but they say that the bunker was not at the mosque location, it was a mosque under construction that had nothing to do with hezbollah, the bunker is not there, it's probably close in the neighbourhood, but it seem like they miss the target.
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
so how come the mosque's foundations were not damaged and the rest of its surroundings were ruined? It is very odd. 23 massive bombs are not likely to miss one specific target...
I don't know what to think.
:(... me neither, i don't know... but it seem to me that 23 massive bombs would get rid of any bunker, if it was a bunker then great, the faster they find em (if they ever do), the faster it stop...
edit: what seem to be certain though, is that they have not killed anyone with that attack, terrorist or civillians. Terrorist were not there, and civillians have deserted the area...
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
They can not get rid of a bunker which was built like a well protected nuclear facility: V-E-R-Y deep into the ground, covered with e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s amount of concrete. The best that money from Iran could buy inside of a southern Beirut neighborhood. Have you seen Nasaralla today? He looked so contented, made me sick to my stomech. God knows how many orban bunkers he has in Lebanon, and how the hell he was able to build them with no interfering.
well, you know medias were allowed in that area, and it doesn't look like there was a bunker there, at best if there was something from Hezbollah, it was a basement with thick concrete walls and yes it was destroyed. Also they say it's 23 tons and not 23 bombs, i don'T know which one is real, but it doesn't really matter now anyway...
edit: i saw that Nasrallah on CNN via Al Jazeera, he sure think he's invest with some power he obviously don't have, he must be arrest, but then someone else will take his place, and then another, and then another. I believe the problem need to be adress diferently this time around, again i don't know how...
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau