Billmon:
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August 1, 2006
WB: For the Sake of the Children
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Carter: Stop the Band-Aid Treatment
It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks on its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to punish civilian populations in the illogical hope that somehow they will blame Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response. The result instead has been that broad Arab and worldwide support has been rallied for these groups, while condemnation of both Israel and the United States has intensified.
Israel belatedly announced, but did not carry out, a two-day cessation in bombing Lebanon, responding to the global condemnation of an air attack on the Lebanese village of Qana, where 57 civilians were killed this past weekend and where 106 died from the same cause 10 years ago. As before there were expressions of “deep regret,” a promise of “immediate investigation” and the explanation that dropped leaflets had warned families in the region to leave their homes. The urgent need in Lebanon is that Israeli attacks stop, the nation’s regular military forces control the southern region, Hezbollah cease as a separate fighting force, and future attacks against Israel be prevented. Israel should withdraw from all Lebanese territory, including Shebaa Farms, and release the Lebanese prisoners. Yet yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected a cease-fire.
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Leaders on both sides ignore strong majorities that crave peace, allowing extremist-led violence to preempt all opportunities for building a political consensus. Traumatized Israelis cling to the false hope that their lives will be made safer by incremental unilateral withdrawals from occupied areas, while Palestinians see their remnant territories reduced to little more than human dumping grounds surrounded by a provocative “security barrier” that embarrasses Israel’s friends and that fails to bring safety or stability.
The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official American policy and the international “road map” for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel’s official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, U.S. government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal.
A major impediment to progress is Washington’s strange policy that dialogue on controversial issues will be extended only as a reward for subservient behavior and will be withheld from those who reject U.S. assertions. Direct engagement with the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Palestinian Authority and the government in Damascus will be necessary if secure negotiated settlements are to be achieved. Failure to address the issues and leaders involved risks the creation of an arc of even greater instability running from Jerusalem through Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran.
Well said Jimmy, but greater instability running from Jerusalem through Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran not peace is the goal.
Bush says he’s doing something “for the children”, like it’s his personal version of the “Aristocrat” joke.
Posted by: bcf | Aug 1 2006 15:08 utc | 2
Israel steps up ground offensive”
Heavy clashes have been taking place in southern Lebanon between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters, after Israel vowed to widen its ground offensive.
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An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops were operating in several locations, kilometres from Israel’s border.
An Israeli cabinet minister said the offensive could last two more weeks.
…Israel radio says the aim is to push militants back to the Litani River, up to 30km (18 miles) north of the border.
Other sources suggest Israel may be considering a military ground sweep six kilometres into Lebanon by the end of the week.
Posted by: annie | Aug 1 2006 15:25 utc | 3
The speeches of BushCo have become even more unhinged than usual as
it is very difficult to claim one is for peace but against cease-fires.
Children provoke an automatic sentimental response, but a diffuse one.
Adults feel horror, pity, sadness, anger, but generally stop there, as they are not willing to confront the fact that no matter how you look at it, it is adults that are responsible for these child deaths. Dragging in children is thus an exercise in emptiness, affords the opportunity to be heard saying something while saying nothing at all.
Yet, the speech is well received as people feel sorry for children, all children, thereby satisfying themselves they are humanistic and moral; it permits them to feel that they make no distinctions between different races, peoples. The fact that children can be wept over as innocent victims covers up the hate for Hizbulla, Arabs, Israel’ s attackers, etc. To be human is to deplore children’s deaths and also….assert the right for Israel to defend itself.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 1 2006 15:29 utc | 4
“Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world,
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
—a hymn I sang in Sunday School 50 years ago
Posted by: Fannie Farmer (Mrs.) | Aug 1 2006 15:31 utc | 5
IOF lying bastards: Livni: Qana attack led to turning point in support for Israel
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to establish a state commission of inquiry into the killings at Qana.
As the Israel Air Force continues to investigate the air strike, questions have been raised over military accounts of the incident.
It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time.
The Israel Defense Forces had said after the deadly air-strike that many rockets had been launched from Qana. However, it changed its version on Monday.
The site was included in an IAF plan to strike at several buildings in proximity to a previous launching site. Similar strikes were carried out in the past. However, there were no rocket launches from Qana on the day of the strike.
It seams like Hizbullah has stopped to fire rockets into Israel and Olmertz and Peretz are talking about having won. Do both sides want this to slow down and stop now?
no, i think hezbollah knowing its position is strong – is merely following the 48hr ‘cessation’
Posted by: r’giap | Aug 1 2006 16:51 utc | 8
& in any case b, the idf can tranform lebanon into ruins & they will face & resistance that gets stronger & stronger
the lebanese are not calling bint jbeil ‘nasrallahgrad’ for nothing
Posted by: r’giap | Aug 1 2006 17:09 utc | 9
“the lebanese are not calling bint jbeil ‘nasrallahgrad’ for nothing”
If I where Hizbullah, I wouldn’t get carried away with that analogy. The IDF is still an enormously powerful army, and it has now had a chance to get over its initial over confidence. They will be much more methodical, and even more devastating, from now on. For Hizbullah to think it can slug it out toe to toe with the IDF because of what happened at Bint Jbeil would be to fall into the same trap that snared the Israelis: hubris. It’s almost time for the Hizbullah fighters to fade away and resume their guerrilla war.
Posted by: billmon | Aug 1 2006 17:44 utc | 10
stalingrad was not a victory either in the classic sense – it signalled that the rules that applied to that point – were no longer operative
i imagine the same is true of hezbollah – they are not a fixed force – they have the capacity to be flexible in a way the idf cannot & in my mind they have waited for this very incursion
the idf will act like the american & the german armies – with massive force – it is a mistake to believe in any sense – of precision of those forces
on either côte
an implication that the military intelligence of a country is something that it is borne to
hezbollah are not numbskulls in that theatre of operations & if we can say anything at all – their military intelligence would seem to be very highly refined
iraq , now is a perfect immediate example of what massive force does – it turns a country into a slaughterhouse
& it is on that level, on the level that has been noted here numerous times in the last couple of days by posters, who creates the chaos & who benefits from it
Posted by: r’giap | Aug 1 2006 18:00 utc | 11
Billmon, thanks for your headline – and all that goes with it – postings over the last few days. You said in an earlier thread, cannot fucking find it, that you’d support democrats this time around, in the case of nobody the last time I think, but better a change you cannot forecast?
I have Sky and BBC here, absolutely depressing, journalistic integrity foregone. I know this drum has been beaten many times here on MoA, but can I ask you to name your endorsement for the 2008 President of the USA?
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 1 2006 18:09 utc | 12
& in any case – other than what i am able to discern on arab tv here – it is almost impossible to tell –
the wall to wall propaganda makes any precision on our part quite impossible & by necessity, speculative
Posted by: r’giap | Aug 1 2006 18:11 utc | 13
Whenever Bush says these things, all I can hear is the devil, laughing at his own little joke.
Snap (markfromireland)
Posted by: markfromireland | Aug 1 2006 18:21 utc | 14
Billmon: “They will be much more methodical, and even more devastating, from now on. For Hizbullah to think it can slug it out toe to toe with the IDF because of what happened at Bint Jbeil would be to fall into the same trap that snared the Israelis: hubris. It’s almost time for the Hizbullah fighters to fade away and resume their guerrilla war.
For what its worth, I think Billmon is right.
I also wish to thank Billmon for this post – The world will not soon forget these horrors. I believe there is so much ruble and horror that we haven’t seen, and probably more yet to come – perhaps all of the villages of Southern Lebanon may end up like the Iraqi city of Falujah. And we hear almost nothing of dead Lebanese or Hizbullah fighters.
And I thank “b” for posting comments by Jimmy Carter. It is unfortunate that the Corporate Media has given Jimmy Carter the cold shoulder for the last few years.
Re: Noirette #4 … I really thinks this makes Bush look like a hypocrite to most everyone. To add to Billmon’s last line, I think more than just the devil sees through this, but the rest aren’t laughing.
This morning about 9:00am EDST I was watching CNN. Live video was being shown of current Israeli bombing. For nearly 5 minutes of live televison, explosion after explosion were shown happening safely away from the buildings. The announcer, Soledad Obrien?, carefully pointed out during all of this how Israel was being so careful not to hit the buildings. It all seemed to me like a staged event, actually cordinated with the Israeli military.
Posted by: Rick Happ | Aug 1 2006 19:14 utc | 15
Just one more comment to add to my last post:
Next on CNN this morning, Obrien interviewed the Syrian Ambassador. Again he was insulted. To CNN’s credit, the question was asked regarding any discussions with Syria and U.S. officials. He said there has still been no communication with this administration. He said never in any previous crisis and U.S. Administrations has this been the case. … This sure looks to me like bad things to come if the U.S. is isolating Syria from any discussion.
Posted by: RIck Happ | Aug 1 2006 19:22 utc | 16
Billmon: “They will be much more methodical…
That’s the word that curdles my blood. In my own way of looking at it, the true evil of the Nazis during the Holocaust was how “methodical” they were about murdering millions of innocent people. No emotion, not in the “heat of the battle.” Just “methodical.” There has a been a lot of genocidal actions in the history of the world, that the “methodical” way the Nazis went about it…
The hair just stands up on the back of my neck when I hear that word, and especially in this present assault on Lebanon.
Posted by: Ensley | Aug 1 2006 20:14 utc | 17
In Bint Jbeil, Hezbollah conducted ambushes at close quarters. This is a very different lineage from going toe-to-toe.
Two different forces trained to fight in very different ways.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Aug 1 2006 20:40 utc | 18
b, thanks for posting the Ha’aretz link.
Given the post title, it’s worth noting that that story also updates the current death toll at Qana: 28 bodies recovered, 19 of them children. There were sixty people in the building when it was hit, and something approaching those numbers was what the Lebanese police were reporting initially. Now, there is a clearer picture of the number of survivors. Some of the 60 are still missing (article doesn’t say how many), and assumed to be buried in the rubble. Recovery work continues.
Are there any readers of this blog who can translate Arabic? I welcome your help, to learn what is written on a banner featuring the image of Condoleeza Rice that was part of the demonstrations Sunday in Beirut. It’s posted on my blog here.
TO: markfromireleand,
Thanks for the Condi Poster translation. I wondered about that myself.
Posted by: Rick Happ | Aug 1 2006 23:26 utc | 22
Rick you’re welcome. Glad it was helpful and hope Nell found it so also. I’ll just add that somebody emailed me asking if the banner hadn’t been produced very fast to a suspiciously high standard. So on the offchance some reads this belated piece of context here goes:
No, Beirut has a lot of firms that could handle it very quickly, quite a few of them owned by Hizb supporters. (Same is true of printers and publishing btw.) Nobody ever accused the Hizb of not being formiddably well-organised publicists. They could give the Republicans lessons in how to get the message out. In my more paranoid moments … but let’s not go there …
Posted by: markfromireland | Aug 2 2006 7:10 utc | 23