News From The Mideast
Israel bombs the Beirut international airport runway and a Lebanese army base, in retaliation for the abduction of two soldiers by Hezbollah fighters, which was retaliation for Israel's hitting a number of positions in northern Lebanon, which was in retaliation for Hezbollah's firing a volley of Katyusha rockets, which was in retaliation for ...
More than 50 people have been killed.
Meanwhile, Israel badly injures Mohammed Deif, a Hamas bombmaker, in an airstrike on house in Gaza, which it has re-entered in search of a kidnapped soldier. Deif has topped Israel's most-wanted list for a decade. Children were wounded in the strike. A West Bank militant promises rockets aimed at Israeli cities.
And Ze'ev Schiff in Haaretz worries of a three-front war:
Israel faces the danger of a third front if Syria steps in to assist Hezbollah. Strategically, Israel faces an extreme foursome: Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
France and Russia condemn Israel's "disproportionate" use of force.
Did Iran's national security advisor fly to Syria?
A view from Berlin: "One spark is enough to make everything go up in flames."
What are Mideast bloggers saying?
This site corrals a number of Israeli sites written in English. The lede post quotes a blogger named Going Slightly Mad's "very wise Palestinian colleague," who said: "When you look at what is happening now in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Nahariya and in Sderot, and how it is bound to get worse, and how scared everyone- everyone- is, one thing strikes you more than anything when you see how everyone is responding. It is much more difficult for people to understand each other than to judge each other: I think people just prefer to judge and blame each other. Then nobody has to take ever responsibility for what is happening."
Here's a Lebanese site of English-language blogs. The latest post begins: "It appears that the "warriors of the South" have went ahead with another apparently successful kidnapping operation. Well... so much for their claim of "defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression."
From the UK, blogger Adloyada writes:
Following the news from Mumbai, from Gaza and from the Lebanese-Israeli border, I can't get out of my head the image of the Bugs Bunny character grinning his most manic grin as he follows some blow to the head with the line, Of course, you realise this means war....
That maybe seems unduly callous and frivolous when people are getting killed by real rockets and bombings, and families are sinking into the horror of the limbo of not knowing where their kidnapped son is, or whether they will ever see him again.
But over the last few days it's been quite surreal to pick up on the sort of denial going on in the BBC and other MSM coverage of these events, and their reluctance to even consider the possibility that we may be witnessing the latest stage of escalating proxy wars by the main Islamist terror organizers, Al Qaeda and Iran.
In Lebanon, Raza is filing updates as news becomes known. Among them:
My mom and I are now discussing where would be the safest place to take the family.
Hizballah supporters in Beirut are celebrating by driving around, honking horns, and using firecrackers.
Tele Liban, Lebanon's official state television channel, is currently running a live cooking show.
Back to Israel. Gilly in Jerusalem writes:
The French are pissing me off again. Not an unusual statement from someone who was born and brought up in the UK and has lived in Israel for a decade; it's almost inevitable that I'll have my nose put out of joint by something that M. Chirac or one of his cronies comes out with. It has come as little surprise that whilst Israelis are sitting in their bomb shelters, with 1 dead and 70 wounded in the barrage as well as 8 dead soldiers and 2 more kidnapped, the French Foreign Minister has actually had the gall to condemn Israel for responding in what he termed "a disproportionate act of war".
Hello? Helloooo!!! Anyone home? Dinnnnnggg! Good morning. I'd like an argument please.
Daniel - thanks for the links - keep up the good work - what a mess over there - they won't be happy until there is all out war. As this multiple century long struggle for power heads for a bloody ending - the realization is lost that through all of this time they could have been peacefully co-existing for years, building healthy relationships, and had robust economies and lived in comfort, peace and happiness. They could have been lapping up tourist money, making music and raising their families by the ocean. But when an entire society doesn't even know how to have a healthy relationship with their own women (cloaking them from head to toe and making them subservient) then how can we expect them to have a healthy relationship with different cultures. All the sides and there are many more than two are completely unenlightened and they are in the process of self destructing. What a shame.
OK LISTEN UP
Every-one should face all facts. 1st: The Jews will win the LAST WAR 2nd: The Jews will win the 2ND WAR and 3rd: I wish the JEWS would hurry Up!
So says your Bible - and the Jews are on a big winning streak - Civil War, WW1, WW2, etc. But I'm not Jewish - I'm what you'd call a gentile - and I don't want my kids dying in the process. So go ahead and win - but stop telling us it has anything to do with our interests. Because the best thing I could do for the future of my family is to make it clear to all the world that I am neutral in Jewish wars. Get US out of the Middle East and don't blame the Apocalypse on us.
"Dinnnnnggg! Good morning. I'd like an argument please." Have a lot of free time Puck?
i am so sick of Israel/Palestine I could puke. this narrative has been going on my whole life and it's still going on in circles. It's hard to remain sympathetic that long.
The only way to end every international crisis is to dismantle the "Axis of Evil." That would be the governments of the united states, great britain and israel (capitalization purposely omitted). The facist imperialists and the illegal state created only because nobody wanted the displaced Jews after WWII are the root causes of the majority of the world's problems.