Lets hope this ceasefire holds and the Lebanon can now start focussing on rebuilding

Thank you to all of our friends who supported us during this very emotional time. We are optimistic that the ceasefire will be sustainable and we TRULY hope that we will not have to post any more messages of civilian casualties. We can now focus on rebuilding and posts will center on that.

We have some projects lined up for refugee camps, a possible documentary, and more.

Again, THANK YOU for opening your hearts and ears to us!

Although a lot of it was fairly subjective, it ended with a description of a fallen Israeli soldier. It went something like this…Uri was a 21 year old male from Tel-Aviv and son of a famed poet and peace activist. This is not to say that his passing was not a waste and a loss or that his family did not grieve. But these very articles/journalists never seem to humanize the innocent Lebanese civilians that have died as a result of Israel’s “collateral damage”. The same day that Uri, a soldier, died, many Lebanese fathers, mothers and children died as well. They don’t mention how many kids Ziad had, or that he was a doctor, or that Ali was a 7 year old boy who loved to play soccer.

Why is that? Why do the 1000 deceased civilians, many of whom are children, never get recognized as fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, intellects, doctors, janitors, taxi drivers? Would humanizing the Lebanese victims of this war somehow make these journalists anti-Semites or somehow take away from the 30 or so Israeli civilian losses?

* – It must be noted though, that the Lebanese perspective has never gotten more weight/air than during this conflict even from US media outlets (ex: CNN International, CBS, etc). But it is frustrating when seemingly objective articles end on a subjective note, humanizing one party and ignoring the other.

New Yorker, Aug 14th – In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. “It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why we don’t have peace in the Middle East.” He described the relationship between Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the “root causes of instability,” and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end the crisis. Two days later, despite calls from several governments for the United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until “the conditions are conducive.”

The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.

Israeli military and intelligence experts I spoke to emphasized that the country’s immediate security issues were reason enough to confront Hezbollah, regardless of what the Bush Administration wanted. Shabtai Shavit, a national-security adviser to the Knesset who headed the Mossad, Israel’s foreign-intelligence service, from 1989 to 1996, told me, “We do what we think is best for us, and if it happens to meet America’s requirements, that’s just part of a relationship between two friends. Hezbollah is armed to the teeth and trained in the most advanced technology of guerrilla warfare. It was just a matter of time. We had to address it.”

Read the rest of this interesting article at the New Yorker

The ceasefire is a very delicate period indeed. Israel and Hezbollah seem to have abided by the UN Resolution ceasefire. BUT, Israel had intensified its efforts yesterday and continued vicious bombardment of the southern parts of Lebanon killing over 25 civilians and injuring scores of others. Israel cannot logically pull-out without the UNFIL/Lebanese troops coming in as Hezbollah would most likely re-secure those areas vacated by the IDF.

UNFIL/Lebanese troops cannot come into the south unless Hezbollah agrees to remove all their heavier weaponry (ie rocket launchers) south of the Litani river (30 km North of the Israeli border). They have not agreed to do so yet as Israel is still occupying Lebanese territory. This is a political tug of war.

It is definitely delicate and almost eerie. The civilians can now take a well deserved breather although the blockade on Lebanon, enforced by Israel continues. The issue now stands in the deployment of the UNFIL forces and Lebanese troops– the aim is to have these troops create a buffer between IDF forces and Hezbollah forces and to move south to the border as the IDF vacates the premises. The optimists believe this will happen, but the worry is that hawks on either side (Hezbollah/Israel) would react to an insignificant event that could reignite the hostilities. Lets hope for the better good of all involved.

More Info: AP’s Report on the ceasefire

Unfortunately this gives the IDF a whole day/night to continue its intensified attack on the Southern towns (Tyre, Sidon, etc). Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nassrallah, has stated that they will abide by the terms of the resolution as long as Israel does as well. Which party is going to be the bigger of the two? Which party is going to show self-restraint? We will have to wait and see.

On a positive note, the resolution has been approved/endorsed by the US which could not have been done without much consultation with Israel

As the world’s diplomatic leaders scurry around trying to reach agreement on a resolution (which appears to meet the needs of both Lebanon and Israel) to end the hostilities in Lebanon and Israel, Israel is not letting up. On the contrary, as soon as it was apparent that the resolution was being widely accepted, they INTENSIFIED their assault on Lebanon. They were not making a decision as it is their Sabbath, and although the world’s diplomats including Lebanese dignitaries were calling emergency meetings traveling back and forth from NY and other locations, Israel would not provide their answer on the resolution until Sunday.

Although the government officials “could not meet” due to the Sabbath, for some reason the soldiers, tank operators, drone controllers, missile and armament specialists and fighter pilots were able to continue bombarding Lebanon. Not even “taking it easy” as it was their Sabbath. They intensified their attacks by tripling their ground force in Lebanon and continued raining down bombs, destroying more buildings and any roads that were left, hitting electric relays cutting off entire regions in the South from electricity and killing numerous civilians.

It appears this is their way of giving Lebanon one last kick in the gut before they are called back by the International community (just as a boxer in the 12^th round throws as many punches as he can in hopes of landing that decisive blow before the bell is rung)… Or, worse, it is their way of instigating Hezbollah to react thereby giving Israel the ammunition they need to reject the resolution and continue their offensive into Lebanon and possibly escalate the conflict to a regional war (some US/Israeli analysts believe that a regional conflict that would draw in Syria and Iran is what the Neocons really want as that would allow Israel to hit Syria and Iran and give the US, through Nato, the green light to attack both Syria and Iran to ‘support’ Israel).

The UN Resolution that is being pushed forward by Israel and the US essentially is calling for a mandated multi-national UN force (under Chapter 7) to be deployed into the South of Lebanon to replace the IDF (Israeli) Troops. Lebanon has rejected this not because we do not want an end to hostilities. On the contrary. However, it is the “under Chapter 7” that has us very worried as this could backfire.

A mandated UN force under chapter 7 is a deployment of multi-national troops that can use force and NOT a peace keeping force. This can be very dangerous for Lebanon as Israel/US will get the UN forces to try and do what they have failed to do, and that is squash Hezbollah.

This UN force, may use just that, force. And Hezbollah, a group that has not attacked any of the several UN (UNFIL peacekeeping and observation) positions in Lebanon since 1982 (unlike Israel that has multiple times), will be forced to respond as this is a foreign entity attacking them on their territory. Ultimately, Hezbollah will be even more effective against this multi-national force than they are having against Israel. The UN forces may not be as well equipped as the IDF and do not have commandos/soldiers who are familiar with southern Lebanese terrain…and they may not have the extensive intelligence Israel has accumulated on Lebanon. Hezbollah will exact heavy losses, killing UN soldiers from Finland, India, Japan, Italy, Norway, etc… depending on the make-up of the troops.

…and then, Lebanon a victim of a sick political/tactical game, will start to look bad even amongst the countries that currently support it. If that occurs, then who will stand up to protect us as plans for a TOTAL INVASION of Lebanon occurs by the IDF, American troops and or NATO troops.

NOTE: The draft resolution (currently being amended in NY) being pushed forward asks Lebanon to make all the concessions. It calls for Hezbollah to stop any “offensives” or retaliations against Israeli aggression. This essentially means that Israel can continue their onslaught under the guise of “defensive operations”. Finally, one of Lebanon’s main concerns is the Shebaa Farms area, the land that is claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel. The resolution says nothing of this although this occupied territory has provided fuel for a continued resistance by Hezbollah since Israel’s pull-out in 2000. Israel claims its Syrian land and thus they do not want to vacate it, but Syria has verbally stated it is Lebanon – but Syria has failed to put forth the appropriate documentation in the UN demarcating the land officially as Lebanese.

Many of them fled to a nearby suburb, Shiyyah, that was considered a safe area as there were no strongholds or “tactical positions”. A missile attack on this residential area took out a building and a half killing over 29 civilians and injuring around 75 (count as of Aug 9th has increased to 40+ dead).

The attack was spurred apparently by 6 shots that appear to have been fired by an over zealous youngster on a roof of a building trying to shoot down one of the many Israeli spy drones that have carpeted Lebanon. Israel demolished a building and a half because their UNMANNED spy drone MAY have been shot at (with a rifle presumably) by a youngster in a residential area. And certain countries still maintain that the Israel is “defending itself”.

Here are some before and after images of the suburb called “Dahieh

BEFORE

AFTER

There is also a powerful site that has some powerful stuff on it (please be warned that there are some disturbing images)

NO WAR LB : http://www.nowarlb.com/