Dozens killed in Israeli air strike
Only hours after I wrote that I dread what Israel will do next to establish some negotiating position for Bush and Blair to cling to as they try to establish a ceasefire in a war that Israel is losing, comes news that Israel are indeed going to use their overwhelming military superiority to inflict damage on the civilian population.
More than 20 children were feared dead today after Israeli missiles struck the southern Lebanese village of Qana, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents. Early reports said that about 50 adults and children had died."We want this to stop," shouted villager Mohammed Ismail. " May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting."
"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees," said the black-haired man with a grey beard, his brown pants covered in dust.
We are now about to witness the inhumane predictions of Israel's Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, played out in front of us.
Israel will now treat everyone in southern Lebanon as a legitimate target. I can only suppose that the logic of this is that Israel's reputation is so tarnished that she has nothing left to lose.He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops moved in.
He added that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to quit the area and therefore anyone still remaining there could be considered a Hezbollah supporter.
"All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said.
It is a despicable attitude that has led to her using cluster bombs and phosphorous munitions in civilian areas, where the casualties are easy to predict.
Israel will now openly indulge in war crimes and the Bush administration and it's regional office in Britain - led by Blair - will continue to insist that Israel is merely defending herself.
How long do we have to wait before member of the British cabinet grows some balls and resigns from office, refusing to lend legitimacy to this inhumane policy?
I would have much more respect for Jack Straw if, rather than talking about "proportionality", he did the decent thing and forced a true revolt in the Labour party by resigning.
Both Bush and Blair claim to be religious men, and yet I note that, once again, they find themselves supporting a policy that is condemned by the Vatican. It is obvious that no moral argument will move either of them, so the move has to be political.
Bush is untouchable - as the Republicans control both the House and the Senate - Blair is not. Blair's control over his party is withering. If they don't drive a stake through his heart over this, then one is left wondering if there exists such a thing as a principled Labour politician.
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5 comments:
I continue in my unabated amazement at your steadfast vigilance, Kel. Thank you for this news, sad as it becomes. It's a real humdinger, this war. This World War.
WWIII.
My friend, we are on the wrong side this time. The lamb has become wolf. Our very English language will be associated with evil for centuries to come. It might be a good idea to flee our respective countries, while we still can. This world will not stand for our governments' Crimes Against Humanity.
I love my home. I know you love yours. But we live on tainted lands now. Especially me. The American. All Americans. We are cursed with the karma of our Masters.
Escape is still an option for us. But for how long? Perhaps Britain will get away with its tail between its legs. But America's fate is writ in her actions.
Musclemouth,
The lamb has indeed become the wolf, but only if you ever believed that we, or Israel, were ever really the lamb.
Irrespective of what we ever believed, I think we have to now stand up for what we know in our hearts to be right.
And what Israel is doing with the backing of both the US and the UK simply isn't right. As you rightly say, I love my country as much as you love yours. It is important now that we both stand up and defend the principles upon which our country's were built.
It's not a time for emigration, it's a time to stand up for the things that make our respective country's great. And what makes both our nation's great is that, whenever they abandoned the principles on which they were formed, brave citizens stood in front of the powers that be and said no.
And I know I'm like a long playing record on this conflict, but when I look at what is happening I can't think of anything else to blog about.
Everything else seems so trivial compared to what is being done in Lebanon IN OUR NAME.
I think it's important that those of us who disagree make our voices heard.
I admire that tenacity. What you're doing is brave. You're chronicling the important details, telling the story as it unfolds. Doesn't sound like a long-playing record to me; each post, while approximately the same topic as the last, is different. You're actually doing a good job of keeping the posts brief, given the complexity of the issue. Someone said somewhere (I forget where - probably on the Mike Malloy show) that the Middle East is extremely complex, and that nobody really knows what's going on. Not sure if I entirely agree with the last part of that, because I think things can be known. That's tjhe beauty of the Internet. Even if certain details aren't available, we can deduce and induce and accumulate and eliminate peripheral evidence to map a point of highest likelihood between them. Point is, this stuff is important. I would agree with that. Your thing is charting the effects; my thing is charting what I perceive to be the chief cause. Both need to be done. Without knowing what's going on, there's no point in knowing what already happened.
Musclemouth, I am indeed impressed myself with Kel's steadfastnes and passionate citizen reporting! With such stamina, too bad you could not make it during the blogathon!
Even though I am not American (and the current political and social climate here makes me stop dead in my tracks every time I even entertain the thought of naturalization), I do live here (and in the 'heart of Texas' too yippi kayyah for me, seriously, if one has to live in TX, austin is IT)and it just astonished me as people live their lives, obladee obladaa as if nothing is going on. No outcry, at least, not out loud except the loud cries of the Fox types.. it's unreal. I emigrated to Canada from Holland a while back (cough), and the joke was that even then (!) Americans who'd travel through Europe would put Canadian flags on their luggage or backpacks just to avoid being hassled because of their citizenship..tssa..
Ingrid
Musclemouth,
Thanks for the kind words and I too disagree with Mike Malloy, if indeed it was him who made the comments about complexity. The desire to make the Middle East seem unfathomable comes from an Israeli desire to hit the bottom if the pond enough times to muddy the water, so no-one really understands the narrative.
However, the narrative has remained unchanged for the last forty years. The problem lies in the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. You'll notice that Rumsfeld and the neo-cons - who insist that Saddam and Syria and Lebanon faithfully adhere to UN resolutions - speak of the "so-called Occupied Territories", implying that the ownership of this land is still under doubt despite numerous UN resolutions to the contrary. It is only if you buy into that lie that the issue becomes complex. I don't buy into that garbage, therefore - for me - the issue remains startlingly clear.
It is about Israel's colonial ambitions over land that it does not legally own. I reject colonialism in all it's forms, and therefore have no difficulty in seeing that Israel's claims are wholly without merit.
Ingrid,
I know you wish more of us had taken part in the blogathon, but I seriously couldn't blog for 24 hours continuously and would simply have been taking money off people under false pretence. Did it go well? Did you last the full 24 hours?
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