Israel-Hezbollah War

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Another visit to hospital
2007-02-07 04:46:07
I took the picture on the right a few days ago when Irit and I went to visit a friend whose father is terminally ill in Rambam hospital in Haifa. It's not that clear from the picture but the sight we saw as we approached the main entrance of the hospital were tens of stretcher beds and wheelchairs outside the emergency room waiting for the injured, either from rocket attacks in Haifa or injured soldiers from Lebanon.Yesterday evening Irit and I went again to Rambam hospital (to visit the same friend) but this time, things looked much worse. There were far more stretcher beds waiting ourside the emergency room, several TV outside broadcast vans (aiting to broadcast about injured) and we found that many of the regular wards had been relocated in the concrete basement of the hospital. Our friend's father had been moved out yesterday to another hospital and it was clear that the hospital is on a war footing. They are obviously preparing themselves for the possibility of many more dead...
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The tragedy of Lebanon
2007-02-07 04:46:07
As an Israeli, I cannot visit Lebanon although it is supposed to be a beautiful country and it is only an hour's drive from my current home. Before 1948 Palestinian Jews and Arabs would travel to Beirut to enjoy its nightlife and to the Lebanese mountains to go skiing. There used to be a railway line from Haifa to Beirut. The railway tunnel from Israel to Lebanon has been cemented up since 1948.Lebanon is the home to many ethnic groups - Sunni and Shia moslems, Druze, Christians of various denominations - it also has a tiny but aged Jewish community http://www.danielpepper.com/blog/?p=16 . Some of my relatives were born and lived in Lebanon.Lebanon had a sort of power-sharing arrangement between the various groups which collapsed during the Lebanese Civil War that lasted (on and off) from 1975-1990. PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) terrorists attacked Israel repeatedly and Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1978 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Li tani and again in 1982...
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Standing up for Israel
2007-02-07 04:46:07
If like me (and I'm biased - my home and my national identity are being attacked) you accept Isra el 's justification in fighting the Hezbollah, you might be interested in the following links to help convince other people (see my previous post) . Israel is unfortunately not doing a very good job at explaining itself to international audiences. Pictures of wounded children are indeed heart-rending but this is not just about emotion and compassion.The following links may help you understand more and, at least, accept Israel's position.- David http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel- Lebanon_conflict Wikipedia entry on the current conflictIsrael Government and Military websiteshttp://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa Israel Foreign MinistryIsrael Military http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/homepage.as p?clr=1&sl=EN&id=-8888&force=1htt p://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?s l=EN&id=7&docid=54279.ENwww.intellige nce.org.il Intelligence Information CenterIsrael news sites www.haaretz.com ...
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Patriotic songs
2007-02-07 04:46:07
The mood in Jewish Israel is pretty subdued these days. The war is not going the way that the Israeli government and military leadership thought it would. The war has been going on for 25 days which is a long time for the 1/3 of Israel's population which is directly affected.Since 12th July Hezbollah has launched 3200 rockets against Israel - that is over 120 per day. The vast majority fall in the "front line" of Israel's towns, villages and kibbutzim within 20 km of the Lebanese border. Even though the majority of rockets fall in open spaces and do not hit people or buildings, some 50 Israeli civilians have been killed so far by Hezbollah rockets. This in spite of the Israeli Home Front Command's directives that all residents of the border areas should spend the whole time (day and night) in air raid shelters. Many of the residents of the north have fled to the centre or south of Israel for temporary refuge, most staying with friends and relatives. But the less privileged hav...
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Getting used to the air raid sirens
2006-12-02 15:58:03
We are in the 28th day of the war and Haifa (where my beloved Irit and I live) has experienced air raid siren alarms for most of the last 24 days. I have written before http://hezbisraelwar.blogspot.com/2006/07 /air-raid-experience.html about the air raid siren experience but it's time to write again. These alarms (and the occasional rocket explosions we hear) are the way in which we personally are experiencing this war. There have been a few days that have been completely quiet, on other days we have had 8-9 alarms a day.First of all, to get a feeling of what a real-life air raid siren sounds like, click on http://www.airraidsirens.com/mp3/uvfrsd10 .mp3 . I don't recommend doing it near someone anxious or someone who's been in a war - Irit's daughter (who lives in Tel Aviv) turned as white as a sheet when she heard it, even though I told her it was just me. Israelis have a lot of fear.When we hear the air-raid siren at home, Irit and I rush down to the shelter we have in the base...
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How our lives have changed in the last week
2006-12-02 15:58:03
For those of you who have just joined this "blog" or series of reports about what is happening in the Israel-Hezbollah war and in our lives in particular, here's a summary:On Wednesday morning July 12, guerilla fighters from the Hezbollah organisation launched a dawn raid on a routine Israeli Army patrol inside Israel near the Lebanese border. The Hezbollah killed 8 Israeli soldiers and took 2 prisoner whom they spirited over the border into Lebanon. This incident happened about 10 days after a raid by Palestinian guerillas on an Israeli army outpost in Israel (near the Gaza strip) . The Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah wanted to use the captured soldiers as bargaining chips for the realease of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails. The Israeli government decided it would not be extorted and would react with force against such unprovoked agression across an agreed international border. Within hours Israeli Air Force planes started pounding Hezbollah and Lebanese infrastructure targe...
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Unrealistic expectations with multiple constraints
2006-12-02 15:58:03
Reading an article "Not dying in vain" http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/74179 2.html on the webiste of the excellent Israeli newspaper Ha'artez made me think about the strange attitude of the Jewish Israeli public to war these days.At the beginning of this war there was a lot of fighting talk in Israel about "teaching the Hezbollah a lesson", "wiping the Hezbollah out", "making the Lebanese government understand that they have to take responsibilty", "let the Israeli army win".On the other hand, there is an expectation, or rather a constraint, that there should be few Israeli casualties or fatalities. If, God Forbid, there should be many casualties , the public , through the medium of an agressive and accusatory media will look for those who are to blame. There's a very mixed message here "We the public want a quick clean war which you the politicians and generals guarantee we'll win".The Jewish Israeli media (and public) altogether behaves in a very strange way. At the beginni...
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Israel's two options
2006-12-02 15:58:03
As we speak, Isra el is at a crossroads in this war. The militarists, the right-wing say "Put massive ground forces in, we must win", the liberals and the pacifists say "Get the beast diplomatic agreement we can".The Israeli government should indeed coldly evaluate and choose clearly between one of these two options. Choosing a wishy-washy option may be worse - there will be no chance of a significant victory while Israel remains so sensitive to its own and Lebanese civilian casualties and to world opinion.Let us understand the two options. The first is total determination for a significant victory against the Hezbollah, even at very great cost. This option means calling up thousands of Israeli reserve soldiers and sending a massive force to re-invade southern Lebanon (Israel did this in 1982). The Hezbollah guerilla forces have shown themselves in the 1990's and already in this war as being brave, well-armed and effective fighters and they may cause the deaths of hundreds of Isra...
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The Air Raid experience
2006-12-02 15:58:03
Most of you have probably never heard a real air raid siren - see picture -(and I wish for you that you should never have the experience). You may have heard sirens in WW2 films about the London Blitz.Anyway so you can know how it sounds, click on http://www.airraidsirens.com/mp3/uvfrsd10 .mp3 and imagine that going on for about a minute and a half. The siren starts with a low-pitch whine which rises in pitch and volume and then oscillates between a low and high pitch. In our house we can hear the sirens quite loud and Irit has developed a seventh sense of discerning the siren's wail within 3 or 4 seconds of it starting even if we're asleep. That doesn't happen often - one morning there was an alarm at 05:30 that woke us and nowadays we rarely rest in the afternoon which we often used to do. One becomes very sensitive to any sound which might be an air-raid siren. The screech of a lorry's brakes today made us think it was a siren. Ever since this war started we can hear the noise...
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No diplomatic option now?
2006-12-02 15:58:03
Further to my previous post, my friends tell me that there is no diplomatic option now, that Hezbollah will not agree (as of now) to leave south Lebanon, and that no international force will agree to come there and confront them. None of us know what Hezbollah's real position is and they may be more conciliatory in private diplomatic discussions than in their public pronouncements. I hope anyway that Israel is testing the diplomatic waters all the while. In truth, it is difficult to imagine an international force taking risks, absorbing casualties and being effective.So it seems that meanwhile Israel's only other option is a massive all-out attack against the Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and thereby against southern Lebanon itself. Israeli newspapers report this morning the call up of "tens of thousands" of reserve soldiers including probably Irit's son-in-law who told us last night that he expects to be enlisted. It is sad, it is painful, it is frightening. We seem to have gott...
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A trip to the war zone
2006-12-02 15:58:03
Tuesday 15 AugustIrit and I set off for a few days to visit the north of Israel that's closer to the Lebanese border and which suffered the brunt of Hezbollah shelling during the Israel-Hezbollah war of July-August. There's some discussion in Israel whether this was a "war" or a "operation" - I'll call it a war because of the significant consequences and the many lessons to be learned.We decided to take this trip for several reasons:We wanted to see with our own eyes the extent of the damage caused by the 4000 rockets fired by Hezbollah against Israel. Irit was convinced from TV reports that the damage was extensive. She imagined that we would find the northern town of Kiryat Shmona bombed out with barely a building untouched. I was sceptical - either way, we wanted to see with our own eyes.During the war, even though it was no fun in Haifa, we were well aware that it was much worse for the far north of Israel where normal life had been completely paralysed for a whole month. The...
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War dairy (2)
2006-08-20 20:24:03
The big pictureIt?s difficult to believe that all this started only 6 days ago when Hezbollah fighters mounted a daring (and unprovoked) border raid against a routine Israeli army patrol apparently with the express purpose of capturing an Israeli soldier for bargaining against Lebanese guerilla fighters and terrorists in Israeli jails. From Hezbollah?s point of view, they want their boys back. From Israel?s point of view, the Lebanese that are held in Israeli jails, if released, will go back to planning or making war against Israel. The last time around an Israeli businessman (with strong military connections) and 3 Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, Israel agreed to a very disproportionate deal of releasing hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the ?businessman? and the bodies of the 3 soldiers who had been murdered. A lot of people in Israel felt uncomfortable at the time about that deal and it almost certainly encouraged the Hezbollah into more kidnapping i...
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War dairy (3)
2006-08-20 20:24:03
So far today 6 rockets have fallen on Haifa ? there were no sirens for some of the attacks ? we just heard the ?booms? of the explosions from inside the house. It?s not very loud (say, like a supersonic boom of an aircraft) but that?s because all the rockets that have landed so far are rather far from our house ? at least 4 or 5 kilometers. We spoke yesterday to good friend of ours from Carmiel, a town further north in the Galilee, who told us that a Katyusha rocket landed 2 days ago 150 metres from her office and that the whole building shook. She meanwhile has taken refuge with her daughter in Tel Aviv. Another friend from Rosh Pinna, also up in the north has gone to stay with her sister near Netanya. Back in 1991 when Israel suffered Scud missile attacks, there was a lot of ambivalence about whether it was ?right? for people to move away from the worst areas and seek refuge in safer pastures ? many did and many didn?t. This time there seem to be no such hesitations ? whoever fee...
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Seeing for ourselves
2006-08-20 20:24:03
As soon as the cease-fire went into effect on Monday (14 Aug) Irit suggested that we drive up for a few days to the Galilee (northern Israel) which bore the brunt of the 4000 Katyusha rockets that were fired at Israel from 12 July ? 14 August.We drove up on Tuesday and were amongst the very first visitors after the war. It was a fascinating trip and I have a lot to report, which I?ll start tomorrow. Meanwhile you can take a look at the photos I took on that trip. They are in http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlisbona/set s/72157594212420512/ . For those that relate directly to the war, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlisbona/set s/72157594242301485/ (will be updated in the next couple of days). Thanks for your patience. The picture on the right shows one of many tracts of land in northern Israel that were burnt by brush fires caused when Katyusha rockets landed in open spaces.
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The shock
2006-08-20 20:24:03
33 years ago I immigrated to Israel from the UK. Israel seemed to me an exciting place with warm people where I could feel at home being a Jew and not in any tension or dissonance between my national and my religious/cultural identity. For 29 years I lived in or near Tel Aviv which is the largest metropolitan area. That?s where the jobs and most of the action are, and where most of my friends and relatives lived. Four years ago I moved 100 km (60 miles) up the Mediterranean coast to Haifa, ?only? 40km from the Lebanese border. It would never have occurred to me that I was moving from a ?safe? part of the country to a war zone but that is what Haifa, and the rest of northern Israel has become in this war. Not that there is anything that intrinsically protects the centre of Israel from rocket attack. The Hezbollah in Lebanon have long range rockets which could hit Tel Aviv. They are fewer in number, more expensive, more complicated to deploy and therefore more vulnerable to Israeli A...
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Walking free
2006-08-15 20:15:04
Before the war?..it sounds strange saying that as if this ?little? war has changed everything. OK, not everything but a lot in our consciousness. We (Irit and I) lived in the apparent illusion that we are living in a reasonably normal Western country and that our lives and those of our children are fairly safe. That might sound ridiculous to the average American or European reader who sees images of war and suicide bombers on television and thinks that we live our whole lives with a helmet on our heads dodging the bombs.But the reality of everyday life for most Israelis is pretty mundane except in times of war. Most of us have jobs, we have families, we going shopping in supermarkets and malls. And I go jogging a few times a week in the pleasant streets of hilly Haifa and sometimes in the beautiful Carmel forest. But I haven?t done this for a month now ? Irit wouldn?t have wanted me to be outside when Katyusha rockets were falling, and I accepted that it was better to be safe than ...
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Assessment at 08:00
2006-08-14 20:15:06
At 08:00 this morning Israel and Lebanon time the cease-fire called for in UN security Resolution 1701 entered into force. Here then is an initial assessment of the current situation from my/our (Israeli living in Haifa) point of view.A respite from the Katyusha rocket attacks and the attendant air raid siren alarms will be very welcome. We had about 10 alarms yesterday in Haifa, some in very close succession and it?s very wearing. Many Israelis and Lebanese have suffered.Will the ceasefire hold? Maybe, maybe not, but the more meaningful question is whether the other clauses in the latest UN Security Council Resolution 1701 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/47 85963.stm will be implemented. If the previous UN Security Council Resolution 1559 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/36 23956.stm had been fully implemented (including the dismantling of the Hezbollah military) this war would never have broken out. We find it difficult to believe that the ineffectual, inexperienced a...
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A Katyusha day
2006-08-14 20:15:06
Well, I had the feeling that the Israeli army announcements yesterday about their elimination of more Katy usha rocket launchers were premature. We?ve definitely had a Katyusha day today (about 11 alarms so far and the day is not out yet). Nasrallah showing us that Hezbollah is definitely not yet down and out. The count so far today for the whole of northern Israel- about 220 Katyusha rockets landed, I person (innocent civilian please note) killed, 73 injured. One rocket landed in a open space next to a neighbouring suburb to where we live. A friend of a friend said that he saw the smoke cloud from his porch.3 times this morning I started to walk our dog Sushi and each time I had to return home because the sirens went off. Maybe that?s why she couldn?t hold her water when the sirens went off in the afternoon. Or maybe she?s just getting more afraid. She wouldn?t be the only one. I know some young people who didn?t go down to the shelter when the sirens went off in the first two weeks...

Who won in this war ?
2006-08-14 20:15:06
Neither side ? it?s pretty much a draw. Each side can claim victory ? the Hezbollah paralysed normal life in Israel for a month, killed 50 civilians in Israel and survived as a fighting force. The Israelis showed that it won?t turn the other cheek when attached, destroyed quite a lot of the massive Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon and created the conditions for change in Lebanon. Both sides suffered losses and the war raises many questions for the Israelis and the Lebanese.Interestingly and worryingly enough, Israel seems to be much more concerned with the question ?Who won?? There seems to me to be something very immature, almost childish about this psychological need to say I won, he lost. There?s a lot of (false) pride and honour here, traits that we in Israel usually equate (with disdain) with the Arabs. But isn?t that what the psychologists say? ? that we scorn in others those traits we will not admit in ourselves? Hassan Nasrallah, in his televised address yester...
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Almost over
2006-08-14 20:15:06
Well, it seems this war is almost over and soon everyone will go back to their daily business ? that is all those who were not directly affected and those are very many, in obviously differing degrees.This morning we had 5 air raid alarms in Haifa in the space of half an hour ? part of a last volley of rockets before the cease fire is due to be implemented. Yesterday only 68 Katyusha rockets fell inside Israel ? the Israeli army says that the reduced number is a result of their extended ground operation in southern Lebanon. But that?s what they would say of course. They have a lot of lost credibility to regain in the eyes of the Israeli public and it doesn?t hurt to justify the ongoing land operation with its heavy toll in lives of Israeli soldiers. Let?s hope that Nasrallah doesn?t prove them wrong with a final dramatic firework display before the ceasefire is implemented.
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Killing civilians
2006-08-14 20:15:06
I read with concern 2 recent reportshttp://www.richardsilverstein.com/ tikun_olam/2006/08/12/israel-our-pride-th at-we-only-hit-hezbollah/ andhttp://www.richardsilverstein.com/tiku n_olam/2006/08/11/idf-approves-refugee-co nvoy-from-merj-%e2%80%99uyun-then-attacks -it/about the Israeli Air Force attacking Lebanese civilians nonchalantly or by mistake.A few comments1) When we feel under attack (as we in Israel do these days) even the most liberal, empathetic and peace loving amongst us are much more concerned about ourselves and or loved ones than people on the other side. These are simply survival instincts.2) If an enemy fights from within a civilian environment, civilians are going to get killed. I know of no other military that gives warnings to civilians to leave battle areas and we can only regret if civilians don?t get out in time. To the best of our understanding the majority of the population of south Lebanon support the Hezbollah, Supporting on the one hand and saying we are...
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An ordinary war day in Haifa
2006-08-11 22:55:00
The day started (not particularly early - thank you Nasrallah) with an air-raid siren . It caught Irit just while she was exercising , but, no choice, we run down to the shelter. We've tidied up our shelter and put in some more chairs because we're expecting the visit of Irit's daughter-in-law, Einat and her 3 children. Irit's elder son has also been called up into emergency reserve in the army (we now have 3 family members who've been called up) and Einat doesn't feel comfortable staying alone in their apartment with 3 children (including a 6 week old baby). They are, as it were, internal refugees in Haifa . We are happy to have them stay with us - it's nice to have children around the house.They come at about 10 a.m. and soon afterwards the siren goes off again and 8 of us rush down to the shelter - Irit, Shiri (from the upstairs apartment) , Einat, her 3 children, me and the dog.The next alarm catches me outside walking the dog. I find shelter but our dog, Sushi, gets rath...
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From the Press
2006-08-11 17:21:00
From the leader in The Economist www.economist.com of Aug 5: "It is sometimes no bad things to end with a draw. Lopsided victories, like the ones Israel won in 1948 and 1967, can leave a residue of hubris on one side and shattered pride on the other that block peacemaking for decades. By contrast, the war of 1973, which both Israel and Egypt claimed to have won, restored Egyptian honour and persuaded Israel that it was worth exchanging the Sinai peninsula for peace with its strongest neighbour." I think I'll buy that. Since the start of the war I've been hoping that both sides can declare that they've won. If indeed a cease-fire is close, Hezbollah can claim it has survived, fought heroically against the Israelis and injured Israel with its incessant barrage of Katyusha rockets. Israel will be cable to claim that it has changed (hopefully for good) the situation where a heavily armed militia (that does not accept Israel's exisitence) sits on its border and attacks it.In a surve...
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Extending the war
2006-08-10 17:43:00
At the time of publishing this post, there seem to be renewed possibilities of a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and I would be very happy for that (not just because of the rockets on Haifa and the north of Israel).Yesterday, after a 6-hour meeting, the Israeli cabinet yesterday approved extending the ground war against the Hezbollah by giving the Israeli military the go-ahead to advance 20 km (to the Litani river) in Lebanese territory. However the implementation has been suspended to give more chance to the diplomatic process.It's understandable that the decision to purseue the ground war was taken (with many reservations) and it's understandable why it took 6 hours.In spite of the reputation of the all-powerful and over-proportional Israel military it has not succeeded in inflicting a resounding defeat , or even a significant weakening of the Hezbollah.Israel's war against the Hezbolah was launched in the shadow of 2 incidents in which the Israeli military was caught i...

On the use of force and violence
2006-08-10 16:17:00
Israeli society is probably by Western standards , and definitely by Middle Eastern standards, a fairly peaceful one. I am almost certain that the number of murders or wife/child-beating per thousand of population in Israel is less than in Russia or the USA, and definitely less than in Egypt or Lebanon (in peaceful times). I'll be happy to bring you precise statistics.That being said, violence in Israel (within families, by schoolchildren) is said to be on the increase. Liberal psychologists have ascribed this to the force used and lack of respect by Israeli soldiers towards the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.If you would ask 100 Israelis in the street whether they believe that the use of force and violence is an acceptable way to solve problems, I believe the vast majority would give a resounding no. However, if you would ask those same Israelis whether the use of overhelming force is acceptable against the civilian Palestinian or Lebanese population, far more would app...
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Credibility and bravado
2006-08-07 10:02:00
The headline of Sunday's Maariv newspaper in Israel read " Senior [military] officer: If Tel-Aviv is attacked Beirut will burn"Today's Maariv: "If Syria gets involved [in the war] it will pay dearly"On an inside page: Defence sources: "Syria can be paralysed within a few hours"From interviews with army officers yesterday on Israeli Army radio (one of the most popular radio stations in Israel) "The Hezbollah is on the defensive", " we have the advantage over them", "they are going crazy".I don't know whether the people making these bombastic declarations really believe in them themselves, are trying to raise the Israeli public's morale or their own. One thing is sure - they're not doing anybody a service.This war has been characterised on the Israeli side by a breat deal of bravado. Israeli commentators are very quick to talk of the "threats" made by Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah although to me they sound more like promises, or just a plan of action uttered in his deadpa...
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A visit to hospital
2006-08-06 22:09:00
After a week in which no rockets fell on Haifa, 6 rockets fell on Haifa shortly before the main news bulletins on TV at 8 p.m. this evening, destroying 2 houses, killing 3 people and wounding over 100. By cruel irony, the worst damage and casualties were in one of the Arab neighbourhoods of Haifa - Wadi Nis Nas. One of the people I know there is a wonderfully warm-hearted woman called Lubna who runs a kindergarten for the children of underprivileged Arab families. I called her mobile number but there was no answer which was worrying. I called the hotline of one Haifa's hospitals and was told that her name is on the casualties list. I drove to the hospital and found her on a bed in the hospital foyer. Fortunately she has only very light injuries, not caused directly by the rockets but from falling in the street after the explosions and the smoke. For a few minutes after the rocket attack, she was hysterical with fear looking for her two small children who had been playing in the ...
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Close, very close
2006-08-06 20:00:18
Since 12 noon today (at time of writing it is 3p.m.) in Israel over 100 Katyushas have fallen in the north of Israel, one of which killed 10 people and wounded many more. Someone very close to Irit and me was in the North these last few days and came back to Tel Aviv this morning. He was exactly in the place that was hit and knows at least one of the killed. It is a miracle that he was not there and was not hurt. Very, very scary.Some people here are getting very angry that the Israeli military has not succeeded in stopping or significantly reducing the Katyushas being fired against Israel. The commentators are saying that either Israel should have decided on a short, sharp punitive action against Hezbollah or on an extensive land-based action to drive the Hezbollah out of missile-shooting range.It is difficult to understand how decisions are being made. On the one hand the politicians are highly sensitive (some would say over-sensitive) to public opinion and the level of casualti...
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The tragedy at Qana (revised)
2006-08-06 20:00:18
Let there be no mistake. The Israeli Air Force intentionally bombed the village of Qana from which 150 Katyusha rockets have been fired against northern Israel. The killing of 28 civilians (not 50 or 60 as previously reported) in the Lebanese village of Qana was however a tragic miscalculation. Israel did not intend to kill innocent civilians.It is a tragedy that innocent civilians get killed in war although this has been happening since the start of time. The citizens of Qana received clear warnings (through dropped leaflets) that the Israeli Air Force would attack because Hezbollah has been firing from there. There are many proven cases of the Hezbollah firing Katyusha rockets from within civilian homes and those civilians sometimes pay the deadly price of hosting (in their homes) terrorists who are firing rockets against population centres in Israel. It is a tragedy that the Hezbollah cynically uses the civilian population as human shields and prevents some of them from fleeing a...
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A "clean" war
2006-08-06 09:00:00
It's difficult to look at the pictures of destruction from Lebanon and to pronounce this as being a "clean" war but it's worthwhile to look at some numbers.Any war where hundreds are killed and hundreds of thousands are displaced from their homes is a tragedy. But the casualty numbers are less in this war than in previous wars.In the first Lebanon War in 1982 between 6000-800 Lebanese civilians were killed as well as 300 Israeli soldiers in the first week alone. Losses this time are much less so far (100 Israelis and 900 Lebanese) because Israel is being very careful to limit its own losses and those of the Lebanese civilian population. The attack in Qana (the final toll by UN oberservers is 28 not 60 as first reported) is regrettable and Israel has expressed its regret. I don't know of other countries at war that express regret for casualties on the other side. It should be noted that the Katyusha rockets which killed 3 people yesterday in Haifa, not 3 km from my home, were fi...
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