Ceasefire. . . but not for another 32 hours at best
Apparently Hezbollah and the government of Lebanon have agreed to the terms of the ceasefire proposal, and a senior Israeli official implies that his/her government will also during a cabinet meeting tomorrow -- but won't stop attacks until midnight Sunday (EDT; 7 am Monday in Israel). Hezbollah won't commit not to return fire until Israel moves back across the border, and that won't happen until the peacekeeping forces arrive, in a week or so. Lovely. No point in searching out a dove image to decorate this post, then.
Tom Scudder has a very helpful analysis of UN resolution 1701 at Aqoul, especially for those of us unskilled at plowing through diplomatese. Jonathan Edelstein's gift for seeing the hopeful aspects of bleak situations is put to good use, but until the IDF stops bombing and shelling, his take asks too much for me in the way of looking past the massive human carnage and material destruction Israel has wrought. Zvi Bar'el's account in Ha'aretz of the Lebanese prime minister's skill in achieving the resolution is interesting [via Jonathan], but again, may be better appreciated if/when the explosions stop.
Labels: Israel Lebanon
posted by Nell @ 4:30 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
"...his take asks too much for me in the way of looking past the massive human carnage and material destruction Israel has wrought."
Indeed. Only one side has done this. Only one side has been killing innocent Arabs on a daily basis.
Only one side has suffered human carnage and material destruction.
The difference between the scale and kinds of damage inflicted is night and day.
The side that inflicted (and continues to inflict) the vastly greater amount of damage chose to take this massive escalation, to respond to an attack at the border from Hezbollah with an assault on Lebanon.
The response was planned long in advance, approved by our government and military, and put into effect at a moment of provocation.
And our government chose to sit by and allow it to "play out". No, chooses to let it continue.
I've never said that only one side has suffered. Both sides have the blood of innocents on their hands.
One has vastly more, and chose to respond to a limited attack on soldiers with an onslaught of bombing civilian targets and infrastructure. And those bombs have my country's name on them as well.
Gary, I probably haven't expressed this in a way that maximizes the chance that you hear me. Maybe these young people are:
"We mourn the Israeli dead, and our thoughts are with the people of northern Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza alike. Our concern for all people of the region moves us to question the utility of Israel's horrific aggression towards its own neighbors. If Israel is willing to kill UN observers, civilians, and especially children, how will the violence end?"
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