The Sky Didn't Fall
Yesterday the inevitable happened. We all knew that at one point or another our troops would inadvertently kill the Lebanese civilians that Hizballah has in effect taken hostage in south Lebanon. (Although there is a serious question about some of the facts of the incident. The IAF attacked the building at 1:00 am, and the ambulances - along with the media - didn't get to the scene until the next morning. There are questions about when exactly the building collapsed...was it from the IAF or from explosives set off in the building afterwards?)
And yes, the Arab world did its best to push for an immediate ceasefire, and a condemnation in the UN Security Council.
And yes, some on the left will try to use the incident to drum up opposition to the war.
Well, there is a very temporary ceasefire - the IAF will supposedly stop attacking for 48 hours (as of 2:00am today - namely about 5 hours ago). Unless they know that there will be an imminent attack, in which case they will attack anyway.
This means to me that the pilots get a well deserved rest.
Another part of this ceasefire is the additional 24 hours that Israel is giving the civilians to get out of the south, supposedly with the help of the UN (which they obviously should have been doing already). This is an excellent development, because now the responsibility for the innocent civilians has been firmly placed on the UN, and if another incident of this type occurs, they will be to blame.
The UN Security Council issued a strongly worded statement, but they held back from an official condemnation.
Hizballah has used its only real weapon against us, and it didn't work out as well as it was supposed to.
The only question is how much this will affect our politician's resolve to finish the war as they have originally stated. So far Amir Peretz and Ehud Olmert have said that we need between 10 days to 2 weeks to finish off Hizballah, which is a good sign.
My only worry, is not for Israelis but more for others.I am afraid of the increased violence against Jews in other countries in the world. Take care of yourselves!
Yesterday the inevitable happened. We all knew that at one point or another our troops would inadvertently kill the Lebanese civilians that Hizballah has in effect taken hostage in south Lebanon. (Although there is a serious question about some of the facts of the incident. The IAF attacked the building at 1:00 am, and the ambulances - along with the media - didn't get to the scene until the next morning. There are questions about when exactly the building collapsed...was it from the IAF or from explosives set off in the building afterwards?)
And yes, the Arab world did its best to push for an immediate ceasefire, and a condemnation in the UN Security Council.
And yes, some on the left will try to use the incident to drum up opposition to the war.
Well, there is a very temporary ceasefire - the IAF will supposedly stop attacking for 48 hours (as of 2:00am today - namely about 5 hours ago). Unless they know that there will be an imminent attack, in which case they will attack anyway.
This means to me that the pilots get a well deserved rest.
Another part of this ceasefire is the additional 24 hours that Israel is giving the civilians to get out of the south, supposedly with the help of the UN (which they obviously should have been doing already). This is an excellent development, because now the responsibility for the innocent civilians has been firmly placed on the UN, and if another incident of this type occurs, they will be to blame.
The UN Security Council issued a strongly worded statement, but they held back from an official condemnation.
Hizballah has used its only real weapon against us, and it didn't work out as well as it was supposed to.
The only question is how much this will affect our politician's resolve to finish the war as they have originally stated. So far Amir Peretz and Ehud Olmert have said that we need between 10 days to 2 weeks to finish off Hizballah, which is a good sign.
My only worry, is not for Israelis but more for others.I am afraid of the increased violence against Jews in other countries in the world. Take care of yourselves!
posted by westbankmama at 6:49 AM
5 Comments:
Like you, I am worried, not just about Jews, but about Americans. We (non-Jews, but supportive of Israel) cancelled our vacation in France, because the last time I was there the Muslims were rioting and because we have already experienced some anti-Jewish hostility. (Our walls were smeared with something that means "Zionist Overlord Government" and "Whites Only". Huh? I thought you guys were considered more or less white.) I know that we Americans are either mistaken for Jews or held responsible for whatever the Islamofascists and self-satisfied Euroslugs imagine. I have lost some friends whose pushy Euro- smugness was too much for me. I had to be impolite in defence of Israel's right to self defence. What should an ordinary American be doing to support Israelis in this war, which is our war too?
WestBank PAPA here, Tatiana:
As a fellow American - though now living in Israel - I think the most important thing to do is push for secure AMERICAN borders.
It's clear that America is THE force for just and human dignity in today's world. It must secure itself and remain strong. So many countries like ours look to America and are dependent upon it.
As the lefties say "Think Globally, Act Locally".
El Umbro,
Justifying is not the question here. Death does not justify death.
BUT - If the Hezbollah went and took hiding inside a house they knew was filled with kids - then those responsible are Hzbollah not Israel - and if the Lebanies Govt. Doesn't want to take resposibillity for the actions taking place from IT'S land - it's up to the lebanees Govt. to take resposibillity for it's people (just like we are taking over ours who are kidnapped and killed).
The problem is we are in a war where only one side is playing by the rules - There is no good way to fight them - The rules (int. LAw) are based on a theory that no army would place it's people as targets - becuase in most places Civilan Death is a De-moralizer inside a country. Here the Hezbollah get's it's streangh from seeing DEATH (on both sides). They don't really care about the people in south Lebanon, and actually like to see them die, because they know that the world will condem Israel for it.
@ westbankpapa:
> [...] It's clear that America is THE
> force for just and human dignity
> in today's world. [...]
Please do not forget the rest of the world. As you can see on e.g.
http://www.spiritofentebbe.blogspot.com/ or http://www.myblog.de/politicallyincorrect or www.fotos.web.de/daniel.schuemmer
there are a lot of supporters of 'Eretz Yisrael' in Europe. Best regards from Germany, Erik
Erik, I, for one, an American Gentile female, thank you for the web links you have provided, as well as for your comments. Frankly, we no longer travel to Europe on holiday either.
What frightens me is how quick the world is to always condemn Israel and its people. We, along with a number of others in other neighborhood decided we would start hoisting the Israeli Star of David flags immediately beneath our American flags, which we run up at dawn and down at dusk.
We wanted to do something in a tangible way to show our support for Israel's right to exist as a sovereign, democratic nation and for her people to be able to live in peace.
Three times in the last month my husband has had to clean garbage dumped in our front yard and replace both flags once already. He's trained a small, inexpensive black and white recorder camera out the front window so we can provide a DVD to the police and press charges against any future vandals - we will make use of our countries new "hate" crime laws if possible.
What we will NOT do, G-d being with us, is remain silent and mute in the face of what appears to be rising anti-Semitism. It's not much we are able to do, but at least it is something.
Like Tatiani, we, too, have lost some long-standing friends. We were appalled at some of their anti-Semitic beliefs. That they would throw the entire state of Israel under the proverbial "bus" in an effort to achieve a false, deluded "utopian peace" in the Middle East did more than shock us. How on earth could we have had such friends for so long and never known what kind of beliefs and anti-Semitic convictions lay buried in the darkest corner of the human heart?
As soon as the reports of the sad deaths of women and children - the death of the true innocents, especially the children, grieve my heart - came over our Cable news channel, I knew what was coming next. The blood of the innocents rests squarely on the collective heads of the Hezbollah terrorists. I have no doubt whatsoever they were absolutely delighted about the circumstance.
Yesterday was a dark day indeed as we watched and read the news accounts. We were equally appalled watching the same "rescuer" repeatedly pose the same dead two dead children, a little boy and a little girl, for the world's cameras. Did no one else notice the lengthy elapsed time-lines the various photographers reported to their publishers but us?
What an awful indignity in death to repeatedly keep using those two poor children for propaganda pictures over a period of hours and shame on the photographers who aided them. Shame, shame! I am sick nigh on to death of seeing photos and news clips which even scant attention to details therein clearly indicates have been staged solely for the consumption of eager Western news cameras.
There is, I believe, far more to this story than we are getting, by far. So many questions. If Israel air strikes hit the building no later than 1am and it didn't collapse/implode (or get itself blown up for 7 hours) until around 8am, how come the people inside didn't evacuate? One would think even if some were injured or killed in the initial air strike that others would most certainly have been able to get out over a 7 hour time span.
One thing is probably sadly true, I doubt Hezbollah or the so-called "democratic" government of Lebanon will truly allow an honest investigation of the site.
G-dspeed the IDF, keep them and the Israeli people safe,
DWB
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