Robert Fisk: What I see in Lebanon each day is an outrage

[bigtree]

Saturday, July 15, 2006

The Independent
http://deficientbrain.blogspot.com/2006/07/robert-fisk-what-i-see-in-lebanon-each.html

The beautiful viaduct that soars over the mountainside here has become a "terrorist" target. The Israelis attacked the international highway from Beirut to Damascus just after dawn yesterday and dropped a bomb clean through the central span of the Italian-built bridge a symbol of Lebanon's co-operation with the European Union sending concrete crashing hundreds of feet down into the valley beneath. It was the pride of the murdered ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri, the face of a new, emergent Lebanon. And now it is a "terrorist" target.

So I drove gingerly along the old mountain road towards the Bekaa yesterday - the Israeli jets were hissing through the sky above me - turned the corner once I rejoined the highway, and found a 50ft crater with an old woman climbing wearily down the side on her hands and knees, trying to reach her home in the valley that glimmered to the east. This too had become a "terrorist" target.

It is now the same all over Lebanon. In the southern suburbs - where the Hizbollah, captors of the two missing Israeli soldiers, have their headquarters - a massive bomb had blasted off the sides of apartment blocks next to a church, splintering windows and crashing balconies down to parked cars. This too had become a "terrorist” target.

One man was brought out shrieking with pain, covered in blood. Another "terrorist" target. All the way to the airport were broken bridges, holed roads. All these were "terrorist" targets. At the airport, tongues of fire blossomed into the sky from aircraft fuel storage tanks, darkening west Beirut. These too were now "terrorist" targets. At Jiyeh, the Israelis attacked the power station. This too was a "terrorist" target.

Yet when I drove to the actual headquarters of Hizbollah, a tall building in Haret Hreik, it was totally undamaged. Only last night did the Israelis manage to hit it.

So can the Lebanese be forgiven - can anyone here be forgiven - for believing that the Israelis have a greater interest in destroying Lebanon than they do in their two soldiers?


more: http://deficientbrain.blogspot.com/2006/07/robert-fisk-what-i-see-in-lebanon-each.html

[chill_wind]

1. "Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist."

excerpt:

"Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist. There is something perverse about all this, the slaughter and massive destruction and the self-righteous, constant, cancerous use of the word "terrorist". No, let us not forget that the Hizbollah broke international law, crossed the Israeli border, killed three Israeli soldiers, captured two others and dragged them back through the border fence. It was an act of calculated ruthlessness that should never allow Hizbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to grin so broadly ay his press conference. It has brought unparalleled tragedy to countless innocents in Lebanon. And of course, it has led Hizbollah to fire at least 170 Katyusha rockets into Israel.

But what would happen if the powerless Lebanese government had actually unleashed air attacks across Israel the last time Israel's troops crossed into Lebanon? What if the Lebanese air force then killed 73 Israeli civilians in bombing raids in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Israeli West Jerusalem? What if a Lebanese fighter aircraft bombed Ben Gurion airport? What if a Lebanese plane destroyed 26 road bridges across Israel? Would it not be called "terrorism"? I rather think it would. But if Israel was the victim, it would also probably be Word War Three."

(http://deficientbrain.blogspot.com/2006/07/robert-fisk-what-i-see-in-lebanon-each.html)

[TheMadMonk]

4. By the logic expressed in the first paragraph,

Egypt, Canada, Australia and several other nations would be equally justified in conducting similar attacks on US territory and infrastructure.

[Joe Fields]

5. If the Lebanese government had the backbone to take care of

Hezbollah themselves, we wouldn't be where we are today. What kind of government allows thugs and terrorists to occupy and control the southern half of their country anyway?

Thank you, chill-wind, for saying what I was thinking this past week.

[leesa]

8. Hmmm..we have let thugs and terrorists move into our White House

What kind of a country are we?

[Joe Fields]

13. That is a completely different question, altogether.

I dare say that no American administration would allow thugs and terroists rule any part of the U.S.

Say, for example the skinheads, or any number of hate groups or militias. Do you think the F.B.I. or A.T.F. or the Dept. of Homeland (in)Security would put up with it? So you really cannot compare that aspect of my statement.

But, yes, I do agree that thugs and terrorists do occupy the White House.

[theHandpuppet]

9. What an ironic question

"What kind of government allows thugs and terrorists to occupy and control the southern half of their country anyway?"

We've allowed thugs and terrorists to control all of our country and you expect so much more from a newly formed government with not one thousandth of the power wielded by our own.

[Joe Fields]

14. Apples and oranges, my friend. As I stated in a previous post,

do you really think that our govt. would allow a separate terrorist group to set up shop in another part of the United States and take independent control of it?

The obvious answer is no.

[treestar]

17. Not every country is a strong as the US

"Allow" might not be the right word.

This is the disadvantage the Palestinians always have, too. They don't have a strong state, can't control everybody, yet Israel treats them as if they could and as if they are all guilty of whatever the extremists do.

Then they would scream if you judged them the same way - made them all responsible for the settlements and the opinions of those Zionists who think the whole area should belong to Israel.

[chill_wind]

11. But would you seriously deny the rest of the assertion?

Did you even read the description of the "terrorist" targets?

[Selatius]

16. If the Lebanese gov't did what you say, there would've been a civil war

And the country just got done rebuilding itself from the last civil war, so unless you really wanted to see Beirut made into a warzone again between pro- and anti-Hezbollah militias with thousands of dead civilians and bombed out buildings, you don't know what the hell you're asking for.

[sellitman]

6. The Hezbollah are actually part of Lebanon's government.

Therefore their government has to bear some responsibility for their country's destruction.

[bigtree]

7. two members

Mohamad Fneich - Energy and Water
Trad Hamad� - Labour


23 seats (up from eight previously) in the 128-member Lebanese Parliament

[reprehensor]

2. Fisk knows.

Thank you.

[karlrschneider]

3. Sounds right to me.

...

[mom cat]

10. A very worthwhile read.

[bigtree]

12. sunday kick

[malaise]

15. Thank you Robert Fisk n/t