Reporting From Lebanon
Another dreary, dreadful report from Lebanon. The town of Qana, yet another Hezbollah stronghold is witness to another disaster, another wholesale taking of human life. Evidently those Lebanese Shiites who had not fled this town close to the Bekaa Valley despite warnings by Israel to do so broadcast by radio and the dropping of leaflets, witnessed the war between Israel and Hezbollah close in around their town for the past three weeks, becoming its latest victims.How could it be otherwise, given that Hezbollah claims the town as one of their own, and its residents claim Hezbollah as their protector? The protector who sets up ammunition storage in their places of worship, their civic centres, their very homes. The protector who sees it as entirely normal to enmesh themselves within the centre of civil life, launching rockets beside apartment buildings housing men, women and children going about their daily lives. And when their daily lives cease as a direct result of their protector's activities they hold no grudge, but rather celebrate Hezbollah yet again as their protector.
"I lost my wife. I lost my five kids, my mother and my brother's children", said Kassem Chalhoub, cradling his bandaged armes in the emergency room of Tyre's main hospital. Rahaab Yousef, who survived the blast with broken bones but lost four of her children, wept in the X-ray room as doctors examined her shattered hands. "The Israelis are criminals. They killed my children. Now I am dead inside," she said.Completely lost to these poor unfortunate victims is the exculpatory nature of the attack; to halt deadly rocket attacks by their protectors against the population within Israel. Completely lost to these sad souls is the fact that their protector has deliberately, with forethought, placed them in harm's way for a purpose. That purpose, to draw Israel into retaliatory strikes and in the striking to cause the deaths of innocent civilians. Their heart-rending deaths, the survivors' pain reaches out to the hearts of all. And Israel becomes the prime culprit in the commission of death-dealing, not the protectors whose provocations are directly responsible for the consequences of their deliberate actions leading to the disaster.
Hezbollah taunts Israel, promises to deal it an ultimate death blow - on behalf of all Muslims, and with the express permission of a full 80% of the area's population - causing Israel to defensive action on behalf of its endangered population then points to Israel as the villain in the piece. It works every time. Despite that Israel does its utmost to give prior warning of its intent, despite its best efforts at curtailing fallout of strikes as much as humanly possible under conditions of war. Look, Ma, it's a great trick, people are truly gullible in their emotional connection with harm done to others, on the basis of the superficial evidence. Tried and true. It works.
Matthew Fisher, reporting from Marjayoun, Lebanon, six kilometres from the border and three kilometres from the fated UN observation post where four peacekeepers died five days earlier in an Israeli attack, himself a neutral observer brings to public attention very interesting observations of his own. As Israeli F-16 jets fly overhead and artillery shells fired by Israeli guns hit close to the town, members of Hezbollah's militia wander past Lebanese soldiers in the main square. And nothing is amiss. These members of the Party of God are not reluctant to pause, to speak with Western reporters.
And as they speak, Mr. Fisher reports seeing several cars, white truce flags streaming from their windows careen by, crammed full of young bearded men moving to and from the front lines. "We have prepared for this for a long time and will fight to the last. Israel is not allowed here," the apparent leader of the group tells the reporters. "Israel has the help of the United States, but God is with us. Whatever Sheik Hassan Nasrallah says, he will do," says another.
And while Lebanese soldiers man checkpoints, paying little attention to anyone on the road, Hezbollah political operatives stop outsiders in and near Marjayoun, demanding to know their identities and business. Other than the Hezbollah fighters and a handful of soldiers, most of the town's fifteen thousand inhabitants have fled. Those remaining say they have no means of departure. One of those remaining is the caretaker of the local Orthodox Catholic church whose stained glass windows had been shattered by a bomb that had struck a nearby home. The caretaker, identified as Simon Diab Singer, said the Israelis must have hit what they had been after because "the way it blew up, it sounded as if the house was full of ammunition."
Mr. Fisher, in his report states: "That multiple explosition in a residential area and the fact that Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by some Western governments, has often moved its fighters around in cars bearing white flags, has highlighted how it has often been impossible for Israeli pilots and forward artillery observers to separate the enemy from the civilian population."Hezbollah is the people and this our land. That is why we don't leave", was how this Hezbollah agent speaking with the reporters responded to Israel's accusation that his group was using the local population as human shields. These are the protectors of Lebanon, those chivalric souls who could not see their way clear to removing those of the town's citizens who hadn't the means to leave, to take them to a safe haven, away from the danger they have created by launching rockets from their homes.
This speaks to the utter futility of suing for peace, for observing a ceasefire with an avowed Islamist/Jihadist Hezbollah who observes no humanely decent impulses to interfere with their sacred ambition to annihilate Israel. While Hezbollah publicly laments the loss of civilian life in Lebanon, it stealthily and with intent continues its tactics of the use of human shields, using the brainwashed, vulnerable population it immerses its war machine within to achieve its purpose.
Then, when the inevitable killing of women and children occurs as a byproduct of Israel being drawn into aerial bombardment of rocket sites, Hezbollah beats its breast in secret exultation, knowing full well the condemnation of Israel across the world will be swift and absolute. Another victory for Hezbollah, the inhumane, deliberate targeting of women and children. Mission accomplished.
It is not for their honourable fighting tactics that Kofi Annan's deputy Jan Egelund, no great admirer of Israel himself, named them cowards.
posted by Pieface @ Monday, July 31, 2006
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