I'm pulling all of my information on the Israeli-Lebanese fighting from non-U.S. news sources at this point, although I have to say the MSNBC and CNN coverage has been surprisingly balanced, given the normal bent of U.S. television news coverage, which adopts the Bushian framing of everything that happens in the world in terms of "the terrorists" and "those fighting the terrorists." Perhaps that's only because the weekend crew doesn't include either Kyra Phillips, Norah O'Donnell or Wolf Blitzer ...
Anyway, I think it's important how the debate over what is going on in Lebanon and Israel is framed. To my mind, it is ridiculous to state that Israel is at war with Hezbollah, since in fact it isn't "Hezbollian" bridges, roads, airport runways and minibuses that are being bombed out of existence. It is Lebanese bridges, Lebanese roads, Lebanese ports, Lebanese airport runways and Lebanese civilians in homes, apaprtments and minibuses who are being bombed. And despite the rather belated, and surprisingly mild, reactions of the Lebanese and their Arab neighbors, it's hard to see how destroying Lebanon is anything near a proportional response to the acts of a group -- Hezbollah -- which doesn't represent the nation of Lebanon.
Just to make it more clear, peep this totally fictional scenario: say the Minutemen organization was taken over by a radical group of Americans who decided to arm themselves as they patrol the southern border of the U.S., and say they continued to arm themselves and act aggressively toward Mexican illegal immigrans, even as the government of the United States made it clear that it opposed their actions and that those actions did not represent the policy of the government of the U.S. And say that then, the Minuteman began detaining Mexican citizens as they crossed the border, and that the governmetn of Mexico became outraged and demanded that those Mexican nationals be freed. And say that then, the Mexican military began flying sortees over Texas and Arizona, straffing the bridges, roads and airport runways in those states to prevent the movement of the minutemen or the movement of the Mexican nationals. And say that then, the Mexican military overflew the home of the Canadian prime minister, because they believed that Canada's government is supporting the actions of the Minutemen, whom Mexico considers to be terrorists. And say that then, a White separatist group based in Washington State, decided to support the Minutemen by grabbing another couple of Mexican citizens from that area, and were holding them, and in response, Mexico's air force began bombing Washington State, too. What would the United States do? Declare the conflict to be strictly between the Minutemen and the Mexicans? Ask the United Nations to please ask the Mexicans to stop bombing "the minutemen?" Or would we consider the bombing of our infrastructure, the incursion into our sovereign airspace and the killing of our citizens to be an act of war upon the United States? Whatever our government thought of the Minutemen, or even the White separatists, at that point would be irrelevant. The United States would consider itself to be at war with Mexico.
So then, is not Israel at war with Lebanon? And if they widen the war to Syria (or Canada, in my example), would not be the beginning of total, regional war?
Israeli air strikes on Lebanon have killed at least 32 civilians including 15 children. (pic: Reuters)
The offensive, which is intended to punish Lebanon for letting Hizbollah guerrillas operate in Lebanon near the northern border of Israel is the most destructive onslaught by the Jewish state since the 1982 invasion to expel Palestinian forces.
Israel has bombed roads, bridges, ports and airports, as well as Hizbollah targets and for the first time, ports in Christian areas have been bombarded and a helicopter missile hit a lighthouse on Beirut's seafront.
An Israeli missile incinerated a van in southern Lebanon, killing 20 people, among them 15 children, in the deadliest single attack of the campaign launched by Israel after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers and killed eight on Wednesday (July 11).
Police said the van was carrying two families fleeing the village of Marwaheen after Israeli loudspeaker warnings to leave their homes.
Many of the bodies were charred and broken. Raids on roads, ports and petrol stations in north, east and south Lebanon killed 12 people and wounded 32, security sources said, bringing the death toll in four days of Israeli attacks to 100.
All but four of the dead were civilians. Israel's assault has choked Lebanon's economy and led to an exodus of tourists and foreigners.
Hizbollah rockets, meanwhile, struck deeper into Israel than ever before, wounding eight people and damaging two buildings in the Sea of Galilee town of Tiberias, police said.
The Lebanese Prime Minister demanded an immediate ceasefire to "end Israel's destruction of Lebanon" and called on the United Nations to help his government extend authority to the south.
In an emotional appeal on Lebanese television, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called for an immediate ceasefire and urged the US to intervene.
"Lebanon is a disaster zone... and (it) pleads to its friends in the world to rush to its aid," he said.
Following emergency talks in Egypt, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the Middle East peace process had failed and urged the UN Security Council to tackle the crisis.
And this not-unbiased commentary, from the Guardian:
The framing of Hizbullah Israel's response to its soldiers' capture is part of a hamfisted attempt to redraw the region's map
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb in Beirut Saturday July 15, 2006 The Guardian
The capture of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, to bargain for prisoner exchange should come as no surprise - least of all to Israel, which must bear its own responsibility for the abductions and is using this conflict to pursue its wider strategic aims.
The prisoners Hizbullah wants released are hostages who were taken on Lebanese soil. In the successful prisoner exchange in 2004, Israel held on to three Lebanese detainees as bargaining chips and to keep the battle front with Hizbullah open. These detentions have become a cause celebre in Lebanon. In a recent poll, efforts to effect their release attracted majority support, much more even than the liberation of Shebaa Farms, the disputed corridor of land between Syria and Lebanon still occupied by Israel.
The domestic significance of these hostages is ignored by those who choose to reduce the abductions to an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Indeed Israel's media are aware of recent attempts to capture soldiers, including a botched attempt a few months ago in which three Hizbullah fighters were killed. Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, confirmed the attack took five months to plan. Its timing was probably a coincidence. It would seem, though, Hizbullah exerts some influence over the fighters in Gaza - those who captured Corporal Shalit were at the very least inspired by Hizbullah.
The regional significance of the abductions has also been misconstrued. To suggest Hizbullah attacked on the orders of Tehran and Damascus is to grossly oversimplify a strong strategic and ideological relationship. Historically there has been an overlap of interests between Syria, Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas. Together they form a strategic axis - the "axis of terror" to Israel - that confronts US-Israeli designs to redraw the map of the region.
But the nature of that relationship has changed much over the years. Since Syrian forces left Lebanon, Hizbullah has become the stronger party. It has never allowed any foreign power to dictate its military strategy.
It is ironic, given Israel's bombing of civilian targets in Beirut, that Hizbullah is often dismissed in the west as a terrorist organisation. In fact its military record is overwhelmingly one of conflict with Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory. This is just an example of the way that the west employs an entirely different definition of terrorism to the one used in the Arab world and elsewhere, where there is a recognition that terrorism can come in many forms.
For a view from the other side, Wolf Blitzer's old outfit, the Jerusalem Post:
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora pledged Saturday to extend his government's control over all of Lebanon, signaling he wants to end Hizbullah's autonomy in the south, a top Israeli demand.
But he said he needed the United Nations to first press for a cease-fire to halt Israel's military operation that killed at least 106 Lebanese since Wednesday.
"We call for working to extend the state's authority over all its territories in south Lebanon, in cooperation with the United Nations, and working to recover all Lebanese territories and exercising full sovereignty of the state over those territories," Saniora said in a televised address to the nation.
His voice cracking with emotion, Saniora criticized Hizbullah without naming the group, saying Lebanon "cannot rise and get back on its feet if its government is the last to know."
"The government alone has the legitimate right to decide on matters of peace and war because it represents the will of the Lebanese people," he said.
Saniora said his government would work with the UN to reassert Lebanese authority over its entire territory, but did not elaborate on how.
Israel shrugged off his comments.
"It's an excellent declaration but he doesn't need our permission... We have to see what they do and not what they say," Vice Premier Shimon Peres told Channel 2. He said Lebanon has to prove it is serious by deploying on the southern border.
Saniora also called for the UN to intervene to stop bloody cross-border fighting between Israel and Hizbullah in south Lebanon.
"We call for an immediate and comprehensive cease-fire under United Nations auspices," he said.
The call came after four days of an intensive IDF campaign in Lebanon, accompanied by a continuing attack by Hizbullah on Israeli cities and towns, launching some 1,300 rockets in a range extending dozens of kilometers south of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The IDF destroyed all the radar stations along the Lebanese coast on Saturday, the IDF said in a press conference on Saturday evening.
The IAF attacked Beirut on Saturday evening for the first time in the four-day-old offensive, striking a lighthouse and the Beirut seaport
A helicopter gunship flew into the Lebanese capital from over the Mediterranean and fired a missile at the lighthouse, located at the tip of the city in the Ras Beirut district, witnesses said.
The top glass section of the lighthouse was shattered, but the building, erected two years ago to replace an older one nearby, remained standing.
Witnesses also said the Beirut seaport, the country's main commercial port facility, was also hit, as was the nearby seaport of Jounieh, which houses a Lebanese army base.
A short while earlier, the IAF fired missiles into the seaport of Lebanon's northernmost city of Tripoli in the deepest attack into Lebanese territory since fighting began four days ago.
Witnesses said helicopter gunships and gunboats fired four missiles into the port area, hitting grain silos.
Several explosions were heard in Tripoli, the country's second-largest city, about 100 kilometers north of Beirut. The port there is also the country's second-largest, after Beirut.
Ah yes. Got to hit those "Hezbollian" grain silos...
More links:
A good backgrounder on the conflict, and the groups vying to become Israel's biggest enemy, from The Beeb including this brief history:
Israel in Lebanon:
March 1978: Israel invades to stop Palestinian attacks
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
