How perversely ironic. Last Wednesday, Aug. 2, was Tisha b’Av, the Jewish holiday commemorating the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, as well as several other calamities in Jewish history. Yet this year, Tisha b’Av… Read moreJerusalem: fear at the Temple Mount
A note of irony. From IMEC News, July 31: In an official report, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Israeli soldiers took 600 Palestinian residents prisoners since the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from a military… Read more600 Palestinians taken prisoner in July
A glimmer of hope. From The Observer, Aug. 6 (emphasis added): Israeli pilots ‘deliberately miss’ targets Fliers admit aborting raids on civilian targets as concern grows over the reliability of intelligence At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed… Read moreLebanon: passive resistance emerges in IDF
The undiscriminating nature of aerial warfare is producing some surreal ironies in the Israel-Lebanon mess. As we have noted, Israel appears to be loaning military support to Iraqi Kurds due to mutual enmity for the Arabs, leading Arabs and Turks… Read moreIronies of war: Israel kills Kurds, Hezbollah kills Arabs
Indigenous Middle Eastern Jewry, from Lebanon, Morocco, and Iran, have issued recent condemnations of the Israeli assaults on Lebanon and Palestine. The first here is from the Jews of Lebanon website. Lebanese Jewry goes back to 1000 B.C., and did… Read moreIndigenous Middle Eastern Jews condemn Israeli aggression
54 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children, were killed in an Israeli Air Force strike on a 3-story building in the city of Qana in south Lebanon on July 30. (NYT, July 30) From Israel’s largest newspaper,Yediot Aharonot, July 30: Yesha… Read moreSettler rabbis: Jewish law permits Qana carnage
From IRIN, July 29: Lebanon is facing an environmental crisis after an Israeli air strike on the Jiyeh power station, about 20km south of Beirut caused 10,000 tonnes of oil to spill into the Mediterranean sea. The air strikes on… Read moreLebanon: ecological disaster looms
An ad-hoc coalition press release, July 29: 1500 Protesters March Across the Brooklyn Bridge in Solidarity With the Palestinian and Lebanese People New York, NY – 1500 members of the New York community, horrified at the senseless killing of Palestinians… Read more1,500 march across the Brooklyn Bridge for Lebanon and Palestine
Israeli combat jets continue to pound Lebanon, ostensibly targeting Hezbollah missile sites. Israeli military authorities said jets hit 130 targets in Lebanon July 27 and early the 28th, including a Hezbollah base in the Bekaa Valley, where Israel said long-range… Read moreLebanon: carnage mounts, US blocks ceasefire efforts
Shades of the USS Liberty affair. Ian Williams writes for his blog, Deadline Pundit July 26: Accidentally on Purpose With the Israeli bombing of a UN camp and the killing of four UN peacekeepers, we really do seem to be… Read moreIsraeli attack on UN post: “accidentally on purpose”?
On July 21, Israeli reserve officer Yonatan Shapira, a helicopter pilot and signer of the pilots’ letter refusing to perform assassinations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, spoke out against Israel’s attack on Lebanon on Democracy Now! The following quote is… Read moreIsraeli refuseniks oppose war on Lebanon
From CNN, July 20: Lebanese refugees pour across Syrian border YABOSS, Syria — As many as 50,000 refugees from Lebanon poured through one border crossing into Syria alone Thursday, officials said, as the desperate and displaced fled to escape Israel’s… Read moreLebanon: 500,000 displaced
