In a previous post I wrote about covert US involvement in Israel’s rape of Lebanon.
Rolling Stone’s James Bamford says neo-cons in the Bush administration are passing intelligence to Israel with the object not only of keeping the war going but actually widening the theatre.
So, my namesake agrees with me.
I wasn’t too impressed by his cat impersonation on Big Brother last year but, well, when it comes to politics George Galloway is no pussy.
“No one should be in any doubt which way the chain of cause and effect runs. George Bush, with Tony Blair at his heel, is backing Israel to the hilt because the US wants Hizbollah’s resistance in Lebanon smashed as a prelude to an attack on Iran. In Washington, Blair alluded to such a war.”
George Galloway speaks in defence of the Lebanese resistance at the “Hands off Lebanon” demo July 22.
Lebanon yesterday rejected a UN plan for peace in the region.
This is hardly surprising since the draft resolution calls for a “full cessation of all hostilities” but allows Israeli forces to remain in Lebanon and to respond to post-truce attacks by Hezbollah.
Lebanon is also concerned, quite rightly, that the resolution calls for unconditional release of Israeli prisoners while remaining vague about the fate of Lebanese held by Israel.
While the plan calls for “strict respect by all parties for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel and Lebanon”, it says nothing about an Israeli withdrawal from the disputed Shebaa Farms area.
This simply doesn’t equate to full cessation; rather it is a half-assed attempt by the security council to appear to be doing something about the violence against innocent civilians without prejudice to Israel’s dubious position and the covert involvement of the United States.
But what makes the whole affair completely farcical is the fact that, whatever the eventual text of a revised resolution, Hezbollah is unlikely to pay it any heed.
The deal is clear: for “peace keeping force” read armies of occupation; Lebanon is George Bush’s second front in his quest to colonise the middle east and only a fool can expect this to happen without bitter and prolonged conflict.
The violence will escalate, and they all know it.
Read Richard Beeston’s analysis of the sticking points in the UN resolution text.
On July 19 Dan Chung captured this and other images of evacuees from Lebanon arriving and being processed in Limassol, Cyprus.
To view these images as a slideshow click here
As Israeli bombs and Hezbollah rockets continue their destruction on a daily basis in Lebanon and northern Israel, the conflict seems increasingly aimless.
So far perhaps 50 Hezbollah fighters have been killed by the bombing; and upwards of 600 civilians.
The thousands of Hezbollah rockets that have made contact with Israeli soil have failed to kill a single soldier.
The Israeli airforce has destroyed thousands of homes, flattened bridges, torn up roads, smashed milk bottling plants, gas stations, fuel depots and airport runways.
What has been achieved by all this horror?
The answer might be indicated by another, more chilling question: how many suicide bombers can you create out of one mutilated baby?
Robert Fisk, in the Independent, asks:
“Does the United States any longer believe Israel’s claims that it will destroy Hizbollah when its army clearly cannot do anything of the kind? Does Washington not realise that when Israel grows tired of this war, it will plead for a ceasefire – which only Washington can deliver by doing what it most loathes to do: by taking the road to Damascus and asking for help from President Bashar al-Assad of Syria?”
Limassol port is security cordoned, you can’t get near the disembarkation area.
I’m a freelance writer, here at this time by accident; I don’t have a press pass.
I’ve taken some photographs with my new Benq digital: some Cypriot troops guarding the port; military vehicles; a BBC TV crew, nothing outstanding; I’m a little disappointed but I knew it would be like this.
I know some journalists who drink in the bar of the Metropole Hotel, so I decide to go there, have a beer or two with them and see if I can get a feel of what’s going on.
Another disappointment: they’ve obviously decided to drink somewhere else this evening.
I’m just about ready to leave when a tall, bald headed guy with a distinctive scar across his chin nods to me and strikes up what becomes a strange and one sided conversation.
“You are a journalist?” he asks.
I tell him I’m on holiday with my family, that we’re living on the other side of the island but, as I’m a freelance writer, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to do some fishing around Limassol and see what I could catch.
“You know who is the most powerful person in Israel at the moment, if you are a journalist?” he asks. “I’ll tell you. She is an officer in the Israeli army called Sima Vaknin. Her powers are extraordinary, she can do almost anything – shut down newspapers, pull the plug on radio stations, throw journalists into jail without trial… she is the chief military censor.”
“I’m glad we’re not in Israel,” I say.
“Maybe not physically,” he replies, “but as I said, this woman is very powerful.”
He goes on to tell me that to operate in Israel media organisations must abide by the rules and conditions laid down by Colonel Vaknin.
These rules and conditions preclude the filing of real time reports locating missile hits; reporting of hits on army bases or strategic targets; reports of missiles landing in the sea; reports indicating when citizens are permitted to leave the bunkers for supplies; reports on the movements of senior officials; reports on the availability of shelters in particular ares where public defence is weak…
In short, any reports of any real significance at all.
So far in the current conflict about one Hezbollah rocket in every hundred has killed an Israeli.
They’re fired blind and most of them land in empty fields, abandoned streets, the sea; the danger to Israeli citizens is a purely random one and Israel obviousy wants to retain that condition.
“Report immediately that a missile has splashed, for example, into the mediterranean,” he says, “and any Hezbollah guerrilla with an internet connection knows to aim left. Report that an oil refinery in Haifa went up in flames, he’ll reload. Report that a senior official is going up north and it will be raining rockets there in no time.
“It’s the logic of censorship, my friend, you as a journalist should know this.”
“But I told you,” I say, “I am not a journalist.”
He doesn’t reply, just smiles and lights a cigarette.
I sense a certain hostility so I decide to go to the washroom before saying goodbye and starting off home.
When I return he’s gone.
Later that night I decide to check out the photographs I took that day with my new Benq digital – it’s empty, the memory card has been completely wiped.
24/07/06
It’s the start of my second week in Cyprus.
Last week the island started to strain under the weight of the exodus from Lebanon.
By Friday over 12000 evacuees had already arrived and the authorities said that as many as 70000 were expected to pass through Cypriot seaports.
As refugee numbers have been added to by hundreds of journalists and TV crews, accomodation in Larnaca and Limassol is scarce, and humanitarian agencies have begun spreading people out to other parts of the island such as Pafos.
In Nicosia the US Embassy has rented 2000 square feet of empty exhibition space at the State Fair grounds and has established a makeshift transit camp there to process thousands of Americans who have fled the bombing.
There are many heartbreaking stories circulating about what is happening just 140 kms across the med. in Southern Lebanon.
Nathakie Malhame was brought up in Cyprus and now lives in Beirut.
She sent an email to the Cyprus Weekly newspaper.
“Here in Lebanon, the atmosphere is grim and sad. The airport has been bombed many times, there is a sea and air blockade, the Syrian border has been bombed, we cannot leave the country easily, if at all.
Bridges, oil stations, the airport, entire villages (Haret, hreik, Chtaura, Saida, Tyre, Dahiye, Kfarshima…) and most of our infrastructure has been targeted and destroyed.
We can rebuild our infrastructure. We have done it before and we can do it again… But what about the innocent lives that have been lost? The eight Lebanese Canadians, the twelve members of a family trying to leave their village, the four Brazilians, and the other hundreds (and still counting) of lives that have been taken.
Their lives cannot be rebuilt… lives taken without a second thought. So far only innocent lives have been taken. Children have not been spared. Friends frleeing through the Syrian borders had to see the bodies of children and babies being pushed away in a trolley. These images will stay with them for life.
Bombs fall and rockets hit one after the other. We are afraid to sleep. We have no shelters, only the garages of our buildings. How safe are they? You tell me.
Is my friend stuck in Saida safe? Those supposed flyers that fall out of the Israeli planes to warn villagers to flee their villages fall at most, 60 minutes before these villages are wiped away. How much time does that give people to run away? What about the people who cannot read or the tourists or second or third generation returnees who cannot read Arabic?
And how can they run away if all the roads and bridges have been destroyed? You tell me.
No… Hezbollah should not have kidnapped those two Israeli soldiers. They did that without the Lebanese population’s or the government’s knowledge.
But that does not give the Israeli Army the right to destroy entire villages and take away innocent lives… They did not even try to negotiate.
This conflict has gone beyond the capture of the soldiers. It has spilled over, way over into the danger zone.
Do we really want to see the start of World War III?
Tell me, is that what you want?
Do we really want to ignore the value of human life?
Day by day more tears and blood are spilt, on all sides. In Haifa, in Gaza, in Beirut, in Palestine, Israel and Lebanon and let’s not forget Iraq.
What for? What for? Please tell me what for.
I stand up and calmly cry out with dignity and love for humanity: No. No more violence. No more violence. Please people of all nations… Stand up and say no.
Tell me that you will not stanf idly by, tell me that you will not close your eyes. Tell me you will raise your voice of peace… now, before more human lives are lost.
Thank you for listening, from Lebanon with tears.”
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Galloway 