Is Beirut Burning?
by Uri Avnery (former Knesset member, journalist and peace activist)
July 27, 2006, Tel Aviv
For the full article, go to
Some excerpts:
Years of the occupation regime in the Palestinian territories have caused a terrible callousness as far as human lives are concerned. The
killing of ten to twenty Palestinians every day, including women and
children, as happens now in Gaza, does not agitate anyone. It doesn't
even make the headlines. Gradually, even routine expressions like "We
regret…we had no intention…the most moral army in the world…" and all the other trite phrases are not heard anymore.
. . .
Even the launching of rockets at our towns and villages does notjustify this ignoring of moral considerations in fighting the war. There were other ways of responding to the Hizbullah provocation,
without turning Lebanon into rubble. The moral numbness will be
transformed into grievous political damage, both immediate and long
term. Only a fool or worse ignores moral values - in the end, they
always take revenge.
IT IS almost banal to say that it is easier to start a war than to
finish it. One knows how it starts, it is impossible to know how it
will end.
. . .
All this time, the United States has been using all its might in order
to prevent the cessation of hostilities. All signs indicate that it is
pushing Israel towards a war with Syria - a country that has ballistic
missiles with chemical and biological warheads.
Only one thing is already certain on the 11th day of the war: Nothing
good will come of it. Whatever happens - Hizbullah will emerge
strengthened. If there had been hopes in the past that Lebanon would
slowly become a normal country, where Hizbullah would be deprived of a pretext for maintaining a military force of its own, we have now provided the organization with the perfect justification: Israel is
destroying Lebanon, only Hizbullah is fighting to defend the country.
As for deterrence: a war in which our huge military machine cannot
overcome a small guerilla organization in 11 days of total war
certainly has not rehabilitated its deterrent power. In this respect,
it is not important how long this war will last and what will be its
results - the fact that a few thousand fighters have withstood the
Israeli army for 11 days and more, has already been imprinted in the
consciousness of hundred of millions of Arabs and Muslims.
From this war nothing good will come - not for Israel, not for Lebanon
and not for Palestine. The "New Middle East" that will be its result
will be a worse place to live in.
2 comments:
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If you'd like a depressing article, why not search one out that asks why on earth Hesbollah would fill their warheads with BALL BEARINGS before sending them, indiscriminately, into Israeli settlements?
Do you have any Jewish friends at all?!
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