You have no doubt by now heard that Israel's overzealous crippling of Lebanon's infrastructure has lead to a major oil spill, with an estimated 110,000 barrels of crude oil lapping at Lebanon's shores. For comparison, the Exxon Valdez spilled about 257,000 barrels of oil in 1989 (source: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)Above you can see what Ramlet el-Beida now looks like. The name of this Beirut beach translates to the White Beach. The power plant is located 20km south of Beirut. I found it on google earth and have highlighted it for you at right. You can make out Beirut's airport and Beirut beyond that at the top of the satellite pic.
International assistance is ready and waiting, but unable to reach the affected area because of Israel's maritime and air blockade, and disruption of ground transportation infrastructure.
Technorati tags: oil spill, Israel, Exxon Valdez, Beirut, Lebanon, Google Earth
2 comments:
Though not directly related to the blogs, a growing concern is the recent terrorist attacks from Canadian-, British- and American-born Arabs. In recent news a self-identified “Muslim American” opened fire on Jews in a Seattle Synagogue because he is “angry with Israel.” Terrorism is no longer isolated to the rare foreign fundamentalist because it seems to rapidly becoming "home-grown."
There are many countries who have suffered the tragic consequences of war; the Japanese did not immigrate to America and start opening fire on Americans for what happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but Arabs seem to think theirs should spill into Canada, Britain and the U.S. There seems to be something inherently primitive and uncivilized about Arab Muslims no matter which part of the world they live in.
I had made the claim to a friend yesterday that Israel is not a true democracy because Israeli Arabs are not allowed to vote. He challenged me on this and I discovered that my source was faulty and that Israeli Arabs do have the right to vote. In fact, they have seats in the Knesset (Israeli legislature), are exempt from conscription, and have access to full legal protections (Wikipedia). This has renewed my interest in considering the preservation of Israel, and of its worthiness as a recipient of foreign aid as you (fgm) suggest.
The demographic shift of Israeli ethnicity created by the higher birth rate among Arabs may be the key to the preservation of Israel over the coming decades.
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