"Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the war had killed 900 people in Lebanon and wounded 3,000, with a third of the casualties children under 12.
"He said a million Lebanese, a quarter of the population, had been displaced and infrastructure devastated. The Reuters tally of Lebanon deaths is at least 683.
"Sixty-six Israelis have been killed in the war including 40 soldiers. Israel lowered the number of people killed in rocket strikes to seven after earlier reporting eight."
A little lopsided.
And yet, Hezbollah's Nasrallah remains defiant and continues to invite Israel to wreak devastation on Lebanon:
"If you strike Beirut, the Islamic Resistance will strike Tel Aviv and it is able to do so."Neither side wants to back down first. The death toll continues to mount.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council continues to deabte the form any stabilizing force would take, and the details of a ceasefire. A French proposal calls for the creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon which can be occupied only by UN Forces or Lebanese security forces. Other stipulations of the plan are likely to prevent its adoption, such as provisions for the release of the abducted Israeli soldiers and Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel, and the disarmament of "all militias in Lebanon". You will recall a resolution containing this final provision was already passed by the UN and ignored (UNSC Resolution 1559).
Plus ca change, plus c'est la same goddamn thing.
Technorati tags: Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, UN, Nasrallah
1 comment:
You mentioned earlier, taking a break from all of this bloodshed. When I read about the attacks, counterattacks, proposals, political statements, the horror, the grief, I begin to feel the weight of decades, centuries of human war, particularly in this part of the world. I can understand the Brethren view of complete non-violence. Harper says, should Israel abandon the right of self-defence? I have the urge to say, yes. Abandon this fight. Stop it all. Maybe it is better to be a martyr than to continue this tragedy. Maybe.
But nobody can tell the attacked and the wounded to lay down arms; it must come from within, the weariness of continual anger and frustration. How sad it all is; how traumatized everyone must be, to strike and strike and strike again. It is such a cycle of sorrow and revenge. There are layers and layers and generations of death there.
Counting the numbers and looking at the rational side of this conflict does not really explain what is going on. Of course it is irrational. Of course it is lopsided. But each side is lashing out from fear and anger and they are mourning not only the people killed this year or last year, but the loss of homes decade(s) ago, and a "tribal" memory of their grandparents and their parents and every ancient mythical battle recounted since they can remember.
I don't even care about sides anymore. Because I don't feel that anyone is "justified" - it seems that everyone is brutalized and caught up in a corporate wave of sentiment. I lack any faith that any "peace making" force, UN or otherwise, will be able to effectively dig up these deep roots. I feel foreboding; the nations of the world being drawn into a mesh of confusion and violence. Alas.
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