Live from an Israeli bunker

9/11

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 16:36:00 +0000

Christian Zionism or an example of how Israel is screwed

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:19:00 +0000

What you think its only about one or two religions? Everybody have an opinion about what gods thinks should happen to Israel, in Israel, and to Israelis apparently. This is just swell:

"The Vatican's envoy in the Holy Land and bishops from three other churches have launched a rare joint attack on the Christian Zionist movement, accusing it of promoting "racial exclusivity and perpetual war."

The "Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism" was signed by Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, a Palestinian, and by bishops of the Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran and Syrian Orthodox Churches in Jerusalem.

"The Christian Zionist programme provides a world view where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism," said the declaration, accusing Christian Zionists of hurting hopes for Middle East peace.

"We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war," the declaration added."

So a Vatican envoy lead by Palestinian and Syrian Orthodox Christians said they don't like the jooos, and that they don't like other Christians liking them. In reply:

"The three main Christian Zionist groups in Jerusalem said in a statement that they were concerned at the declaration's "inflammatory language" and that it was far from the truth."

- Well, it was inflammatory. But read on.

"Christian Zionists stress Christianity's Jewish roots. Some back the movement to settle the occupied West Bank, the cradle of Jewish civilization, which Palestinians want as part of an independent state." - But what if Jesus wasn't Jewish? We shouldn't get support?

"We pray for peace. But we note with sadness that the present Palestinian government is totally dedicated to the destruction of Israel," the Christian Zionist groups said in their statement, referring to the governing Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The prospect of Middle East peace talks has looked even more unlikely since Hamas's election victory in January. The group is formally dedicated to destroying Israel.

"The problem in the region is not as simple as the Jerusalem Declaration makes out," the Christian Zionists' statement said.

- Right you are, maybe your not cr..

"Some Christian Zionists believe that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land will bring about the end of the world and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Some also believe Jews themselves will have to become Christians or perish."

- Wait. WHAT? I thought we were supposed to become Muslim or parish.

All Jews are not the same. The good ones become Muslims, the bad ones do not.

- Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Muslim leader, philosopher extraordinary.

The two groups of Christians by the way are Orthodox and Protestant. Like nobody saw that rivalry coming.

Not one to editorialize or quote only what I want, you can find all of the article here. It has some more to it then that of course, for example, there are a lot of Christians who support Israel from the States who are not Zionist, 'etc, 'etc. And who am I to criticize those who support us? This really does raise the interesting question of how to react to support from somebody who you don't agree with their reasoning.

You see, just because one group said that Jews are bad because its written in their book and the other group said Jews are good because its written in their book and a third group said that the group that likes Jews doesn't understand their book and are largely lead by former members of the first group.. its all whacked. What if some new versions of their books are discovered which clearly state the opposite? And not to be anti-religious here, but logic dictated by interpretation of religious documents thousands of years old is just, well, not logical.

I think the above just exemplifies how Israel is screwed because of the historic and geographical circumstances, being the cradle of various religions and of strategic importance to so many different interests political and otherwise is just bad luck in my opinion. At times like these I wish we were all eskimos.

Thank you for your support Christian Zionists, but I can only pray to god that the reason for it is the right reason, namely reason. And if your confused, so am I.

Welcome to the Network

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 06:29:00 +0000

Thirty years ago a film was made titled Network. It was written by one of my favorite writers (Paddy Chayefsky), directed by one of my favorite directors (Sidney Lumet), and stared by one of my favorite actors (William Holden). Great movies get better with time, this one may be the best movie of all time.

I've watched it again tonight, sleep avoids me for some reason, and this is just so uncanny, so surreal that I have to share it here.

Howard Beale was a long time anchorman who's life, upon hitting middle age, went downhill. After a streak of bad luck he was fired. This conversation follows, in a bar between him and his best friend Max Schumacher:

"Howard: I'm gonna blow my brains out right on the air... right in the middle of the seven o'clock news.

Max: You'll get a hell of a rating, I'll guarantee that. Fifty share easy.

Howard: You think so?

Max: Sure. We could make a series out of it. "Suicide of the Week." Hell, Why limit ourselves? "Execution of the Week."

Howard: "Terrorist of the Week. "

Max: They'll love it. Suicides. Assassinations. Mad bombers. Mafia hit men. Automobile smashups. "The Death Hour."
"A great Sunday night show for the whole family." It'd put fucking Disney right off the air."

Sure enough, when Howard next goes on the air (he has two weeks notice to complete) he utters the words: "Tune in next Tuesday. I'm going to shoot myself."

Meanwhile, enter a young producer hungry for her shot at success:

"Diana: This is really terrific footage. We can get a movie of the week out of it, maybe even a series.

Man: A series? What are we talking about?

Diana: We've got a bunch of hobgoblin radicals, the Ecumenical Liberation Army... who go around taking home movies of themselves robbing banks. Maybe they'll take movies of themselves kidnapping heiresses, hijacking 747s, bombing bridges, assassinating ambassadors. We'd open each week's segment with their authentic footage... hire writers to write a story behind that footage, and we've got a series.

Man II: A series about a bunch of bank-robbing guerrillas?

Barbara: What will we call it, the "Mao Tse-Tung Hour"?

Diana: Why not? They've got "Strike Force," "Task Force," "SWAT." Why not Che Guevara and his own little "Mod Squad?"

These words hung in the air for me. Are the hobgoblins not Hezbollah? Isn't this exactly what the media has been doing? SWAT, they have COPS now instead.

All of a sudden the words Max said cynically become all too real. After Diana finds out that Howard threatened to shot himself on the air you can guess what happened. He becomes a TV phenomenon, a news anchor that in his own words "ran out of bullshit", a news anchor who cracked up and started telling the truth.

Click to watch VideoAnnouncer: And starring the Mad Prophet of the Airways, Howard Beale!

Howard: Edward George Ruddy died today!

Edward George Ruddy was the chairman of the board of the Union Broadcasting Systems
and he died at 11:00 this morning of a heart condition. Woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble! So, a rich little man with white hair died. What does that got to do with the price of rice, right? And why is that woe to us?

Because you people... and 62 million other Americans are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books. Because less than 15 percent of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole and entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel. The ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers. This tube is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world... and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people!

And that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackettn sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome, goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network!

So you listen to me. Listen to me! Television is not the truth.
Television's a goddamned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats.. We're in the boredom-killing business. So if you want the truth, go to God. Go to your gurus. Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth. But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you wanna hear. We lie like hell. We'll tell you that Kojak always gets the killer and that nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, look at your watch, at the end of the hour he'll win! We'll tell you any shit you want to hear! We deal in illusions. None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night. You're all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know.
You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, eat like the tube, raise your children like the tube, even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! We are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off in the middle of this sentence. Turn them off!"

The producer, realizing that she was unto something (60 million viewers after all) goes ahead and cuts a deal with a communist woman to give her one hour of airtime to use as propaganda her for her party's political views (who don't really interest anyone) in exchange for more of the above mentioned footage, weekly. Not talking to the terrorists directly but using her as a go between and protecting themselves with the 1st amendment, the right of free speech, and their privilege not to disclose their sources. All in the name of ratings.

So many parallels, so many similarities. During the movie you hear about Arab countries wanting to raise the prices of oil and the civil war in Lebanon is briefly mentioned as a backhand remark. I even think I heard the word Iran. Some things never change. But Howard goes on:

Click to watch Video"We all know that the Arabs control $16 billion in this country. They own a chunk of Fifth Avenue, 20 downtown pieces of Boston, a part of the port of New Orleans, an industrial park in Salt Lake City. They own big hunks of the Atlanta Hilton the Arizona Land and Cattle Company the Security National Bank in California the Bank of the Commonwealth in Detroit. They control Aramco, so that puts them into Exxon, Texaco and Mobil Oil. They're all over!

New Jersey, Louisville, St. Louis, Missouri. And that's only what we know about. There's more we don't know about. Because all of those Arab petrol dollars are washed through Switzerland and Canada and the biggest banks in this country. For example, what we don't know about is this CCA deal and all the other CCA deals. Right now the Arabs have screwed us out of enough American dollars to come right back and with our own money buy General Motors, IBM, ITT, AT&T,Du Pont, U.S. Steel and 20 other American companies. Hell, they already own half of England!

Listen to me. Listen to me, goddamn it! The Arabs are simply buying us. There's only one thing that can stop them! You! You! So I want you to get up now. I want you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the phone. I want you to get up from your chairs, go to the phone, get in your cars, drive into the Western Union offices in town. I want you to send a telegram to the White House. Oh, my God - By midnight tonight I want a million telegrams in the White House! I want them wading knee-deep in telegrams at the White House. I want you to get up right now and write a telegram to President Ford saying "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore! I don't want the banks selling my country to the Arabs!"

The CCA deal he's talking about is part of the movie plot where the Western World Funding Corporation are buying the large company he's working for "the most awesome, goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world", and that they are buying it on behalf of the Saudis, secretly. This has in fact already happened in a sense.

Look at the places he mentioned. Howard turned out to really be a prophet. How strange it is that a 30 year old movie can be so relevant, can resonate so well, with the situation today.

But unfortunately this is real life, we don't have Beale's with a 60 million audience to tell the truth too. In fact many people are in denial, or just not interested to hear about it. Like he said, if we want the truth (and we do want it, don't we?) "Go to yourselves!", go to the blogosphere, tell people who don't know better, and just for laughs send the White house a telegram.

An attack is inevitable

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 17:23:00 +0000

I've talked about this before, but not extensively. I think this is a good time to dwell deeper into this seeing how everybody moved forward after the UK terror plot that was foiled. It didn't happen, but it could have. Unfortunately, I think it will inevitably happen in the future. Before we go over why its inevitable, let me explain why its currently even possible.

The picture above is of the US, and it's two boarding countries; Canada and Mexico.
The United States has a coastline of over 12,000 miles (almost 20,000KM). The red line is it's border with Mexico (~2000 miles, ~3000KM), the yellow is it's border with Canada which is three times it's size. Ladies and gentleman, the borders are big. HUGE.

Let's start with the Mexico border. It's guarded by the National Guard, It is estimated that over a million people cross the border illegally each year. Now, no offense to my Mexican readers but this just not good. Issues of illegal immigrants crossing over for jobs is beyond the scope of this blog, but from a purely security point of view this is nothing short of a disaster. Never mind the drug and weapon smugglers or the people who die in the attempt, this is an easy way for terrorists to gain entry into the country.

Is it possible to control such a border? Absolutely. In the 90's the army was sent for a time to control the border, by all accounts it was a successful attempt. What people are looking into now is a fence, and the fence should work. It has been done before on a smaller scale with success rates of over 90%. A 2,000 mile, fence that would cover all of it would cost roughly $1.5 - 3 billion and be completed in 6 months. See for yourself in this except from The Colbert Report (just about as accurate as other main stream news sources, but much more entertaining).

It's doable, it worked for Israel and it will work for the United States but for some reason it's not being done. Not fast enough at least. So supposedly this border which is crossed over 350 million times a year and leaves over a million illegal immigrants in the country will come under control sometime in the not distant future.

Let's turn our attention to the north, the United States-Canada border. A border which is three times longer then the one with Mexico and is dubbed as: "the world's longest undefended border". I can't help but have the urge to smack my forehead here.

The sheer promiscuity, for lack of a better word, of that border I witnessed first hand on my trip there. Crossing over by bus we stopped at the border for a customs check, stamp passport, finger print, picture. There were no metal detectors, nobody was searched or checked at all. But that's just the checkpoint, the border is so vast that taking an SUV and finding some remote unmonitored crossing is a piece of cake.

But it gets worse:

"This official U.S. Customs and Border Protection reporting station is on the border between Manitoba, a Canadian province, and Minnesota, and relies on the honor system. Yes, the U.S. government is counting on all people who cross into Angle Inlet, Minnesota, to report themselves via telephone. There are no permanent customs or immigration officials who work at the checkpoint."

- Anderson Cooper. Read it all, you'll be amazed.

Using the honor system on a border which is three times longer then the one with Mexico, or any border really post 9/11, is ludicrous.

The black line is the combined coast lines of the United States and Canada. Canada has by far the longest coast line in the word at over 240,000KM. I think its pretty obvious that if a terrorist wanted to gain entry into the United States today he could get in (some of the 9/11 terrorists used fake documents and didn't even have to sneak in). Couple that with the lack of gun control and the picture is not pretty.

"Alright, alright, this is quite scary. But if its so possible why hasn't it happened already then?" - Therein lays the meat of the matter, so to speak.

Some would say that it's already happening. But thats not exactly right.

September 11 took the lives of less then 0.0001% of the US population. They cant destroy and kill all of America, that wasn't what it was all about. It was meant to terrorize, scare, and provoke. Just because a terrorist can sneak into America, buy a gun, and kill half a dozen people or so, doesn't mean its worth the effort in their eyes. Thousands of people are murdered in the States every year anyway, its not scary enough.

Planes exploding over the atlantic, or crashing into buildings or over populated cities, now thats scary. The UK plot was foiled, the next one is probably not far behind, is America ready?

Best footage of this war I have seen - Must Watch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 19:18:00 +0000

Video removed - watch it here instead.

"Itai Anghel accompanied regiment 931 of the Nahal Brigade (infantry) to a battle that took place on the night of August 6-7 in Houleh, a Hezbollah-controlled village in Lebanon that is about 3 kilometres north of the border with Israel. Anghel documents the fierce battle that took place using a camera equipped with a night vision lens.

With the exception of the officers - Avi Dahan and Biche - all the soldiers are reservists in their 20's and 30's who did their three-year mandatory army service (ages 18-21) in the unit; in other words, they are civilians who responded to emergency call up notices." - Via On the Face.

That is, hands down, the most impressive footage I have seen from this conflict. I don't want to give it away, watch it all the action gets quite intense but I will reveal this: at one point Hezbollah fighters are discovered who were wearing IDF uniforms. First I hear of that tactic on their part, and it doesn't seem widespread but this is interesting to say the least.

A little less reporting a little more talking please

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:44:00 +0000

Breaking news: No news to break.
Well that's not accurate, the president might be corrupt and basketball, football (soccer) and other sporting events may or may not be hosted in Israel for a while. Again. Turkey has explosions, UK had a terror plot with 10 planes, but apparently Israel is not safe for sports anymore (again). It's all nonsense of course, but who cares about sports really. Sure, this will furthermore hurt the tourist industry, and sure this is yet another effect of terrorism, but its not new, not breaking and not news.

The war is over. I don't personally agree with that sentiment (I heard a newscaster utter here today) and there is a lot to write about and do. But breaking news, live, right now? There is none. The excitement, the frantic unfolding of events, it's over.

What's a Bunker Blogger (obviously not in a bunker anymore, but the name stays and I'll tell you why in the future) to write about from day to day? His thoughts. This is a blog after all, I tried for it to not be in the common way, but when the news stop-a-flowing a writer must dig down into the bottom of the barrel and present his personal musings. I apologize in advance.

Breaking news: (oh the irony) In yesterdays blast in Turkey an Israeli family was present, the wife injured. I've just watched an interview with the husband in perfect hebrew and calmness telling his experience and how "it" followed him there from home. Can't help but feel that somebody from here would handle this so much better then if they were from elsewhere. If you were planning a trip to Turkey have a guide that speaks the language and be careful about where you go.

Back to my musings. Before I get my own round of interviews started I'd like to share a feeling that I sometimes have. If this is a sure sign of schizophrenia we I don't care. I sometimes like to hold fictional conversations in my head, there I said it.

This might range from Woody Allen discussing my latest screenplays with me (he has some comments but generally he is very impressed usually) or Nietzsche telling me how right I am. But at times like these it usually turns to interviews that I'd very much like to conduct but am unable to (at the moment at least, anything is possible, long live the blogosphere, 'etc). During the Rome Summit I had wild fantasies of asking Siniora why after they drove out Syria they didn't drive out Hezbollah as well. "It cost your predecessor his life, and he was well aware of the danger he was putting himself in, we had it happen as well, the Americans at one point had in the past had it happen. Historic times call upon leaders to do historic things. What are you doing for your country Mr. Siniora? Your country was able to drive Syria out but not Hezbollah? If you were unable to, why did you not ask for assistance from the UN? Syria was driven out with the support and pressure from the international community. Why have you not been in contact with Israel's PM even once?" - it was a lot more eloquent in my head at the time, believe me.

I'm getting that feeling again. Olmert visited the north, including Haifa, and said the following: "..the claims that the North of the country collapsed are false, those who's hearts bled for the North for the most part sat in coffee shops in Tel-Aviv talking about how bad the situation is." The second part is probably very true in a way, the first is complete nonsense. And so here goes.

BB: "Mr. Olmert thank you very much for sparing the time to take this interview."
Olmert: "Don't mention it."
BB: "You've said some interesting things today. In your opinion the North wasn't damaged?"
Olmert: "The North held firm and is fine now, it didn't collapse, were on the right track to-"
BB: "It did hold firm, but I don't I don't think upon your visit you realized what the damage was and is. The Hezbollah doesn't have guided missiles, it points and shoots and has no control where it might hit. You don't see condensed areas of damage, a rocket here, a rocket there, one-two dead at a time, without a pattern. Going thru the cities, thru Haifa and farther to the North, the effect is not fully seen. But the fact is that we had a million people living in bunkers for a month, not being able to work, not being able to do much of anything. Shopping for food was a danger, in fact people were hit because of that, the personal damages, you just don't see it."

I'd like to say it's my lack of imagination that's responsible for me not having an imaginary answer from Olmert to my question. Then again I lack a question mark there as well, don't I?

Things you didn't see

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 19:27:00 +0000

The above was emailed to me as a powerpoint presentation, I took the liberty of uploading it to youtube. This is what life was like in Israel for a month.

About 30 minutes by train from where I am the city of Nahariya is located. During the conflict this city of 50,000 turned into a ghost town, it was easily within range of rockets and repeatedly targeted by rockets. Most residents left, the trains stopped arriving so far for fear of being hurt.

Of course some people couldn't (or in rarer cases wouldn't) leave.

In Nahariya a hospital was hit, in Haifa the hospital had daily close calls.

Both cities are now back to normal, over the next week I'll be showing you both, ideally visiting locations that were hit and talking to people. You'll get to see first hand how war effects Israelis (I'll give you a hint, once its all over were shaken for a little while but not stirred. The "bounce back" as I like to call it will be interesting to see).

Or you can go watch CNN.

Notes: For more pictures click on the title of this post, CNN please don't sue me.

At least one Palestinian is not crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:42:00 +0000

Excuse the provocative title, but this has never happened before and I'm intrigued. The spokesman of the Palestinian government has criticized the people, this is the first time a senior figure (with ties to Hamas no less) isn't blaming Israel or the IDF but rather calls for soul searching on their own part.

"After the withdrawal we hoped for a bright future, we thought we were reaping the fruits of our sacrifices. But I'm asking myself today - why did the occupation return? The wise and the critics will say the occupation is responsible. I'm not here today to defend the occupation, but I'd like us to stand by our mistakes, mistakes we are used to always blame on others.

The anarchy, the needless killing, the robbing of land, thugs on the streets, traffic disorder - is the occupation responsible for all of these? We got used to blame our own sins on others and trumpet the conspiracy theory which limited our minds.

When Israel withdrew it's forces a year a go as part of the disengagement plan, there were high expectations that prosperity and growth will follow and end poverty and hardship. It didn't take long for things to grow worse and for that hope to dissolve.

Following Israel's withdrawal many Palestinians hoped that positive forces will take the place of the Israeli army and bring order, instead anarchy captured the void and now hardly a day goes by without a criminal murder occurring or squaring of off debts between families and rival organizations [Ed note: think Sopranos but an order of magnitude or two worse]"

Well there you have it folks, from the horses mouth, hopefully this wasn't a temporary burst of lucidity or that he won't be swiftly assassinated (like over a dozen Lebanese politicians who opposed Hezbollah for example).

Speaking of Hezbollah, rearming and movement activities have been spotted, returning with the refugees and civilians. The arming activity is obviously meant against the IDF but also against the Lebanese army, which is interesting because UNIFIL announced that they won't prevent the Hezbollah from rearming because its the Lebanese army's job. Are we going to see clashes between Hezbollah and the Lebanese army? Is this a prelude to a civil war? It's too early to tell.

Just to leave you with a note about the UNIFIL, the extensive tunnel network that the Hezbollah built is being systematically destroyed by the IDF (what they control and are able to find in time), the footage I've seen is nothing short of amazing, they have sinks and showers there and solid concrete walls and stairs for miles and miles. Many of which are right next to UN outposts. I find it hard to believe that the people posted there were oblivious to this.

Bunker Blog is heading home

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:09:00 +0000

I'm writing this from the airport, finally heading home. I had a very interesting trip and met enough people to warrant quite a few posts, but the real work will just start once I get back. The above photo was taken with my Macbook, I hear Vlogs are all the rage, in fact I was planning on doing one in the UN but my interviewee was understandably busy (guess who it was). In the following weeks you can expect a number of these, I have a few interesting things coming up.

I've met a number of security personnel here, huge looking guys in army uniforms with guns (one of them a policeman), unfortunately they refused to be shown or answer many questions but basically they are there to reassure the public. It's a show of force. I'll see if I can get one of them to spill the beans.

Regular updates to resume soon.

Answer to US security in my pocket, and News

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 03:25:00 +0000

Unsurprisingly enough, most European countries are not tripping over each other to send troops to south Lebanon as per the new UN resolution that they pushed for so badly. France, for example is only willing to send 200 troops (in addition to the 200 they have there as part of UNIFIL already), their secretary of defense saying: "You can just send people there not being able to defend themselves and not being allowed to fire back", no kidding.

Other the Italy (world cup champions, great food) who are leading the way with 3000 (nonetheless, one of their generals was quoted saying the UN resolution was a joke) most countries are side stepping this, not that I blame them, except I do because those hypocrites pushed for this to pass but when push comes to shove they don't own up to their words. Muslim countries however are more then happy to offer their services, in fact they are yearning to do it, Malaysia and Indonesia who do not recognize Israel have asked to participate and send their own forces. Naturally, our ambassador intervened and hopefully that nightmare won't come to pass.

The Lebanese army so far has deployed about 4,500 out of the 15,000 it's supposed to. But again, it was said time and time again by them that the Lebanese army has no intention of disarming Hezbollah. That's great because the Hezbollah has no intention of taking on the Lebanese army (or so they claim right now): "There is no chance of that because we favored this from the started, there is coordination between us and every social and political movement in the south, especially with the army."

The geopolitics here are so complex it's sometimes hard to keep track, but the Muslim countries who are allied with the US and are uncomfortable with the thought of Hezbollah growing in power and popularity are setting up their own Arab summit in the next few months. Before you get your hopes up they still blame Israel for failing the peace process anyway.

As for the political situation in Israel, as I said before the Likud and Bibi are going to win this big time. It's starting already. More on that in the future.

I'd like to close with my own experiences of today and previous days. I bused from Canada into the states, on the border we stopped, everybody got out of the bus with just their passports, wait in line, get stamp, scan fingers, take picture, go on your way. In my pockets I had an iPod and headphones, and a wallet, they were bulging but nobody checked them. I could have easily taken anything I wanted, the lack of control is frightening.

Today I was in NYC, I haven't been here since 1999 and I didn't know what to expect. It's largely the same. Going into the Metropolitan Museum two bored security guards were idly checking bags and passing people thru, no metal detectors. My point being that following the foiled terror plot in the UK news networks kept asking if America is safe and if attack here is possible. There's your answer.

The fallout continues

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 02:45:00 +0000

Soldiers returning from the south of Lebanon have interesting things to say (via Ynet.co.il) - Following a couple of fighting days they asked for resupplies, they were told they will receive it but it didn't arrive. Exhaustion setting in they realized that they quickly need to find food or they will lose focus, so they entered houses in the village of A-tiiba and cooked for themselves, one scant meal a day for 12 days until they reached the Litani river and were given the order to turn back. For water they searched houses and added Chlorine to tap water.

This is one report from one troop, how widespread this was I do not know but it shows of a severe lack of planning and organization that went on in the IDF.

A glimpse into an infantry soldiers day is a ten mile (17 km) or so walk, sometimes helping carrying stretchers with wounded, heat, keep quite, keep low. Modus operandi is to scout out an area and pick a tactical position and lay in wait, sometimes for 24 hours, observation, sniper action, upon spotting more significant activity consulting with head quarters and then going in for a coordinated attack with other groups in the area. Clearing areas in such a way and moving forward with your rear securing the positions. That is what we do, and we are supposed to be very good at it. It didn't happen quite like that this time.

Instead of having perfectly coordinated movements and constant resupplies what went on there is best described as chaos. Not to exaggerate but this is what I keep hearing and reading.

There have been numerous cases of near friendly fire, troops not knowning the movements of fellow soldiers, rapid changes in objectives (march to one village, reach it, suddenly order is given to turn and head for a different one). "We didn't use even 10% of our capability" one soldier said, they were the first to reach the Litani and just as they were getting ready to truly deploy they were called back. Just as they started breaking Hezbollah they were called back and neither they nor I, and really I haven't seen anybody offer an explanation to this yet. On the way back they saw the late arriving food supplies that were left in the field, in one case an arms supply was dropped onto a wrong hilltop basically arming Hezbollah instead.

Our current militarily inexperienced government held the army back, the army leadership is in teeters as well. Where are the generals? It's astonishingly irresponsible what went on there. I can understand trying to go out of their way to not hurt Lebanese civilians (that is very much the case, the military picture of what went on there is becoming more and more clear) but soldiers are not playthings, indecisiveness means casualties. Heads need to roll and there needs to be a shakeup, we cannot afford to have this repeat again in the next conflict which will in fact be worse.

Peres (on a visit in the united states) said that he obligates himself to stand behind Olmert in these difficult hours. "This is not the time for internal wars in Israel , because this war is far from over," he said, stating his full backing for the prime minister. I can understand that, but Hezbollah's strongest tool turned out to be their propaganda, while what hurt us the most was weak leadership, a military shakeup at the very least needs to happen as soon as possible, and there in fact people who are looking into this already. Also notice that he said hours. If this cease fire sticks (and that is uncertain) we need to have swift reelections, in a matter of months. Things need to change, I cannot stress this enough. Most Israeli's think we failed, and rightfully so in light of the previous paragraphs. We failed ourselves.

In other news, while few people seem to be talking about our two kidnapped soldiers, even fewer seem to talk about our third one. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas who now announced they want 600 prisoners for his return, Egypt acting as broker. You read that right, that's six-hundred. While I badly want to see him back, accepting that deal would be insane as it will only anchorage more kidnappings. This wouldn't be a first however.

The media are also upto their same old tricks, Reuters photoshop and staged photos not enough? How about a BBC reporter out right lying! In a video that could have come straight from a Hezbollah's PR vault Barbara Plett claimed that the entire town of Bint Jbeil was destroyed. Luckily she wasn't the only reporter there, and cross referencing their reports reveals the truth. This from a country where just days ago a large terror plot was foiled meant to kill thousands of people and to be largely executed by homegrown (UK born) terrorists. Insanity.

Here is an image of the view behind her.

"As you can see, the centre of the town destroyed on a really wholesale scale, more so than since the last civilians left here, though it has to be said that on the outskirts, the suburbs - pretty much untouched by the Israeli attack and invasion."

This is why I love the blogosphere, kudos drinkingfromhome. Do any of the British readers here want to comment on the fact that your tax money is paying this womans salary?

Will the cease fire hold? I doubt it - some breaking news

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 02:40:00 +0000

Last night I put up a picture of a rocket hitting Haifa right around the time the cease fire went into effect, I did that for a number of reasons: to remind us what has been going on (as we so easily tend to forget and move on), and because I seriously doubt this will hold.

The IDF has received clear instructions to hold their fire unless absolutely necessary, three hours in they opened fire and killed a Hezbollah fighter as they were threatened, a similar event occurred again later in the day. Approaching the 20th hour Hezbollah fired a number of rockets (from what I hear it was 4, CNN says 10) into Israel that fell short and hit south Lebanon instead. No one was injured. While the people in both Lebanon and Israel decided the situation deescalated quickly and decided to return to normal life as soon as possible, not so. Events such as that can trigger wider hostilities and we might get back to what we had before quite fast, at any moment.

The Hezbollah of course declared a glorious victory and announced that it will not disarm. The Lebanese army has no intention of disarming Hezbollah, an advisor to the Lebanese PM and government official went on CNN and dodged the issue entirely but did utter the above statement. It's becoming painfully clear that the situation will remain as it was before all of this started, differing in only two things; An expanded UNIFIL and Lebanese force, and two of our kidnapped soldiers still missing.

But the effect of this month long war is significant. Lets start with some background on Israeli politics. Ariel Sharon, the former PM of Israel created a new political party called "Kadima" (forward) to carry out his plan of disengagement. It was a major political event in Israel, the new party's main purpose was to "end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieve two states for two nations will be the road map. It will be carried out in stages: dismantling terror organizations, collecting firearms, implementing security reforms in the Palestinian Authority, and preventing incitement. At the end of the process, a demilitarized Palestinian state devoid of terror will be established." Shortly before the elections Sharon's health deteriorated and he basically fell into a coma (there is virtually no chance of him recovering), Olmert took over as PM until the elections. Sharon was a major political force in his own right and it was unclear if the new party would survive without him, nonetheless It emerged as the prominent force in Israeli politics and won the elections, and the most seats in the Knesset (cabinet). In my opinion, Kadima enjoyed the momentum it gathered and an extra block of voters who ironically enough would not have voted in support of it with Sharon as it's leader.

This landed us with an Olmert as PM, and Peretz as the defence minister. Peretz up till now concentrated on social issues such as unemployment, worker rights, and education, but I suppose that's what political turbulence can do. Neither of them are experienced military men. The election was also the one with the lowest voting turn out in Israel's history.

The effect of this war on Israeli politics is probably not smaller then Sharon's breaking from the Likud and his subsequent illness. 65% think that Peretz didn't do a good job (which is correct), a similar percent think that Israel did not achieve it's objective and lost, if elections were to happen today the Kadima and Labour party's would lose badly. Making a comparison here with the Iraq war and Lieberman's loss for supporting the war which was used as political ammunition by both Republicans and other Democrats (oh you know it's true, come on - Lemont won because his not Lieberman, what kind of a campaign is that?) - The Likud party is probably sharpening it's political weapons as we speak, but out of respect for the casualties they choose to take the high road and show unity, for now. In my opinion, elections are eminent and will happen in the next 12 months or sooner. And so it is that Nasrallah (and Ahmadinejad) who claimed victory and who is supposedly fighting for the benefit of the Palestinians, has managed indirectly to create a political shift where the party who's leading political agenda I quoted above have lost power. Sometimes I wonder if that scarf of his isn't on too tight.

At least we will have what might be a stronger and better government in place, because this conflict obviously effected more then just us.
Enter stage right Assad, the Syrian president, a man who needs no introduction since he has been there all along. Ynet has learned that in a press conference his about to hold he will use the situation to push for his own interest, aka The Golan Heights. Hezbollah is very popular in Syria, it will be more so after these events. Assad said that: "The chances for peace has decreased and that the Golan will be freed by Syrian hands, if the political road won't be successful it will open the road to resistance." Last couple of days he has been saying: "The coming age is the age of resistance for the liberation of Arabian lands." It's not hard to figure out whats going on here, Israel has backed down, Hezbollah's tactics "worked out" in a way, and he can and will easily use this to his advantage.
If your wondering what was in it for him, by supporting Hezbollah he not only increased his popularity domestically and with other Arabs but set the stage for his play for the Golan heights, and that play is eminent. I won't be surprised if a branch of Hezbollah might suddenly turn up in Syria and start firing rockets into Israel (covering a whole new geographical area, Haifa perhaps targeted again but instead of the northen towns having it the worse, towns around the Kineret lake) demanding the stop of Israeli occupation of Syria, why not? It worked once, it might work again.

He also threatened to attack Israel if Israel strikes anything on Syrian territory, have the conflict drag on for a month while the UN gets it's pitiful act together, at one point declare that the Syrian civilian toll is too great for him and perhaps invade Israel on that premise. On one hand the cost for him would be very high, on the other this past conflict showed that perhaps the cost is not too much to bear as Israel grew softer. All of these smoke and dagger tactics might drag on for quite a bit, it's not impossible to envision one conflict dying down and another restarting, in sync. With all the attention focused on that, guess who gets more and more time to finish their nuclear weapons? If you think this is all far fetched read some quotes by the Syrian and Iranian leaders, they have made their intentions clear.

This is not over, it's not over by a long shot. The best we can hope for is this cease fire holding for a long enough time until we have a government in place that can deal with the situation, if I get to vote by that time I'm voting for Mr. Netanyahu.

Update: I know of somebody that was killed in the fighting. If on the off chance that one of the people concerned are reading this you have my sympathy.

Life in Haifa - A picture

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 06:14:00 +0000

The view from the house of my friend, about 24 hours ago a rocket hit about 5 km (3 miles or so) from his home. When the sirens goes off he goes into an inner room with enforced walls for protection. The number of rockets seemed to decrease a little bit, but really it's more of the same.

Myself I'm busy working away, you will see a lot of content and changes in the next couple of weeks, stay tuned.

Ceasefire, UK Terror, MSM - Must Read

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 03:47:00 +0000

So I'm finally back to where I have internet access and a lot has been going on.

I've talked about this before but I'd like to start with the Qana incident again. Almost two weeks ago the Israeli air force bombed Qana at night, the building fell 7 hours later, the roof seemed to be intact. Shortly after a huge banner appeared condemning the event. It simply couldn't have been made that fast, it was prepared in advance.

Pictures started showing up of a rescue worker handling the bodies of dead children which after some analysis by the blogosphere turned out to be quite obviously staged. The reported number of casualties was also significantly higher then the actual number. These pictures (I covered this in the last post) were picked up by newspapers around the world making quite impressive front pages, a dramatic cover like that would sure make me want to buy one.

Some people choose to not believe any of this, none of this however was reported by any mainstream media outlets, nobody paused before crying out how horrible Israel is.

Now this video is released proving it. (warning: it's graphic)

Taking this direction I just established about Qana and running with it further, Reuters has admitted a number of times to have photoshopped it's photos to add dramatic effect, smoke over Beirut makes for an impressive and more importantly effective picture, doesn't matter if it's real or not. Reuters in case your wondering is a major provider of pictures and reports to media all over the world, you see their pictures on CNN, BBC, and really just about anywhere. You can't avoid it, you can't escape it. The significance of this is mind boggling, sad, and very alarming at the same time.

To show just how wide spread this is here is a quote from an excellent piece by lgf, I urge you to read it in full: "..What this means is that while there are around 50 people producing news pictures for the whole world working in Camden at any time, there are a further 50 Arabic speaking staff producing finished stories exclusively for the Arab states of the gulf. This has a tremendous effect on the whole feel of the building as these two teams feed pictures and people back and forth and sit in adjacent work areas. The slant of the stories required by the Gulf States has a definite effect on which footage is used and discarded. This affects both the Gulf newsroom and the main global newsroom.
..Anything involving Israel is a favorite with Gulf Arab states for showing to their viewers. Could this be the reason why Israel receives such a disproportionate amount of particularly negative coverage especially and increasingly ever since the early 1970’s? Footage such as the Palestinian mob joyfully lynching two Israeli reservists in Ramallah in October 2000 is held by APTN’s library: any attempt to license this film for re-show is carefully vetted. Requests for the use of “sensitive clips” are referred directly to the Library director. This is not the case with clips that paint Israel in a bad light. Likewise, the re-showing of Palestinian celebrations on 9/11 is considered “sensitive”.

The way in which raw footage such as APTN’s is compiled into a news report and sent round the world has also been analyzed. The Second Draft gives a comprehensive view of how editing can make all the difference. APTN is the gatekeeper that sits between you and the actual event. You will never see what the editors at APTN see before they compile your evening news.

..[this is] an addition to the more familiar violent jihad: they also emphasized the importance of jihad by the written and spoken word - what we would recognize as classic propaganda. Without question APTN’s interesting business model represents a concrete example of an ongoing financial “contribution” to an important communication agency promoting a pro-Arab bias." -lgf. (If you haven't yet, click on the title of this post to see a video of how they do it)

All of this is quite effective, in fact it has been so effective that a cease fire is eminent. France and the US drafted a UN resolution that both Israel and Lebanon seem to accept, it will be voted on in Israel on Sunday. Olmert whom I (now very regretfully) praised when I started this blog finds it agreeable and will recommend the government to vote for passing it. If it is passed the outcome of this war has been determined not by Katyusha rockets falling on Haifa and the north of Israel, not over a hundred Israeli casualties, not the 2 million Israeli citizens living in bunkers suffering sometimes up to 10 sirens a day (and a rather new occurrences of night-time sirens and rockets), but by propaganda. The pen is truly mightier then the sword and oil money used to buy the two major providers to news agency's around the world is mightier still.

I don't know how eminent a cease fire is, but one seems to be in the works. I'm sure some of you will raise the question "but isn't a cease fire good? this will finally be over" - I'll get to that in just a moment, but first I'd like to digress a little bit.

Sitting in a hotel in Canada yesterday with no in internet access I turned on the TV in the hopes of hearing some news about what's going on back home. Instead CNN was showing "TERROR PLOT FOILED". Indeed a terror plan was foiled, ten planes traveling from the UK to the US were supposed to be attacked in the next couple of weeks. The weapon was a liquid bomb, squads of 4-5 terrorist were to board each plane with components that individually would not arouse suspicion but when combined together might result in an explosion large enough to bring the plane down. Each plane would hold about 500 people and they wanted to bring 10 down, some say over cities in the US like NYC, LA, Boston, DC, 'etc making the death toll even higher (another version is 3 at a time over the ocean so their methods wouldn't have been discovered). This would have resulted in what probably would be the largest terror attack yet with double the casualties of 9/11. Law enforcement was on top of this and prevented all of this from happening making dozens of arrests.

The big story of this as presented on TV was the fact that liquids and electronics were not allowed to be taken on board, carry on's, handbags, 'etc. Dramatic shots of people throwing their shampoos away, a woman complaining about her blush (she doesn't see how it can be used to blow up a plane, great priorities there) cut to commercial. Rinse, repeat.

As an Israeli it felt strange watching it all, my sentiment was and is "get over yourselves". I suppose it's because this is part of life here and our security forces prevent terror attacks on a virtually daily basis, but it's not like the UK and US are complete strangers to terror, I keep expecting people to get with the program. Here in Canada a plan was foiled of blowing up the CN tower in Toronto and decapitating the presidents head, London had 7/7 just over a year ago, what is this amnesia that everybody have? Is it really so surprising that such things will happen?

If you look at the identities of these terrorists, most of them seem to be young British born Islamic citizens. A quarter of British citizens outright say that 7/7 attacks were justified. A third say they would rather live under Sharia law in the UK than British law. Of course if Bush says "Islamic Fascists" then Islamic groups are outraged, Islamic groups in the UK were outraged as well, not against the attempted terrorist attacks but because Muslims were arrested.

Islam is a peaceful religion and obviously they are concerned about misguided hate and labeling, poor Muslim kids going to school in the UK receiving abuse. Some will no doubt leave comments on this blog accusing me of just that, but I will not be apologetic. It's a question of definitions they say. Those who define themselves as not being part of the above mentioned groups, those who condemn them silently and privately (for fear of them) instead of condemning any occurrence of the word "Muslim" are the innocent ones, such is reality these days. Which brings me to my point about airport security, the weapons are the people not the scissors or intermediate knowledge of chemicals. A terrorist is under a huge amount of pressure and signs of it will show, this is where Israeli airport security differs.

However if in the UK a Muslim was to be asked a series of uncomfortable questions groups such as I mentioned above (CAIR) for example, will be outraged. I think it's high time that people start taking this seriously and swallow their pride for the sake of safety (by the way before anybody starts shooting remarks at me from his moral high ground, these questions are presented to everybody alike in Israel, if your deemed suspicious your questioned further) and shove their political correctness where the sun don't shine because unfortunately there is no room for that in today's world.

On that note, I'm coming full circle back to my previous line of thought (my digression wasn't accidental). That same self-righteous moral indignity that might allow a situation to occur where a person might be suspect to questioning based on his Arabic/Muslim appearances will say "how dare you question me because I'm Muslim!" and be let thru onto the plane, with an apology no less, and kill 500 people is exactly the reason Hezbollah's and others propaganda works so well on so many people in the world.

The time I spent here has opened my eyes to this, I've always realized it but didn't quite feel the extent of it. What I'm talking about is that Canada for example is 12 hours away by plane, it's not Canada's problem. It's not a problem for the French, or other European countries. So self-righteousness is affordable. After 9/11 when it became USA's problem, self-righteousness went out the window, they went to war. But collective human memory is a curios thing, 9/11 faded away as a horrible memory, so did 7/7. Even in Israel we sometimes had periods like that were we deluded ourselves with hopes for peace and quite, that's why we elected Olmert and have Peretz as the minister of defence, neither of them are proficient at war, the past election had the lowest turnout in Israel's history. For some reason we also forget, we thought we could afford self-righteousness. We can't. We can't, and during this month Israel has been united like it never has before. Unfortunately Olmert's indecisiveness is the reason this has been going on for so long.

A cease fire now means is nothing but a breather. It's a chance for aid to reach civilians in Lebanon, it's strange how nobody is talking about aid for Israeli civilians. The northern towns are mostly poor, this past month the north of the country was basically shut down, people can't work and so can't afford to buy food, some can't go out of the bunker for the food, it's not dissimilar, perhaps it's on a smaller scale but nobody even mentioned it. Israel does not allow traffic on the roads in Lebanon so aid can't always get thru (with co-ordination at times it does) but nobody will show on CNN a Nissan Primera that was coughed transporting rockets.

So sure, a cease fire is a breather and aid can come to Lebanese civilians and Israeli civilians but just as aid will come so will weapons for the Hezbollah. And if you think they won't break the truce after they regroup you have another thing coming. I hope in Israel on Sunday the vote doesn't pass and we won't accept it (backslash and all), I hope the Hezbollah will not accept it (Nassrallah has been begging for it however, it's a godsend for them). Ground operations needed to start a lot earlier, we need to go in and clean them out and only then a cease fire will mean something. Otherwise this is just a prelude to an even worse and longer conflict that will happen again, and will happen again soon. I definitely don't trust the Lebanese army (part of which supports Hezbollah) and UNIFEL to protect my family and myself from rockets.

And you know how I said that other countries can afford to be self-righteous because it's not their problem? It is, and they can't and I just hope they realize it in time before they themselves will get into similar problems. It's at least two long weeks away before a complete cease fire. Much more updates soon as I get back into the loop.

Edit: The poll above was probably not accurate but the point stands. The actual numbers are probably lower but this is still a problem.

You bastards, is it worth it?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 02:47:00 +0000

Qana, south Lebanon. July 30th, sometime after midnight. An airstrike by an Israeli plane hits a building. The building collapses, 7 hours later. The building was marked as a target because of suspicion of Hezbollah operations, rockets, and launchers. The village has been targeted a number of days prior.

Possible reasons for building collapse seven hours after being hit? Foundations could have slowly grown weaker until giving out, it's possible. I don't know if other possible reasons occur to people after hearing the words "Israel, hit, in Lebanon, casualties" in the same sentence.

I mean, we have all seen those pictures of dead kids from that attack right? Click on the title of this post if you didn't. I'm not denying there are casualties, of course there are, but if you were to follow that link (before posting, like so many of you won't do) you'd see how the pictures are created. Those pictures are propaganda and do not explain why people didn't get out after 7 hours, why people stayed there after the village has been targeted a few days before, and after being repeatedly warned before that.

The area was targeted before (successfully) because of Hezbollah operations in it. Instead of repeating that again so you will understand it, I'll give you this quote: "I lived until 2002 in a small southern village near Mardshajund that is inhabited by a majority of Shias like me. After Israel left Lebanon, it did not take long for Hezbollah to have its say in other towns. Received as successful resistance fighters and armed to the teeth, they stored rockets in bunkers in our town as well. The social work of the Party of God consisted in building a school and a residence over these bunkers! A local sheikh explained to me laughing that the Jews would lose in any event because the rockets would either be fired at them or if they attacked the rockets depots, they would be condemned by world opinion on account of the dead civilians. These people do not care about the Lebanese population, they use them as shields, and, once dead, as propaganda. As long as they continue existing there, there will be no tranquility and peace." - lgf.

Add that to reports of Hezbollah actually planting its flag on schools and hospitals and preventing people from leaving areas that IDF enters (the later confirmed independently on this blog). Shall we go over the sequence of event again?

July 28th, the Israeli air force bombs Hezbollah targets in the area successfully (other buildings nearby) after warning civilians to leave. July 30th, another building is hit. Seven hours later building falls down. Photographs are being setup to maximize dramatic effect, parading the dead around. Millions of people see pictures and immediately decide what happened. In light of Hezbollah's confirmed actions from the past, the shady circumstances of the building collapsing and the above quote directly from a former resident of the area, would you not like to pause and think about it a little bit more?

When terror organizations hide amongst and use the populations your going to have civilian casualties and that's unavoidable. As far as I know, today there was no sirens in Haifa. Is it worth it? People died. People died and it's terrible, and I feel bad, but the title of this post, that question should be addressed to Hezbollah and not Israel.

You also very likely didn't see the picture of the 7 year old killed together with his grandmother a few days ago. If you did, it wasn't of what remained of his body but him smiling, forever being 7 from that moment on. You probably didn't hear about it actually. We don't parade our dead, we bite our lip and carry on. Due to the events described above, air operations have been cut down to immediate threats instead of strategic targets, ground force activity will increase and soldiers will die as result.

Personally, I'm sad for innocent lives lost from both sides.

Canada, An outer-inner perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 06:27:00 +0000

So here I am, posting from Canada, after the longest flight ever. Jetlag not stopping me, computers that are not my own, or a headache. If your wondering about the title, this is what I'm thinking: I had an inner perspective when I started this blog, I didn't lose it I just lost access to local media and sources and the experiences (which got repetitive by the time I left).

Waking up in a hotel room in Toronto was very different from waking up back home. For one thing, no sirens. Walking around outside occasionally hearing fire trucks in the distance, the sounds are similar but nobody runs for cover. I've been here a few days now and the only time I've heard anything about Israel was in a 30 second blip on the news following one about the heat. "The Heat" is 28c, which is pretty much standard in Israel but apparently warrants a warning in Canada.

It's a strange sensation how life goes on unaffected elsewhere, I think I really got used to the state of affairs in the last two weeks. Going to see fireworks made me think about it again, is this shell shock or am I being overly dramatic?

What's really interesting here are people my age. Cultural differences work against my humor, but more importantly the people I've met have little to no idea of what's going on. That's what my experience has been like so far, if it's not accurate feel free to shed more light on this in the comments.

In others news, Nasrallah went on TV saying "when did you see two million Israeli's going down to bunkers for 18 days?" trying to somehow put a positive spin on that. First of, it's one million, secondly I bet you didn't see it coming did you? That's right a million of us dutifully live with sirens and bunkers for almost three weeks to let the IDF get it's job done and I'm sure by the time I get back they will still be doing it if there is a need. If your still wondering if were going to break first remove that doubt once and for all. I didn't get a chance to watch his speech but from the transcript it's pretty clear that he's getting very worried. He even acknowledged that for Israel there is no alternative (he calls it life or death) course of action and that it's actions are designed to pressure the Lebanese into taking some actions of their own. He then appealed to the Lebanese people to stand beside him (afterwards thanking Syria for taking so many in, if he keeps it up who will be left to stand beside him?), I think he's getting a little desperate, let's hope most Lebanese are sane and that plea will go ignored. Funny how he insulted Golani (elite IDF unit) and yet 200 of his terrorists are dead.

I'm ending this post on a sad note, a man shot 6 women in Seattle. One of them was pregnant, all of them were Jewish. In fact it happened in a Jewish Federation building by an Islamic man who said he hates Israel. I think it pretty much says it all, and I also think it's a sign of things to come. Of course he was quickly named a lone operator not associated with any organization and his actions a hate crime, but he's not. He's part of an organization called radical Islam and his actions are the premeditated rationalized crimes of madmen, wake up and smell the Jihad.

Could this be the end of Bunker Blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:25:00 +0000

The nay sayers certainly wish so. No, relax I'm not going anywhere. Anywhere except Canada that is. This is a planned trip, nothing I can do about that, I'll be gone for a few weeks on vacation. It feels strange to leave now in the midst of it all, I know others who left because they didn't want to risk it and I don't blame them. But still, I have mixed feelings about this.

Anyhow, some thanks are in order. So here goes:
First off I'd like to thank Roger Simon of Pajamas Media. In case you didn't know, Pajamas Media is a network of over 90 blogs, a lot of them covering this war. I honestly think this is the future of newsmaking, in a decade probably or less, this will overtake mainstream media. I'm proud to be part of a larger thing. Check out Politics Central, they have a podcast up with Lebanese bloggers as well, not unlike my own. I think you can see what they are doing, this beats CNN hands down. I'd also like to thank Gerard Van der Leun for suggestions and guidance, not to mention cheering me up during our talks.

Daniel Sieberg for the mention on CNN (you can see it on the right in the media section), Mekahlo Medina for interviewing me on NBC4, Ric Ottaiano (and Kender) from WideAwakes Radio for having me on for half an hour as well as Tamar of IsraelNationalRadio, Chris Vallance of the BBC for having me on as part of a podcast, Amar Bakshi of the Washington Post for getting in touch and linking to me from the website (with perhaps a co-operation in the future).

For the hundreds of people who linked to me from their blogs, first and formost Allison who linked to me first and probably the one who's responsible for discovering me. As well as CBC.ca, tagesschau.de, and NPR.org for the mentions. And everybody else who I might have forgotten to add. (like the papers who wrote about and interviewed me)

I think it's important to get the word out and getting so much attention has been great and wonderful but most of all it makes me feel like I've succeeded somewhat with what I'm trying to do. You can find on Allison's blog a transcript showing that the Hezbollah is waging a sophisticated public relations war, a war that I think Israel is losing, and I'm trying in my own way to rectify that.

The black spots are where IAF attacked. On TV that's what you see over and over again, not the rest.

I've also talked in the previous post that even Anderson Cooper is not buying into it anymore. I won't deny there is suffering on the other side, but how much and why and because of whom is what most people miss.

This blog averaged three posts a day and an interview every other day. It received an inordinate amount of traffic for such a short time (in fact if this keeps up it can very easily reach 1 million within a year), a third of new visitors come back regularly and most people spend more then ten minutes on it each visit. It has received over 1000 comments.

I'm still going to try and post from time to time while on my trip, and theres a good chance this blog will have guest authors for the duration of my leave. I can only hope then when I come back "full time" I won't have to write about this and it will resolved. It doesn't look like it right now however. Either way, there will always be more to say and more to report about and that's what I will be doing. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog these past two weeks and and perhaps learned some new and useful information, tell others, spread the word.

As I said before, I'm not alone in doing what I do, here are a few others to hold you over (oh boy, I hope you comeback and won't exclusively migrate to them):
Atals Shrugs, LittleGreen Footablls, Israelity, My Haifa counterpart, Kesher Talk, Truth Laid Bear, Huffington Post, Open Lebanon.

I probably missed a bunch so add them in the comments.
Finally I want to thank you, the reader, for wanting to find out more and listening.

Today we had 8 soldiers die and 26 injured, and much more then a hundred rockets fired at the north. I also hear that a suicide bomber may be in the loose in Haifa. Looking outside I can't see anybody, I don't hear any traffic, and in 5 hours time come dawn the sound of birds will not start the day but probably a siren instead. It's so silent that I could probably hear a rocket crash 20-30 miles from here. A million peoples lives are in limbo (just like myself), not being able to go outside or work. Some people moved south and have been met with open arms by strangers, what other country do you hear about that happening? But like I said before, we can do this rocket thing all day, for as long as we have to let the IDF get the job done and do it right.

Stay safe, be strong, this too shall pass like so many times it has before.
Goodnight, and I'll see you all in a little while, remember folks keep on blogging.

The Best of Bunker Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:11:00 +0000

After more then two weeks (I lost count of the days) and 34 posts, I think a roundup is in order, in case you missed these:

So where we are - The post that started it all.
The loop of misinformation - Bunker Blog corrects the MSM.
This has happened before - Happen before it did.
Master of puppets - I lay down the premise of Syrian and Iranian involvement.
Straight from the horse's mouth - Educational videos about the mindset of terrorists.
Some very bad news - Early reports of Hezbollah holding civilians hostage, Bunker Blog receives a confirmation.
Variations on a theme - Following on the previous video post another must see.
It's all about soul - Correcting more misinformation and bringing to light what was under reported.
Hiding like rabbits, but not as cute - Explanation of Hezbollah tactics and the start of ground operations.
Too close for comfort - Bunker Blog reports a first hand experience of being in the line of fire.
Let loose the dogs of war - The game is afoot.
Haifa, Morning, Sirens. Coffee? - Secretary-General of the UN more important than Haifa being bombed.
Lebanon & Syria - Diving deeper into the Syrian-Lebanese relationship and possible contingencies.
Live, Bunker, in a very literal way - The importance of being ~~Earnest~~ in a bunker.
They came from Europe - Bunker Blog shows whats going on around the world. Concerns you wherever you are.
Iran & Hezbollah, Iran is Hezbollah - Exploring the Iranian-Lebanese connection and history, read this.
This blog can't be correct, I don't believe you! - Predisposed opinions don't change. Don't believe me, believe the Lebanese.
Down in the Bunker, life goes on - Bunker Blog tells what it's like down there.

Interviews:
PoliticsCentral: one, two, three.
Israel National Radio: Interview with Tamar (English).
Bunker Blog interviews: An Israeli-Arab girl and Israeli boy.

Caricature by Roman Genn for Pajamas Media. It's a cartoon I look different.

The Rome Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:52:00 +0000

The star trek like earphone translation devices didn't seem to be working very well. Or perhaps they didn't want to hear the questions very well. They spent quite a bit of time saying with a lot of words absolutely nothing, it's their job. And then the questions came, from the journalists, and this is where the meat was. On their own the politicians would divulge no information without the questions.

After the first Italian question we had one in English. From memory it was something like this: "I have two questions, the first one I want all of you to answer and the second is for Mr. Annan. Will you send a UN force before the disarming of Hezbollah? And secondly, and this one is for Mr. Anan you accused Israel of attacking a UN outpost deliberately does it promote your position as a peace broker?" - I don't know who that journalist was, but I applaud him. Kofi just froze, that's why he answered last. He claimed he was misquoted because he said "apparently deliberately" which in my opinion is an oxymoron. Either you know it was deliberate or you don't assume.

Now if you've watched this, what did you see? You saw the word Lebanon mentioned a lot and the word civilians, whenever Israel was mentioned it was by the Lebanese PM in the context that it was an aggressor. I'm sorry to all Lebanese reading this but your PM is a fool. He kept mentioning the Shebaa farms. The Shebaa Farms is a disputed agricultural area consisting of a dozen or so abandoned farms located southwest of Shebaa, the area is about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) in length and averages 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) in width (Source: wikipedia). Is 20 square miles worth the destruction of your country?! He also said how Hezbollah played an important role in achieving results against Israel, hes talking about territory. I'm sorry, did the Lebanese PM just say that those 20 square miles can only be gotten back by Hezbollah terrorism and are worth more as much as the 4,035 square miles that make up the rest of Lebanon? What the hell.

He was afterwards asked by an Israeli reporter what he would have done if he was in Olmert's shoes. His response was unsurprisingly: diplomacy and peace. Really? Really? He says that if his soldiers were kidnapped and his country attacked he would do nothing but pursue peaceful measures. Well maybe he wouldn't, since he's such a push over. But why is he complaining about Lebanese prisoners then while saying Hezbollah (if somebody tells me Hezbollah is peaceful I will smack them) played an important rule? What about the things he said above? Can you say hypocrite?

Now, he said that he is asking the UN to help establish his governments authority and be the only "gun" in his country. Other then him making a great presidential candidate in America with all this flip flopping since he just minutes before said Hezbollah was important, he is basically saying that he can't disarm Hezbollah on his own (Note that he didn't actually say he will either). I'm sorry, did he just discover this? Why didn't he ask for help before? I don't think he had any intention of disarming Hezbollah at all.

But he did say this one interesting thing: "we can't allow this situation to recur again". There you go. He can squirm around and pout and stomp his feet and whine and complain until his blue in the face, but in the end he knows that at least. So when that UN force does go in, I'd like to see him not disarm the Hezbollah because if he doesn't it will in fact recur. When will that force go in? When will there be a cease fire?

Well as Condi said, a cease fire right now doesn't make any sense. It won't be sustained (they like that word), the IDF needs more time to do the Lebanese PM's job for him. So I don't think you'll see a change for a few weeks more in the very least. The Shebaa farms which are just used as such a pitiful excuse to justify themselves and their actions and inactions, I think should be promised to them after the disarmament of Hezbollah. I know they'd probably take this as a victory and see this as a sign to keep on doing what they do because it gets such "great results" for them, 20 square miles, but if there will be a next time that's one excuse less for them to use.

As for the UN outpost, we apologized, I'm sorry as well. I heard a commentator say that it wasn't an isolated building but next to a Hezbollah outpost, I can't confirm that but it's a suspicion. Either way, it was an unfortunate mistake and there are no excuses, but disputing the fact that it was a mistake is stupid. I also hope that once this is over the Lebanese elect a PM that isn't Hezbollah's play toy.

Updates soon.

Update: The Christian leader of Lebanon (priest, cardinal, somebody help me out) just went on TV over there asking his fellow Christians to take in refugees and ever so slightly suggest (I think by not saying against, but basically his in favor of) that the a cease fire not go into effect. He wants us to keep at it, roger that and hope we don't fail you. Sit tight and stay safe.

Update II: Anderson Cooper gets it right for a change. I saw his piece on TV right now, clearly exposing Hezbollah's propaganda, finally! He used to fall for it before himself. I'm looking for the video, but for now here is his blog post here. "the ambulance beside us turns on his siren and screeches out, followed by the next ambulance, then the next. It's a well coordinated and not-so-subtle piece of propaganda.." - Read it, please.

Update III: First time ever that we had no siren between 4-6PM. It seemed to have moved to north, at least today. The north had 100 rockets fall, there have been injuries. If they can't reach Haifa with rockets today I guess their trying a suicide attack, not unlike what we had in Tel-Aviv a few days ago. Hope s/he is caught in time.

The UN-believably biased

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:52:00 +0000

In case you haven't read about the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and who he is, read here.
So now we hear that Kofi is saying Israel Attacked a UN post deliberately. Deliberately. Comments on this blog of course say that Israel is evil (like Dracula evil?) and this is conclusive evidence. Kofi says so. You know in case you didn't click on the link about here is that picture again:

But we all know that even while the Secretary-General is like that, at least the UN itself is incredibly fair and balanced, right? right?
I mean look at their report, they are repairing damaged roads god bless their souls. Wait, what? They are repairing damaged roads that the IAF hit specifically to interfere with Hezbollah movement? During war they repair roads that a terrorist organization uses to transport weapons (from Syria and Iran) and reinforcements to the front line and shooting at civilians? Somebody tell me I'm dreaming. Basically "were going to help the terrorists because they are the ~~under~~ dogs and our twisted moral perceptions dictate our policy".

Right, and now we deliberately hit a UN post. You know, before any of you wrote in complaining (I was going to write about it anyway) about it, nobody wrote why they think we did it. Didn't you watch ever Columbo? Murder needs to have a motivations, what did we gain by this? Was the UN post a strategical target? Did we think perhaps this will help us instead of creating even more whiners saying Israel is evil? Isn't the Secretary-General of the UN supposed to be a "diplomat" who doesn't jump to conclusions and makes sensational accusations (a position I reserve for the comments on my blog)? No, this can't be a mistake. We flew over the UN post on our way to bombing innocent children orphans in a hospital and thought, well it's on the way, why not?

Gillerman said "Israel is carrying out a thorough inquiry into this tragic incident and will inform the UN of its results as soon as possible." - Not that anybody will care what the outcome of that will be, since we already decided what happened. And by the time it's shown that it was a mistake nobody will talk about it. All you'll see in the headlines about this ever will be: "Israel Attacked UN Post Deliberately!".

Did I mention yet that over the years Hezbollah liked to position itself close to UN outposts in the hopes we'll hit them accidentally (not saying this happened this time, just for your general knowledge)?

Let me leave you with this quote: "Let me say that Hizb'A'llah... Is a player in the South of Lebanon... I did tell Mr. Nasrallah that Hizb'Allah exercised restraint, responsibility, and dicipline after the withdrawal, and that we would want to see that continue, and I'm sure from the indications that he gave me that he intends to do it." - UN Secretary General Kofi with Prime Minister Barak, June 21, 2000.

"By the way" we had 20 soldiers injured to day in Binat Jabal. And the "Rome Summit" (Rome just loves Jews) is starting in a few minutes. Updates soon, if I'm not too disgusted. A little bit more about the UN.

Down in the Bunker, life goes on

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 17:45:00 +0000

We had 10 sirens today, and finally a new instruction came to stay at least 15 minutes down there after a siren. This might be obscure so I'll explain. What happened in the past few days, and I've talked about this already, is this: Siren goes off, people go down into the bunker, all clear to come back up after a few minutes, then they rapidly fire again. You almost never hear a lone siren by itself, always in pairs or more with short pauses in between. This is designed to hit people when they come out of the bunker. So now we wait for 15 minutes and sure enough, while in the bunker we hear yet another siren again. But since everybody are down there nobody gets hurt the second time around. That's why recently we had relatively few casualties. STAY DOWN THERE. It will save your life, your completely safe there.

But we are spending more and more time down there. And some of you asked what it's like, and whats going on. Well this is from the last time: We are down there and after ten minutes another siren hits, so this means that we'll spend at least 25 minutes down there. The radio puts on a song to pass the time, it's "I want to be loved by you", Marilyn Monroe singing circa 1959 from a wonderful movie called "some like it hot".

Anyway, the scene was to me at least, surreal. Just imagine: "I wanna be loved by you, just you", somewhere three dozen miles away two rockets are inbound, "And nobody else but you", in your minds eye your flying behind them, seeing the green valleys of south Lebanon below you, "I wanna be loved by you, alone!", your passing over Israeli troops now, seeing them building up in a few locations, "Boop-boop-de-boop!", you for a second glimpse a dozen special op soldiers moving bend over on the ground unaware that behind the next hill there are three Hezbollah terrorists, but your not going to see the outcome of that because your moving on, "I wanna be kissed by you, just you", your over the border now passing over Israeli towns, "Nobody else but you", you notice a mushroom cloud here and there from where other rockets hit, "I wanna be kissed by you, alone!", in the distance you hear the sirens winding down, "I couldn't aspire", the rocket is half way there and runs out of fuel, "To anything higher", it's silent now, you hear nothing but keep on flying, "Than, to feel the desire", down in the bunker people listening to the song smile, it's not so bad we'll pull thru, "To make you my own!", the rocket slows and it's arch points downwards, then you start to hear a whistle, theres Haifa now you can see the bay and the sunlight reflecting from the sea, "Ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-doodly-dum-boo", darkness.

That's how long it takes. Down in the bunker people are dancing a little bit to the song, the radio announcer comes on: "two rockets fell in open spaces, no casualties, we'll play a song or two more and then hopefully release you. Stay safe."

And that... is that.

This blog can't be correct, I don't believe you!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 10:36:00 +0000

I've done my best since the start of this blog to do these things: Show and tell you what is not being shown and told about Israel. Give you an idea of how life is here. And finally, explain the situation best I can to counter the wrong impression main stream media might leave you with. I gave it my all.

Countless times now I've heard this blog was an eyeopener, and appreciation for it. Countless times I've heard stubborn and illogical denial. People bring me arguments and tell me things that they believe show that Israel is wrong or bad, and I respond and prove them wrong. But once I do, they go into deep denial. Israel has got to be wrong, this blog has got to be wrong. Their world view does not permit a different line of thinking or the possibility even. Some people will just refuse to listen and form their opinions in advance. If they are proven wrong I must be lying.

The great thing about it all that I am not alone in doing what I do. So let me clear the floor and give my counterparts in Lebanon a chance to try and make you see:

"Hezbollah didn’t only take 2 Israeli soldiers hostages, but he took Lebanon hostage and gave it to its masters (Iran & Syria) as a bargaining chip. Do we Lebanese have a saying in all this? Did Hassan Nasrallah ask us, the Lebanese, if we agreed on such operation? He doesn’t care. He thinks he is untouchable and any decision he makes, we the Lebanese, must obey it. After all he is a Muslim religious leader and Allah path is the right one. He threatened every single Lebanese, right after kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, he asked all Lebanese to stand by his resistance or else. Or else, what? You will pull your Imam Ali sward and cut our heads?

This government still labels Hezbollah a resistance. How can they label it a resistance while it doesn’t even report to them? How they can label it a resistance while it calls itself The Islamic Resistance? Does this government understand that such resistance doesn’t believe in a country called Lebanon?

This, so called government, has not authority or rule over an Islamic resistance in Lebanon. Yet this resistance is represented in government and in parliament. How a country can be sovereign if it has on its soil a military force that doesn’t take order from the government or the national army? How can Lebanon be sovereign if Hezbollah keeps its arms and decides on its own when to drag our country to war?

Hezbollah, like any other Islamic group, joins the political democratic process and once they get what they want, they are the first to open fire on democracy.

But if we really look into it, we noticed, even after September 11 and even of what is going in Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, India, London, Madrid… The west still doesn’t get it. The west still thinks with reason they will win over radicalism. They still do not get it. Neither money, reason, houses, infrastructure … Will change a single thing. They will take your money, they will talk to you, they will let you build their towns and infrastructure but when you blink, they will stick a dagger in your back. What is more important of all this for them is simply … Islam." - Hezbollah took us hostages. Ouwet.com.

"..This feeling of inferiority was translated later as a protest movement led by Moussa el Sadr, a relative of late Iranian leader Khomeini. Supported by Iranians from one side and Leftist movements from the other side, both wanting at the time to weaken the Christians accusing them of abusing their power.

It didn’t take much before the Moussa el Sadr movement turned into an armed militia and later after his death in the early 80s, the Hezbollah ‘Party of God’ became popular, a party inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran, wanting to islamize Lebanon and get rid of the Israeli state.

Their slogan was the Islamic Revolution in Lebanon, and back in the mid 80s Hassan Nasrallah was quoted as saying “Lebanon is for Muslims and cannot be governed except by Muslims”.

Since the Taef agreement and up till today, the harm this party has done to Lebanon is unimaginable...

Finally their master-plan showed up recently when they kidnapped 2 Israeli soldiers, therefore dragging Lebanon into a regional war and causing a major destruction of all its infrastructures and a probable invasion.

Some say Israel’s answer was not measured, I say Hezbollah was expecting it and I am starting to believe neutralizing it militarily is the only way to finish it off. If you carefully check how Hezbollah was operating in the past 10 years, you ll understand not only Israel’s reaction but the worlds reaction to the Israeli war." - Hezbollah: Lebanon #1 Enemy. Ouwet.com

"What would happen if a cease fire did take place? Sure, it would stop the violence and destruction, and it would stop the murderous...But only for now. It would also leave Hezbollah more determined to wage their war against their "enemy" in the future. It would also give Hezbollah more leverage in their "I told you so" argument against the Lebanese government in their attempts for disarmament. Now, in their eyes, they have a reason to stay armed. This will only make the Lebanese internal situation worse. It will always keep the Israeli government on alert and ready for action. Worse of all, it will keep an organization with hate in its heart armed and dangerous, and welcome for war... Which is no good for anyone who truly wants peace. If there is a cease fire now, i can't help but think it may make the situation worse. Is it not too late, has the fighting gone too deep to stop now?.. Shouldn't it be left to finish. If it doesn't , will it not be worse for everyone in the longrun? In Lebanon, the tip has been lit. If you blow out the flame now, the remainder of the match will be left to burn sooner or later...Hezbollah will never put out the flame...So do we leave the match to burn all the way now, or leave it until we rebuild Lebanon and re-light it only for another round of destruction? ...I don't know....Something to think about...." - Let the flame burn?. thethinkingleb.blogspot.com.

"[Talking about the Hezbollah and others mind set] ..As long as we take a couple of their guys down with us. As long as we kill some Israelis. Nothing else matters. Economy, development, education, reconciliation after 15 years of civil war are all meaningless when it comes to fighting the Good Fight. Lebanon itself can of course be sacrificed. As usual. After all, it is easy to sacrifice others when the only ideology you've ever been allowed to embrace is hate for Israel." - With friends like these. thethinkingleb.blogspot.com.

"Moreover, a number of trucks filled with ammunition was sent from Syria by Rafaat Assad's son (President Assad's first cousin) to Jabal Mihsin, a dominantly Alawite area in Tripoli. Again, the Military Intelligence managed to intercept the shipment." - Iraqizing Lebanon. lebanesebloggers.blogspot.com.

"There remains a third option: to split with Hezbollah now and openly ally with Israel and the U.N. to implement 1559 in full. Civilian casualties from Israeli attacks would decline precipitously as joint Israeli-Lebanese teams will be far more effective at rooting out terrorists. Israel would be sure to leave once the job is done, and Lebanon could become a fully-functioning democracy, with Western aid and Lebanese enterprise rebuilding the country far more effectively than Iranian money and Hizbollah graft and extortion could.

All that's required is courage from Lebanese politicians. The willingness to put one's life on the line for one's country. The sort of courage Hariri accepted before his assassination. We know exactly how the Lebanese people respond to that kind of courage... Forget hatred. Choose survival and life instead!" - To Save Lebanon. solomon2.blogspot.com.

"Such a decision is taken by its head, Hassan Nasrallah, within the Shura Qarar, the highest decision-making body of the movement. It consists of seven members, two of whom are Iranians attached to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, and who are tied to the intelligence services of Tehran. Through them, Iran knows exactly what Hezbollah is doing, especially when the decision goes beyond the normal red lines, such as attacking Israel outside the Shebaa Farms. In this case, Hezbollah also consults with the Syrians, because the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers carries implications for Syria's security. The consultations with Damascus are often done through the liaison Hassan Khalil, who is in contact with the military intelligence services in Damascus." - How Was Hezbollah's Decision Made. beirut2bayside.blogspot.com.

This morning we had 5 sirens, they kept missing until the last one. 24 injured, about 16 rockets hit Haifa and over 40 more in the north. At least I know who is and isn't shooting.

Iran & Hezbollah, Iran is Hezbollah

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:29:00 +0000

The geographical area known as present day Iran has a fascinating history behind it. It was once home to one of the earliest civilizations and empires the world has ever known.

A thousand years before Islam the Persian army was battling Alexander the Great, he won but after his death his empire fell apart. Jump forward to the year 650, Muhammad who founded a new religion called Islam has been dead for almost twenty years. After his death, like so often happens with new formed empires, succession disagreements started to occur. The Shi'a's & The Sunni's (which out of context could have been a great name for a Bebop ensemble, but I digress) are two different doctrines of Islam who don't agree which one are the rightful successor to Muhammad. The Persian empire was overrun by the Arab Caliphate who at the time won succession from Muhammad and was Sunni. For almost 800 years this continued, and then came the Turks for another two centuries. They were followed by Genghis Khan. Finally, by 1500 the Persian empire was ready to be over thrown again, another change of guard. This time it was to be ceased by the Safavid Dynasty who were Shi'a.

By the early 20th century it lost it's power and was reduced to being a tool and battleground for other countries during WWI because of its strategic location and recent discovery of oil. 70 years ago it's name was changed to be Iran. Iranians for the most part are not Arabs at all, in fact Arabs are a minority in Iran constituting only %3 of the country. Most people in Iran are Persians, and most are Muslims. 90% are Shi'a (which is the official state religion), and 9% are Sunni. A statistic which is inversed to most of the Muslim world. In the rest of the Muslim world Sunni make for %90, while Shi'a are the minority. Iran is the largest Shi'a country in the world, and there is a Shi'a minority in most Arab countries.

So in case your lost: Iran was once called Persia and was an empire predating Islam by thousands of years, most Iranians are not Arabs, and Iran is home to an Islam branch which is a minority in Arab countries. Shi'a's and Sunni's are not on the best of terms, in fact there have been more then once wars between these two sects. So what does it all mean, other then being a very interesting bit of history? Well up to 1979 Iran was a monarchy with a king (or rather, the term was Emperor I believe, feel free to correct me), until a revolution occurred and religion started playing the dominant role in Irans new so called republic. One Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was put into power and held the office of 'Supreme Leader' until his death. In my opinion Iran exchanged a totalitarian monarchy for a totalitarian religious regime as there is little tolerance for other religions and persecutions even.

Shortly after Irans internal revolution a war broke out between Iran and Iraq. The US (under Jimmy Carter) and Saudi Arabia (which for obvious reasons was against Irans new regime) encouraged Iraq (under Saddam Hussein) to invade Iran. It lasted 8 years and cost 1 million casualties and more then a trillion dollars. It was a power struggle, a (oil rich) territory disagreement and a bid for dominance.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Irans president is a veteran of this war. I think it explains in part why he hates the US so much.

So during these troubled times, the Hezbollah was founded in Lebanon by Iran. It wanted to gain influence over Lebanon for various strategic reasons in its war against Iraq. The PLO (under Yasser Arafat) was gone by 1983, Hezbollah was a way in. During the war Hezbollah kidnapped more than 200 foreign nationals in Lebanon, hijacking civilian aircraft and suicide bombing American and French targets, killing almost 1,000 people, including 241 US marines in Beirut and 58 French soldiers. And it worked, France stopped supporting Saddam Hussein. America even supplied Iran with anti-tank missiles which shipped thru here (Israel) and helped Iran win the war. I believe, the fact that terror worked was taken as a sign of weakness by Iran.

That war was over but Hezbollah remained, becoming a state within a state. Gaining political power in Lebanon and controlling a quarter of it's territory, bringing 1/10 of the population under its reign. It took over much of the traditional roles of government by having its own schools and hospitals and even collecting its own taxes.

But how does Syria, and even Israel come into the picture?
By 1975, after Israel was created in 1948 and the 1967 war, 300,000 Palestinian refugees accumulated in Lebanon. What happened was what I'd describe as a Lebanese Civil War between the Palestinian refugees, and Sunni Muslims and the Christian and other Lebanese. Syria sent 40,000 troops in 1976 to drive the Palestinian refuges out of Beirut and into the south of Lebanon. After a few years Syrias switched its allegiance and allied with the Palestinian refugees. Some of the Lebanese allied with Israel. The Syrians however stayed in Lebanon until last year (2005), dominating the country, until they got kicked out. Do you see the complexity and many intertwining connections of the situation here?

In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon with the objective of evicting the PLO, it was bad, it lost focus, but it did kick the PLO out, only to be replaced by the Hezbollah which was setup by the newly revolutionized Iranians.

The Hezbollah costs Iran about $100 million dollars a year in funding. Since this conflict started the price of an oil barrel has risen enough that Iran (the flow of oil out of it uninterrupted) has made its "investment" back and then some.

This is a power play by Iran to be the dominant force in Islam and the middle east. Now that Iraq is out of the picture as far as they are concerned.

But Iran is Shi’ite and most Arabs are Sunni. Even in Lebanon the Shi'ites are only %40, the minority, and yet have come close to dominating the whole country. This is why you don't hear widespread condemnations in the Arab world of Israel, they are terrified that the same thing will occur in their own countries, and rightly so. So he is trying to sell them on the idea that Israel is their common enemy.

If Hezbollah is not uprooted, if the UN will start to pressure for a ceasefire before enough was achieved against it, the Arab world will perceive Hezbollah and Iran by proxy to be victorious. Lebanon will further loss control over its own country to Hezbollah and the Hamas in Gaza will assume much the same role in the south of Israel. (Iran has been supporting them as well)

Remember that I started out talking about the Persian Empire? Persia's (by any other name) influence has not reached so far into the west for over 1300 years. The Lebanese don't want it (if they know whats good for them), we don't want it, and the Arab world doesn't want it (the tie to them via Islam prevents them speaking out). And if you have any doubt about Irans involvement, 13 dead Iranian soldiers were sent from Lebanon to Syria on their way back to Iran, this is confirmed.

So far 2500 rockets have been fired into Israel, today we had two false alarms (they seem to be running out of steam), and 13 of our soldiers were injured. 2 dead yesterday and 93 civilians injured. The death and injury numbers in Lebanon are even higher. Don't forget why, what, and who is causing this.

Update: two helicopter pilots dead, reason for crash unknown.

They came from Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 18:31:00 +0000

Day 12 of the conflict, two dead, 80 injured.
The blog started drawing in a huge amount of comments and some of those are now Lebanese. I always say how I don't censor, and all of you are free to speak your minds and state your opinions.

I've read some great comments, but every once in a while one such as this one comes along: "Israel does not have the right to live in the region. They came from Europe; Germany after Hitler [the] emperor tortured and burned them. In fact thy do not have any land. They are actually like animals spreading every where. After that they are trying to convince any one that Palestine for them. NO, NO Palestine for Palestrina' and Jerusalem is her capital city. They are cowards, they use just machines and forces and like the civilians and they say" we kill Hezbollah members. Hezbollah and Muslims people are very brave and strong. In fact, Jewish machines fight, no men. And Also Allah mentioned them in his book as they have been in curse until judgment day comes, before that Jesus" peace be upon him will com to the earth and he will fight with Good Muslims until they get rid of any Jewish. Even Trees will talk," Hey Muslim behind hided Jewish kill him. This is the End of Jewish people. It is a fact. There is no doubt with it no matter how much technology or MONEY they have. I do not make up this. It is very clear fact and every Muslim knows that."

The ape like mentality complaining that Israel has an air force and planes are machines (no pilots evidently) while Hezbollah are very brave hiding in tunnels 40 meters (130 feet) under civilian houses, hiding weapons next to Mosques, shooting rockets out of houses, and preventing people from leaving. The disappointment that Jews who immigrated here from Europe (many Jews came from Arab countries as well, where they lived for centuries) 60 years ago escaped the holocaust and only 6 million of them were killed. The conviction that Jesus (who was a Jew) will 'come to earth' and help Muslims massacre Jews, and delusions of talking trees. And the belief that every Muslim thinks accordingly. The hate, the pure unquenchable hate and psychosis.

Can madness be transmittable? Surely this can't be more then a select few religious fanatics.

Awake, awake and open your eyes. London, a year and three weeks ago 51 people were killed and this is whats going on in those same streets. America, where 3000 died just 5 years ago. How quick do you forget the pain, awake!

At least one can console himself that these are just radical Muslims, no sane people can turn into that, right?

This was shot a few days ago in a peace demonstration in Madrid. The sign holder is pro-Israel, all alone. The crowd starts to shout: "Who's paying you? Who's paying you to provoke? Provocateur! Jew! Jew s-o-b! Nazi! Scram! Out! Murderer! It's not terrorism, it's resistance!".

You know that poem about a priest during the holocaust who didn't say anything when they came to take various groups of people until they came for him? I think I've made my point. If I haven't it's too late already.

(pictures from: Little Green Footballs, Video from Faustas Blog)

Live, Bunker, in a very literal way

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 08:55:00 +0000

11AM, I just want to sleep. A siren unsurprisingly starts, you knew it would. Well maybe this time I won't go down, come on what are the odds. Fine, even if we do get hit, that's the only way you are getting me out of this bed.

One minute later, down in the bunker where few people came down. In the distance you hear a faint boom, you've heard booms in the past one or twice. Then again, boom, louder. 1,2,3, BOOM, BOOM. 1,2, Boom. (Those booms better stop getting louder, on the last two you could feel the vibration from the wall). Boom, they are getting fainter now. Final boom in the distance.

Well that seemed close, they always went over before. The radio says 12 rockets have hit, I heard 6. Two people are reported to be killed, 14 injured with one in critical condition. A car was hit while driving, not a direct hit but close enough for it to be damaged. (one of the persons killed is from the car). That reminds me how a few days ago in Naharyia a man was running towards his bunker and a few meters (9-12 feet) away from the opening suffered a direct hit. Luck be a lady doesn't apply here far too often.

So do the bunkers help? A house not unlike my own but in the unfortunate location of being in an open area (and facing the wrong direction I suppose) was hit, you will probably see a picture of that in the media but then again you never know. It was hit but the residents went down to the bunker (which is on the other side of the house and down below) for what probably was the 50th time in the last 12 days, and they are safe. If you live in Haifa and the north area when you hear a siren GO DOWN TO THE BUNKER, don't take chances because you never know.

This seems to me like the most heavy attack on Haifa so far, number of missiles wise.

More updates soon.

Update: Sirens again, no hits this time. They usually try to have two or more waves to hit those people who take care of the injured. The bunker is much fuller this time around, first and second hand accounts of the previous bombings are being passed around.