Let's start with the local Blogger, Big Pharaoh, who thinks it's time to say that the IDF is equally stupid to Hezbollah. Hey man, You are preaching to the Choir here. Plus, what do you expect: They are our cousins. They are bound to share some of our stupidity genes.

His view is shared by Vox, who was always the most vocal HA opponent in the lebanese blogsphere, but is now getting mad at Israel:

Those who think that this war is against Hezbollah should check the
facts twice. I would support a war against Hezbollah, but according to
Naharnet on more than 150 attacks, only 10 directly targeted Hezbollah.
I can support a war against Hezbollah, but not against my country.
Israel has bombed Jounieh, an area where the population used to offer
food to Israeli officers in the 80's. Batroun, Halat, Tripoli and the
North have also been atacked. There’s no Shias in these areas, let
alone Hezbollah fighter - not that the presence of Shia in a
neighborhood is sufficient to make it a legitimate target.

[…]

There's no need for the IAF to bomb convoys of refugees, especially
when the airplanes are dropping leaflets telling people to evacuate â€"
which is already hard enough considering the state of the roads.
Hezbollah is a guerilla, they don't fight in an open terrain, they
don't move in convoys. If there’s a big spot on the radar, it won’t be
Hezbollah.

Israel’s strategy is to target the infrastructure
and inflict economic damage to the country. Israel thinks that it can
1) force the Lebanese government to act against Hezbollah 2) make the
cost of any future escalation so high that Nasrallah will think twice
before going to war. That assumes that Hezbollah actually cares about
the cost of its actions but I wouldn't bet on that, especially if Iran
is willing to fight until the last Lebanese.

Lisa mentions an interesting live exchange that took place between Al Manar TV and Israel Channel 10. 

Omar thinks that we are reaching the Point of No return:

Now let’s put ourselves in Hezbollah’s shoes. They captured two soldiers, on the basis of trading them with prisoners in Israeli jails. The capturing lead to an all out offensive on civilian and military targets in Lebanon, resulting in roughly a 100 civilian deaths and hundreds injured. The only civilian airport in Beirut was hit, plus many bridges and main roads. After all this destruction, why would Hezbollah give the Israeli soldiers back? Hezbollah reached a point of no return. They will fight until the end.

On the other hand Israel cannot afford to trade the prisoners. First,
they believe that a few weeks of fighting will exhaust Hezbollah’s
arsenal leaving them with no option but to give the soldiers back. But as Israel
waits, frustration from within will being to rise, and perhaps the
Israelis will put pressure on their government to exchange the soldiers. But even then, Israeli government will shy away from a prisoner exchange. If Hezbollah’s demands are met, then Israel will appear weaker in its enemy’s eyes. The Palestinians will use Hezbollah’s success as inspiration. Furthermore, disarming Hezbollah will become a thing of the past. After all they won the battle against Israel
again. They proved themselves worthy of beating the fourth strongest
military in the world. Why would you take disarm such a militia?

True. 

Nadz is back and she is angry at Hezbollah:

My main anger here is directed at Nasrallah and his "party of God." His
loyalty does not lie with Lebanon or its people - he's a dancing monkey
for Syria and Iran, who seem to prefer letting other countries fight
their wars for them. Makes you wonder why Israel won't go after them
directly. Perhaps the fear of making this conflict a bigger, regional
one with higher stakes.

And Amar is reminding us again, that the arab leaders who are anti-Israel (*ahem Syria ahem*) are not doing so because of brotherly love for plaestinains, or as the case is today, the lebanese. 

What would you do if you an
embattled Arab leader and suffering from major crises at home and wit
the international community and you know you simply cannot own up to
your mismanagement and your corruption, not to mention the
mismanagement and corruption of those around you? You stir up trouble
with Israel of course, knowing that your people are either stupid
enough and/or cowardly enough to play along. As such, Israel is really the best thing that has ever happened to Arab dictators. Well, that and oil, in some instances.

Confrontation with Israel is actually a win-win
development as far as Arab regimes are concerned. For, not only will it
serve to divert attention from the country’s internal problems and the
illegitimacy of the ruling regimes, their authoritarianism and their
corruption, but the inevitable military defeat,
which could always be justified as having taken place due to the
international support of Israel vis-à-vis its hapless Arab victim, and
which always provides an opportunity for the Arab leaders involved to
take a swipe at their counterparts for failing to support them, will
provide the ruling elite with a golden opportunity to fill up their
coffers with the inevitable reconstruction expenditures and contracts.

The
confrontation will also afford regime lackeys and ideologues, and some
“patriotic� opposition members the chance to rally behind the flag and
take consultation fees for their expert advice and for their help in
mobilizing the ever so fickle public. Pray,
what deal could be sweeter? What dividend can peace deliver? What sort
of rewards can reform ever harness for its champions?

As such, the climate of jubilation, and the downright giddiness, that we can currently detect among Syria’s official and unofficial spokesman for the regime is not surprising. This is the time when credentials are built, niches are staked and futures are made.
Only idiots like me who would rebuff offers of high office to join such
an amorphous, nebulous, meaningless institution as the opposition
actually risks losing. In fact, they, we, might just be doomed to lose.
What idiots!

Sigh… 

Just click on this and find out how:

There is something very weird happening in the middle-east right now: Israel and Sunni countries are starting to find common ground against an alarming growing threat: The Shia Muslims, heralded by Iran. I saw this coming, with the growing influence Iran was having in Both Lebanon and Iraq, and with their insistance on gaining nuclear weapons. I said before that the next major war in the middle-east, because of the Iranian threat, will be between the Sunnis and the Shia. There is no way around it.

Signs of these could be found in Saudi's starteling condemnation of Hezbollah , and how they were the first to do it. Or in the group of arab foreign ministers who comprised the "Blame Hezbollah" camp in the last Foreign ministers meeting (The other camp was made of the Syrian government- who are alawites - and the Lbeanese FM , who is Shia himself). Or you could even see it in Mubarak's latest statement, on how he stopped Iran from joining the Arab FM's meeting, because- and I quote- they wanted "to attend the Arab foreign ministers meeting
and form a joint committee that would have included Hizbullah and
Hamas. Egypt realized that that was a trap." 

The Americans are even acknoweldging it in this piece on the goals of the American support for the Israeli strikes against Lebanon:

For the United States, the broader goal is to strangle the axis of
Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran, which the Bush administration
believes is pooling resources to change the strategic playing field in
the Middle East, U.S. officials say.

Whatever the outrage on the Arab streets, Washington believes it has
strong behind-the-scenes support among key Arab leaders also nervous
about the populist militants â€" with a tacit agreement that the timing
is right to strike.

"What is out there is concern among conservative Arab allies that there
is a hegemonic Persian threat [running] through Damascus, through the
southern suburbs of Beirut and to the Palestinians in Hamas," said a
senior U.S. official who requested anonymity because of sensitive
diplomacy. "Regional leaders want to find a way to navigate unease on
their streets and deal with the strategic threats to take down
Hezbollah and Hamas, to come out of the crisis where they are not as
ascendant."

Interesting, no? 

That's how Roba feels:

I don’t think I have ever felt so much hate in my life.

This hate isn’t towards one group, it is towards all sides involved;
Hizbullah for flexing their muscles in a shirt too big for them, Israel
for being the ruthless, inhumane war-machine that they’re so good at
being, and most frustratingly, us Arabs collectively for being so darn
pointless.

I just HATE the fact that we happily partake in needless boycotts,
participate in violent demonstrations, and go ahead burning embassies
over a goddamn cartoon but shrug helplessly at massacres that
are killing our blood a few hours away from home. I know that our
blood’s been worthless to the rest of the world for a while, but when
did it become so worthless to us?!

Damnit. We really have no idea what to yell about do we? We just
want to yell. Release the energy every once in a while. This time the
energy happened to be released over a cartoon- it came, it went, ta ta
rage. Whoof. But now that we have something worse screaming about- it’s
like, ah, too late amigos, we’re out of steam. Let’s wait till
McDonalds designs an icecream cone that looks like the word “Allah� and
then we can have another pissfit. 

I hear ya sweetie! 

For those of you who don't have faith in the paranormal: You will believe! Oh yes you will.

This is interesting:

As sectarian violence soars, many Sunni Arab political and religious
leaders once staunchly opposed to the American presence here are now
saying they need American troops to protect them from the rampages of
Shiite militias and Shiite-run government forces.

The pleas from
the Sunni Arab leaders have been growing in intensity since an eruption
of sectarian bloodletting in February, but they have reached a new
pitch in recent days as Shiite militiamen have brazenly shot dead
groups of Sunni civilians in broad daylight in Baghdad and other mixed
areas of central Iraq.

The Sunnis also view the Americans as a
“bulwark against Iranian actions here,� a senior American diplomat
said. Sunni politicians have made their viewpoints known to the
Americans through informal discussions in recent weeks.

Is it just me or are the Iranians just huge assholes? 

I don't want to blog anymore after this post. I like it. I like what it presenets: that short reprieve of the madness that surrounds us. But, lol, that would make a dreamer out of me wouldn't it?

Sigh…

Time to get back to the ugly! 

People who know me know that I am not the biggest fan of Human nature in general. In all actuality, this whole war -to me at least- crystalized what I always stressed to be the main aspect of human nature: Our insistence on killing one another. Since the dawn of time, this is what people did: They went to wars and killed each other. War, as far as I could tell from the world around me, was the normal state of world, not Peace. War is the reality, Peace is the ideal, either choose to be a realist or an idealist. That's all there is to it!

That being said, there is one thing that I always admired about Humans, and that is the Human spirit. Our resilience. Our refusal-against incredible odds- to just give up. Our ability to look the horror of the world in the eyes and tell it "Fuck you, I will live on!" That's also what we do best.

Even when faced with hate… 

Or Insanity…

 Or destruction…

We always manage to persevere. We always seem to forget that. We shouldn't!

Well, here are some examples to help you not forget it. To remind you that, even with the hell that has broken loose in this region, that it's not all bad, and that the Human spirit endures:

A lebanese man, sitting on his rooftop in Beirut, laughing, while you can see the smoke from an israeli bomb in the background. This is vintage lebanese attitude as far as I am concerned: Death and Destruction may be near, but so what? That won't stop us from having a good time.

 Members of the same family, looking totaly unfazed despite the bombing that's taking place in front of them. One of them is even taking a picture of it using his cell- phone!

The attitude exists on the Israeli side as well. This is a picture of the Sea of Gallile: You can see the Israeli Coast guard boats as they are broadcasting their message to have people evacuate the beaches and head for the bomb shelter. This israeli family is completely unfazed by it, and they continue to swim regardless.

 Same location, same situation, and the israeli dude? He barbeques. What do you say to that?

 A lebanese family in Israel, of the families that comprised the SLA, hiding in a bomb shelter. Check out the Painting in the back!

 Even faced with the possibility of getting bombed, those lebanese children continue to play, inside the Bomb shelter.

 And Finally, there is this picture of a Lebanese Bride in Baabada yesterday, heading to her wedding in a church.

As lives end all over, this one is about to start hers, despite it all. Death may be everywhere, but that will not stop her from living. I find no better example of Lebanon than this Woman, and this is why I love Lebanon, and I love the lebanese people so much.  

So yes, despite my utter contempt for Human nature, I have nothing but outmost admiration for the Human spirit. One should never let the horrors of the first blind you to the beauty of the latter. And nothing symbolizes this to me than this picture of Beirut.

Some people will look at this picture and see the dark cloud from all of the bombing, but what I see is the beautiful city of Beirut, and how it magnificantly shimmers in light, depsite it all.

This is not the end of Beirut, or of Lebanon, mianly because of the Lebanese people's resilience and spirit. When all of this will end, the lebanese and Israelis will clean the rubble and rebuild, like they always do!

This, too, will pass!

We should never forget that!

Tigerhawk has a link to an interesting piece of analysis by stratfor:

 The Israeli strategy appears to be designed to do two things. First,
the Israelis are trying to prevent any supplies from entering Lebanon,
including reinforcements. That is why they are attacking all coastal
maritime facilities. Second, they are degrading the roads in Lebanon.
That will keep reinforcements from reaching Hezbollah fighters engaged
in the south. As important, it will prevent the withdrawal and
redeployment of heavy equipment deployed by Hezbollah in the south,
particularly their rockets, missiles and launchers. The Israelis are
preparing the battlefield to prevent a Hezbollah retreat or maneuver.

Hezbollah's strategy has been imposed on it. It
seems committed to standing and fighting. The rate of fire they are
maintaining into Israel is clearly based on an expectation that Israel
will be attacking. The rocketry guarantees the Israelis will attack.
Hezbollah has been reported to have anti-tank and anti-air weapons. The
Israelis will use airmobile tactics to surround and isolate Hezbollah
concentrations, but in the end, they will have to go in, engage and
defeat Hezbollah tactically. Hezbollah obviously knows this, but there
is no sign of disintegration on its part. At the very least, Hezbollah
is projecting an appetite for combat. Sources in Beirut, who
have been reliable to this point, say Hezbollah has weapons that have
not yet been seen, such as anti-aircraft missiles, and that these will
be used shortly. Whatever the truth of this, Hezbollah does not seem to
think its situation is hopeless.

Read it all 

The Egyptian stock market has lost 523 points in 15 minutes, which translates roughly to more than 10% of its value. All the Por-War with Israel people in my Office are now suddenly wishing it would stop.

Guess things look different when you suddenly find yourself having a stake in the conflict. Not so easy to be a desk-chair warrior anymore.

Fuckin Hell! 

The Egyptian ship that was hit by Hezbollah is confirmd to have been Egyptian, however, the MENA people first reported that it was hit by Israeli fire. Old habits die hard I guess! 

Speaking of ship, Britian is sending warships to "protect its interests" in the region. What???? 

And fighting on the other front is still going on: Israel rolled tanks into Gaza.

PM Senioura gave a passionate address where he stated: The lebanese government will not allow this to happen again and that it will take over control of all Lebanon, and asked for Israeli cease Fire and World assistance. The speech so far has received rave reviews . On their side, the Israelis have laid down their terms for a cease fire.

BTW, the Lebanese President? He is resting. 

The Arab League has met and as usual came up with the perfect solution to the problem: They asked someone else to solve it for them . Once, just once, I would love to see this group of wankers actually accomplish anything. 

Oh, and Yael has a solution that would make everyone (well, almost everyone) happy!

Last, but not least, check out this heartbreaking post by LPJ to see why the IDF were stupid for doing things the way they did them:

 You've made this country unliveable for the people fighting to disarm Hezbollah.

Guess what? I'm leaving. Yep. Me.

Where
am I going? Syria. Didn't want to, but I have to. The people we marched
against are the ones you sent us begging to. The people who
assassinated our leaders, kept us from having an operating democracy,
and who armed Hezbollah are laughing it up because they've won the game
because of you.

Bashar Assad said Lebanon would be destroyed if
he left. I didn't know the Israelis would play into his game. It's not
surprising that Syrian-allied Hezbollah started the mess, but you guys
are just vicious.

All my Hezbollah supporting friends are
sticking around. They call the rest of us cowards. I guess we are. We
want to do scientific research. We want our children to learn how to
play the piano. We want to watch our stock porfolios burgeon. We can't
do that here any more.

I tried to sympathize with you. I didn't
support Hezbollah, and if you look at the posts before this conflict
began, I was maligning the political parties that oppose Hezbollah for
not doing enough.

I even gave you guys the benefit of the doubt
at the beginning of this, as did most Lebanese. Even the Shia,
Christians, and Druze in South Lebanon understood your position. Not
any more.

Oh, well. I'm a refugee.

sigh… 

Hi dear readers,

Many of you have loved my last rant, where I ripped Hezbollah a new one. Well, I hope you don't mind me taking on the Israeli Defense Forces, cause they are fuckin pissing me off right about now. I figured that the best way to relay my thoughts and why I am angry would be in the form of an open letter to the IDF and the people who run it. It will go something like this:

Dear IDF,

YOU ARE FUCKIN MORONS!

When Hezbollah did what they did and kidnapped your soldiers, a golden opprutunity presented itself to you of the kind that didn't present itself since Black September 1970, when You came to the aid of King Hussein when the syrians sent tanks into Jordan to help the PLO's attempted coup. They gave you a chance of making a friend out of Lebanon, and now you have fucked that up royally. Good Job.

Let me explain it to you: Lebanon has been occupied by Syria for the past, I dunno, 30 years, and haven't had a chance bto actually get its shit together ever since, thanks to the flurry of assassinationa that Syria carried against their eladers. Hezbollah, who is founded and backed by Syria to fight you (because the syrians are too much of pussies to fight their own battles), have been holding the entire country hostage with its weapons and refusal to disarm, following the orders of their syrian overlords. They have been picking on fights with you for the past 2 years to get you to retalliate and blow up against them the way you just did, because without you, they have abolsutely no purpose or excuse for existing.

Now, the lebanese have been wanting to disarm Hezbollah for a while now, but couldn't, because as much as they fear Hezbollah, they fear one thing even more: Another civil war. So they have been dying for a way to disarm Hezbollah, or at least weaken it, and hann't been able to. Nevermind that the Lebanese army is a joke, or that it is controlled by the President, who is also a syrian puppet. The March 14 forces, your best hope at peace, achieved nothing other than have a couple thousand hot lebanese girls to go out and protest. They needed a miracle to get rid or pressure hezbollah, and you could've provided it.  Instead, you fucked everything up.

You have bombed their airport, which meant that they needed to rely more on Syria now. You have bombed areas in Beirut that didn't have any Shia's in it. You are now bombing Tripoli and Jounieh and al manaraah. You are effectively destroying the Country, and you still haven't weakend Hezbollah one bit. Had you just stuck to attacking their strongholds in the South, you would've wekaend it to the degree that would've allowed the lebanese to later on disarm it and get rid of it. God knows they were furious at it for bringing on those attacks on them in the first place. Instead, because of the way you carried your atacks, the lebanese are now forced to unite behind Hezbollah, because they have come to the conclusion that you are taking it out on the whole of Lebanon, and not only the Hezbolla supporters. You could've been their hero, instead you became their enemy. Congratulations.

Also, why the hell are you bombing Lebanon anyway? You and me know that it is Syria and Iran who are running Hezbollah, and that what is happening is very much Syria's doing. So why aren't you attacking the syrians instead? Oh, yes, I rememberd, You are afraid what would happen if Bashar is out of Power. The Devil you know and all. Well, the devil that you know has put you on the offensive on 2 fronts and they haven't sufferd the least bit because of it.Kepp up that Devil you know policy; It's a real winner.

So stop being fuckin Morons, stop bombing Lebanon, and go put the blame where it belongs.

Sincirely Yours,

SM