Tag: israel/palestine

Photos of Israeli girls confirmed as real

Remember of the photos of young Israeli girls writing messages on artillery shells that I posted (here and on Flickr) a while back? Well, despite all the people in the comments saying they couldn’t possibly be true, they have have now been confirmed by the IDF as real:

Questions over the photos’ authenticity have been put to rest by authorities that were present during the incident, which occurred on July 17 near the northern border. The mostly local children had been brought to see the shells by their parents. Although it remains unclear who encouraged them to write the messages, their colorful scribbles, including a Star of David, hearts, and “From Israel, with Love,” have appeared in dozens of blogs, or on-line journals, and on-line photo hosting sites.

Although the IDF has failed to issue a response to the incident, a spokesman from the IDF said it “appeared as though the situation occurred unofficially.” Although an officer was present during the incident, the soldiers, and the IDF as a whole, did not condone or condemn the incident.

An official close to Israel’s public relations campaign said that there was “no way” to spin the incident in a positive light. “Some people are simply irresponsible,” said the official.

On-line, the photos are being called “horrifying,” “disgusting” and “despicable.” “I still cannot understand why or how anyone would allow their young children to walk up to missiles or other explosives. The militarization of children is always a crime,” said one user by the name of “aviv2b” on the Guardian Web site, which ran a lengthy discussion about the photos.

Another reader, by the name barbicanangel posted that “I still say Israel is right in this war, however, the picture of young Jewish girls signing the shells is quite disturbing.”

Although the photos were first taken by professional photographers from AFP, Associated Press, and Haaretz, they were circulated on-line through the popular photo-hosting Web site Flickr.com. That site republished the photos, bringing them to the attention of hundreds who later posted them on their own personal sites.

All hail Flickr!

Lebanon link dump

Since I criticized HRW last week, I should highlight that they are now condemning Israel’s use of cluster bombs in Lebanon. I worked on the use of cluster bomb in Kosovo in the late 1990s — these are extremely nasty weapons that can cause damage long after the initial bombing. All cluster bombs, which as their name indicates contain smaller ordnance that spreads over a wide area, has a certain number of duds that do not detonate immediately. Because these are often brightly colored and spread widely, children have been regularly killed or severely wounded weeks and months after a conflict by detonating them accidentally. In other words, they create small minefields. It’s a weapon that should be banned, and it’s particularly disgusting to use them in civilian areas. I hope to see more serious work like this from HRW, especially when they were much quicker to condemn Hizbullah than Israel.
Read frequent Arabist reader Praktike on the Dream Palace of the Americans. I am very jealous of his clever title, and have a comment under his post. And speaking of Fouad Ajami

In other news: Muammar Qadhafi is still insane, and now claims to have been very close to building a nuclear bomb.

Lebanese writer Elias Khouri on the invasions of Lebanon.

A petition for academics condemning Israel’s aggression.

Not about Lebanon, but here is Gush Shalom’s debunking of Ehud Barak’s “generous” 2000 offer. (To bookmark and send to the next idiot who mentions it.)

Critical reading of pro-Israel House resolution

Americans, remember this come the fall elections:

On July 20, the U.S. House of Representatives, by an overwhelming 410-8 margin, voted to unconditionally endorse Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Senate passed a similar resolution defending the Israeli attack earlier in the week by a voice vote, but included a clause that “urges all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure.” By contrast, the House version omits this section and even praises Israel for “minimizing civilian loss,” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The resolution also praises President George W. Bush for “fully supporting Israel,” even though Bush has blocked diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire and has isolated the United States in the international community by supporting the Israeli attacks.

The resolution reveals a bipartisan consensus on the legitimacy of U.S. allies to run roughshod over international legal norms. The resolution even goes so far as to radically reinterpret the United Nations Charter by claiming that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure is an act of legitimate self-defense under Article 51 despite a broad consensus of international legal scholars to the contrary.

In short, both Democrats and Republicans are now on record that, in the name of “fighting terrorism,” U.S. allies—and, by extension, the United States as well—can essentially ignore international law and inflict unlimited damage on the civilian infrastructure of a small and largely defenseless country, even a pro-Western democracy like Lebanon.

The rest is a deconstruction/critical analysis of the House resolution. It’s worth remembering that there were 24,000 Lebanese-Americans in Lebanon when the war started, and that Congress encouraged indiscriminate Israeli bombing that put them in grave danger.

Also see this by Praktike, who highlights that House Democrats, by trying to get Iraqi PM Maliki to withdraw his criticism of Israel’s war or ban him from addressing a joint session of the US Congress (a rare honor, yes, but one that serves US propaganda interests more than Iraq’s or Maliki’s). So basically Dems are (yet again!) undermining American interests for political point-scoring against Bush (Praktike’s reading) or to yet again prove their slavish loyalty to AIPAC (my reading).

1000 demonstrate in support of resistance

Due to some time constraints I won’t be able to post a detailed report on today’s pro-resistance demo, that started at 6pm and ended roughly around 8pm. However, I uploaded some photos of the protest and assaults by police-deployed thugs that I hope you’ll check on my flickr account.
I’m totally disgusted by the chocking police presence, and the increasing dependence of our security forces on plainclothes thugs to “keep law and order” during demos.
At least one journalist and several demonstrators were also assaulted, but I don’t know their names. Those I could recognize included dpa journalist Jano Charbel, Ahmad Droubi, who were hit in the face and the head by baton-wielding thugs, as well as Malek.

UPDATE: I’ve just spoken with Aida Seif al-Dawla, the chairman of the Egyptian Association Against Torture. She said she was brutally assaulted by plainclothes thugs as the demo was coming to an end. She received several punches in the stomach, sides, and chest.

UPDATE: Here are more protest pix from Mohamed el-Taher’s blog.

And now for some dark humor

Should blowing off little girls’ faces be limited by international agreement? Aqoul gets hold of a leaked conversation by Israel and Hizbullah. My laugh-out-loud moment:

Hizbullah: Look this isn’t rocket science—
Israel: Actually, it is….
{Pause}
Mediator: Should we bring in the rocket scientists?
Hizbullah: Um, uh, . . . is there a . . . um . . . Farsi translator here?

Just read it.

Arab, European and American media attitudes to war

Interesting note on Arab, European and American media attitudes to the war by Jonathan of the Head Heeb writing on Moorishgirl (ah, the incestuous world of liberal Middle East blogging!) I agree pretty much with his explanation, except that I don’t think the American media’s coverage, in Jonathan’s words, is supportive of Israel’s cause and tactics

because American thinking tends to conflate the concepts of just cause and just tactics. The default American opinion is that if someone starts a fight, the other party has the right to finish it by any means necessary, which means that to many Americans, the only significant fact is that Hizbullah struck the first blow.

There might be some insight about the American psyche there, but I would say the main reason is years of well-organized pro-Israel PR campaigns carried out by the main pro-Israel think tanks in DC (and the absence of equivalent pro-Arab think tanks) that has shaped much American political and media thinking about the Arab-Israeli conflict. And on top of that you have to add the not insignificant number of well-established, fundamentally pro-Israel publications in the US such as the New Republic, New York Sun, New York Post, Commentary, the Forward, and arguably the New York Times. This media reaction is not just the result of a “just desserts” attitude but the long-standing presence of almost automatically pro-Israel publications in the American media.

Chirac backs immediate ceasefire with no conditions

Jacques Chirac, whose political slush fund was financed by Rafiq Hariri for years, says he has a plan to save Lebanon in this Le Monde exclusive. (Why is Le Monde giving him this statesman role when they’ve been bashing him for months and at times want him to resign?) Doubt it will amount to much — the French have abdicated too much on their Middle East policy to have real influence now — but it’s a positive step that European leaders are beginning to change tack.

He says it’s not constructive to expect Hizbullah to be disarmed by an international peacekeeping force, and that it’s something the Lebanese government, doesn’t want to here about regime change in Damascus, calls for dialogue with Iran, calls for an immediate ceasefire and an international bail-out for Lebanon. He says: “It’s a essential that there be a ceasefire. It’s the precondition [for further negotiation on soldiers, disarmament, etc.”

A war on Shias?

From Jim Quilty’s MERIP piece, Israel’s war against Lebanon’s Shias:

Israel has blithely played upon Lebanon’s sectarian divisions with the patterns of bombing and with leaflets asserting that Nasrallah is beholden to foreign masters. Though the Shi‘a of Lebanon are not pre-programmed to be Hizballah supporters, and many are not, the unremitting strikes against south Lebanon, the Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs punish the Shi‘i population for being the constituency that Hizballah primarily serves. They also replicate international sanctions against Palestinians for having the temerity to vote for Hamas in the January 2006 Palestinian elections.

Below Leaflets dropped by Israel on Lebanon, showing Nasrallah as a snake conjured by Syria and Iran (from the MERIP piece.)

Fliersfromisrael2Small
Fliersfromisrael1Small