Lebanon
“Killing innocent civilians is NOT an act of self-defense. Destroying a sovereign nation is NOT a measured response.”Lebanese civilians have been under the constant attack of the state of Israel for several days. The State of Israel, in disregard to international law and the Geneva Convention, is launching a maritime and air siege targeting the entire population of the country. Innocent civilians are being collectively punished in Lebanon by the state of Israel in deliberate acts of terrorism as described in Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.
To sign the above petition, click here.
Also, to listen in on the Bush-Blair exchange on Lebanon, go here.
Via Three Quarks Daily.
The unguarded Bush-Blair exchange sounds a bit like the dialog in the excellent David Hare play, Stuff Happens. Hare’s play is highly recommended as a lucid and damning work of political imagination.
John Berger wrote the following in November 2005:
“How is it I am still alive? I’ll tell you I’m alive because there’s a temporary shortage of death. This is said with a grin, which is on the far side of a longing for normalcy, for an ordinary life.
Everywhere one goes in Palestine - even in rural areas - one finds oneself amongst rubble, picking a way through, round and over it. At a checkpoint, around some greenhouses which lorries can no longer reach, along any street, going to any rendezvous.
The rubble is of houses, roads and the debris of daily lives. There’s scarcely a Palestinian family that has not been forced during the last half century to flee from somewhere, just as there’s scarcely a town in which buildings are not regularly bulldozed by the occupying army.”
This is all true. But, what about Israel? As a country in constant war, where is its rubble? As one that turns the lives of others into rubble, how has it kept itself pristine? The rubble is carried inside. “Asymmetrical death tolls” is just another fancy word for murder. Twenty of theirs for every one of ours is no way to live.
And what was said in jest about the US- that it had been abused as a child- becomes grimly true about its Jewish ally, this petulant, desperate and lawless nation.
The accumulation of karmic rubble must be very difficult for Jewish people of conscience, even more difficult, I imagine, than it is to be an American citizen these days.
Comment by St Antonym — July 19, 2006 @ 9:21 am
Sure there is that irritating flippancy, but ultimately for peace to happen, Israel has to work with other middle-eastern countries. I am assuming that when he says, “go to Syria to pull off Hezbollah” or whatever, Bush doesn’t mean bomb Syria. He means having a discussion, talking. If so, it sure is a lot more reasoned and rational than the psychotic-ness of Israel of late.
Comment by sonia — July 19, 2006 @ 4:34 pm
Without entirely engaging in the debate of right/wrong (and all gray areas in between), I wanted to comment on some of the visual imagery put out by today’s mainstream media sources. All I see featured in newspaper photos (Washington Times, Washington Post, NY Times, Cnn.com, etc.) are the scared faces of American and European children. This type of candy-coated coverage just seems so trite. What about the children (Israeli/Lebanese/Palestinian) for whom this is a lived reality? They cannot escape or flee to Cyprus. What does this kind of terror look like and why aren’t we seeing it? Who are the real hostages in this situation?
Comment by Lisa — July 20, 2006 @ 11:50 am