America’s stance on the situation in Israel and Lebanon has now entered the realm of the truly bizarre. Three days ago, on July 21, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration was rushing a shipment of bombs to Israel so it could continue its air assault against Lebanon:

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

Today, Forbes reports that the Bush administration is also rushing humanitarian aid to Lebanon:

President Bush has ordered helicopters and ships to Lebanon to provide humanitarian aid, but he still opposes an immediate cease-fire that could give relief from a 13-day-old Israeli bombing campaign.

[…]

“At the order of the president, humanitarian supplies will start arriving in Lebanon tomorrow by helicopter and by ship,” [White House press secretary Tony] Snow announced at the White House. “We are working with Israel and Lebanon to open up humanitarian corridors.”

Yep, that’s right: the US is sending more bombs to Israel so Israel can continue its bombing campaign in Lebanon, and then the US will hand out aid supplies to the Lebanese who are lucky enough to merely be injured, starving, or homeless – instead of dead – as a result of the Israeli bombing campaign.

[tags]Israel, Lebanon, USA, Bush[/tags]

Israel continues its savage assault on the civilians of Lebanon, bombing apartment buildings, ambulances, construction vehicles, a milk production factory, a factory that produces cardboard boxes, roads, bridges, gas stations, power stations, grain silos, and oil depots.

Imagine you lived in this apartment building, or next to it, when Israel bombed it.

This is just one image in a series of photos. Be warned, some photos are quite graphic. Others are unbearably tragic.

Do these people look like terrorists to you?

This is not about “excessive force” or a “disproportionate response” by Israel. This is about the systematic destruction of an entire country. As Robert Fisk, who lives in Beirut, wrote on July 19:

They look like us, the people of Beirut. They have light-coloured skin and speak beautiful English and French. They travel the world. Their women are gorgeous and their food exquisite. But what are we saying of their fate today as the Israelis – in some of their cruellest attacks on this city and the surrounding countryside – tear them from their homes, bomb them on river bridges, cut them off from food and water and electricity? We say that they started this latest war, and we compare their appalling casualties – 240 in all of Lebanon by last night – with Israel’s 24 dead, as if the figures are the same.

And then, most disgraceful of all, we leave the Lebanese to their fate like a diseased people and spend our time evacuating our precious foreigners while tut-tutting about Israel’s “disproportionate” response to the capture of its soldiers by Hizbollah.

There is no equivalence between the actions of Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah operates entirely out of the control of the weak and powerless Lebanese government. Many Lebanese do not support Hezbollah, but there is nothing they can do about them.

Israel, on the other hand, is a nuclear superpower with a mighty army that knows fully the devastation it is wreaking on an innocent people. There are no words that properly describe these actions: war crimes, murder, unfettered aggression.

As innocents die in the explosions of American-manufactured missiles and bombs, Prime Minister Harper does nothing but voice support for Israel and arrange photo-ops. I am ashamed to be a Canadian today.

The Terrorists: Children and Old Women

A Lebanese boy in hospital.

With nowhere else to go, this woman has to sleep in a park.

[tags]Israel, Lebanon, war crimes[/tags]

Check out alevo’s latest:

We must think globally in order to stop the influence the tobacco industry has in developed countries like Canada and the United States. Local health legislation may curb tobacco use in our communities, but it does not reduce the economic growth potential for the tobacco industry worldwide.

Tobacco manufacturers have a business model with one objective: to replenish the ranks of people addicted to their products. Every day, tens of thousands of their customers die and thousands quit.

Unlike any other business, the tobacco industry manufactures a product that it knows will eventually kill most of its current customers, and their business model reflects that knowledge. The tobacco industry requires new customers every day in order to stay in business; it needs new markets and new customers daily.

You can read the full article on Raise the Hammer. If you wish to comment, please do so there.

[tags]health, tobacco, regulation[/tags]

This is Bush speaking on the situation in Lebanon. Click here to play the clip (20 secs).

Recorded from the Democracy Now! broadcast of July 19.

[tags]Bush, Lebanon, Israel[/tags]

Robert Howard at the Hamilton Spectator wrote an editorial on the conflict in Lebanon:

Israel has reacted with force in its war on Hezbollah, consistent with its long-standing policies that military efforts must be forceful, even overwhelming, to defeat enemies. It has not been indiscriminate in its attacks, but innocents have died nonetheless. There is never any good excuse for civilian casualties, but Hezbollah must share the blame for sheltering in residential neighbourhoods.

(Full text available here.)

I wrote a letter in response:

Re. “This isn’t just a border clash” by Robert Howard, July 18, A15

Robert Howard’s editorial reads like an Israeli press release: no matter what Israel does in Lebanon, it’s not Israel’s fault.

But regardless of who started this latest conflict – and it should be pointed out that Israel still imprisons Lebanese citizens in addition to 9,600 Palestinians, has regularly violated Lebanese airspace since its withdrawal in 2000, and has refused to give the Lebanese government a map of the 400,000 land mines it planted in Southern Lebanon – all parties have a responsibility to minimize civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.

As of July 18, Israel has killed at least 215 Lebanese, all but 14 of them civilians. The dead include 20 Lebanese, including nine children, who were fleeing Marwaheen in civilian vehicles after being warned by the Israeli military to leave, contradicting Mr. Howard’s assertion that civilian casualties are a result of Hezbollah’s “sheltering in residential neighbourhoods”. Where, one wonders, was Hezbollah sheltering in this convoy of refugees: in the trunks?

It’s true that Hezbollah and Hamas are a threat to peace and security in the region, but they are not alone in this distinction. Israel’s dramatic escalation of the conflict, utter disregard for the lives of civilians, and continued annexation of Palestinian land makes it clear that Israel is not interested in a lasting, compromise peace any more than the Islamists.

I’ll let you know if it gets published.

[tags]Israel, Lebanon[/tags]