Friday, July 21, 2006

My good night post

With hubby away up north, for who knows how long, I find myself with less posting time here. I manage to get one serious post a day so far (lol, ok, ok, it's only been a few days), but I want to try and add a good night post too, something to sum up my day with.

As far as the fighting went on, I think we had a fairly usual day. More rockets launched at Israeli towns, dozens of injured people, nobody killed. Lots more bombs on South Lebanon and Shi'ite neighborhoods, probably quite a few people killed. Some ground operations near the border, with casualties on both sides. How awful that we actually have a routine going on by now, sigh.

The Israeli chief of Staff explained today in a press conference why Israel is going to begin a limited ground operation. You can read it here -
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3279496,00.html

To me, the most important part of what he said was this -
“This conflict was forced upon us – we didn’t choose it. Terror activity is what brought us there. We withdrew from Gaza and Lebanon not planning to go back. But this cannot be used against us. We will fight terrorism wherever it is. Because if we don’t fight it, it will fight us. If we don’t reach it first, it will reach us.”
This pretty much reflects the general view in Israel, and it is why our government has such wide support for its actions. This war is not even seen as a pre-emptive strike. It's seen as an act of pure self defense. One day the border was peaceful, the next, rockets and mortar shells rained down on civilian towns on our side. What were we supposed to do?

Is the IDF using too much force? maybe so, hard to say. I think it's using it in a relatively precise manner, targeting Hezbulla targets almost exclusively. Most of Beirut, other than the Shi'ite neighborhoods that used to harbor the Hezbulla, are unharmed. They still have electricity, running water and are out of harm's way. Most ocasualtieslities are from bombings of Hezbulla targets. No, those children were not Hezbulla fighters, and I hurt for their deaths, as much as anybody else. But, I am angry at the Hezbulla for setting up their military infrastructure where these children live. The fingers should be pointed at them for using these children as a human shield.

It's past midnight here, and I want to end this post in a positive tone. Over the past few days I came to know some very special people on the other side. Blogging here and visiting other blogs gives me some hope, in seeing that there are like minded peace loving people on the other side. It's a shame that we only get to know each other because of the war. Maybe it's time to use the Internet in a more orderly way to try and bring people together here in the Middle East.

Good night and peace to all.

3 comments:

Jean said...

Good night !

P.S. did you get my eMail ?

AnneMoss said...

Yes and just emailed you back - thanks!

IsraeliDiary said...

I totally agree with you. I hope this war ends soon, that the Lebanese people will be brave and unite against Hezbollah, although this seems to be unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Let there be no more deaths on both sides among civilians and Israeli soldiers. I hope that you and your family are safe.

I am from Tel Aviv. I am a soldier but I finished my service exactly a day before the conflict broke out. I was lucky!

My battalion, my friends are in the north, shelling Hezbollah non-stop, protecting our country. I hope they're fine too.

It seems that there are many good people all around the world who think like us, people who support Israel, who understand its actions.

We all should forget the meaning of hatred. It's what causes wars, it's why they're still conflicts, armies, useless killing. We all should make sure that our children will never know what hatred is.