Sunday, July 16, 2006

Things Escalating here tonight - Nassaralla's Speech

Kids are finally in bed. That is not to say that they are asleep. They keep calling me and asking me to stay with them, saying they're scared, but I resist temptation. I think it's healthier for them if we maintain a normal routine. As normal as possible anyway. We try to keep them away from the news, but we had to talk today about what happens if a siren goes off. We have about 30 seconds to run off to my in-laws' house (which is right next to ours), where they have a more sheltered space we can stay in (our house is tiny and with weak plaster walls, not the safest of places).

Anyway, this whole paragraph was to say that I finally have some time to sit down and reflect. Then I headed for the news sites, and I think an update is in order first. I have to say, browsing American media sites, like CNN and NBC news, they have very different headlines than what we have. Headlines in the American media seem to revolve around Israel's attacks and/or the G8 attempts at stopping the violence. Our headlines are about Nassaralla's latest speech from a couple of hours ago, where he made some interesting points and, well, ummm, promises.

Nassaralla said that up to now they have been avoiding civilian targets and focusing on military targets only. He said that since the IDF has deliberately bombed civilian targets only, they will now escalate their fighting and try to hit civilians as well.

Truth is, Israel has been avoiding civilian targets wherever possible. Sure, we bombed Hezbulla's headquarters wherever we thought they were. Alas, the Hezbulla, just like their Hammas pals, prefer to put their HQ in civilian buildings, in towns rather than in military bases of some kind. Well, sorry, stay out of civilian buildings, and we won't have to hit them, duh. I'm not even sure what he meant by saying they had been avoiding civilian targets so far. I guess they are very inaccurate? I mean, yes, they have fired at military bases, tanks and even a navy ship. I tend to agree that these are legitimate targets during wartime. No complaints there, Nassaralla. What confuses me is the amount of rockets fired at civilians. After all, the majority of the casualties were civilians? I guess we failed to note the Hezbulla's humanitarian efforts...

Anyway, back to Nassa's speech. He makes some nice promises there. Saying they are still well equipped, that we know nothing of the extent of their weapons, nor of the range. He does promise to reach as far as Tel Aviv with his rockets... and he also promises more surprises. Can't wait to find out what... :rolleyes: Looks like things are heading towards major escalation to me. No good news from here today, I'm afraid :(

2 comments:

Gloria said...

Anne,
Try www.foxnews.com - you might find them more "pro-Israel"
Gloria

AnneMoss said...

I'm not even sure that the coverage is anti-Israeli. More like not tending to report certain things which are major news here. I guess it is a matter of one's point of view. Over here, our number one priority is to keep track of the rockets hitting Israel. You want to know which settlements have been hurt and what happened, simply to find out if people you know are ok.
Also, not to sound like my kids in kindergarten lol, but I sort of wish the media abroad would stress the point that "they started it". When I get people asking me why Israel started this round of war, or why we "invaded Lebanon again", that gets a bit frustrating.