(AP Photo/Lotfallah Daher)

Israeli strike against UN post was deliberate....

Israel's assertions that their destruction of a UN observation post in southern Lebanon, leading to the deaths of four unarmed UN observers, was an accident are outrageous.

I'm going to copy an entire piece from the Irish Times here, as their site is subscription only.

Bear in mind when reading it that according to the AP, the UN Humanitarian chief had just publicly condemned Hezbollah, not Israel on Monday for the deaths of hundreds of civilians during the past two weeks of cross-border violence in Lebanon. (Here.)

Still, Israel deliberately destroyed the post and the four men.

Don't hold your breath for the Bush administration to condemn Israel's intentional murder of the “blue helmets.” I suspect that they, including the notoriously UN-phobic American UN ambassador, John Bolton, are only slightly less pleased than Bush loyalists in the Rightwing blogosphere, as evidenced by these offensive comments excerpted by Glenn Greenwald.

The Irish Times piece follows:

Tuesday's destruction by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) of the UN observation post at Khiam (OP Khiam) - occupied just 48 hours prior to the attack by Irish officers - is a very sinister development in the conflict in Lebanon and raises serious questions about the integrity and intent of Israeli military commanders in the area.

Any objective inquiry - however cursory - by the UN or the IDF into OP Khiam's destruction and the death of four unarmed UN observers deployed there will of necessity bring IDF claims that the destruction was "accidental" under sceptical and hostile scrutiny.

The UN OP at Khiam, like all UN positions in south Lebanon was very clearly identifiable as a UN post. It would have had the letters "UN" clearly painted - several feet high - on the north, south, east and west facing blast-walls and sides of the compound.

The UN designation would also have been clearly visible on the roof of the white-painted installation. This lettering would have been clear to the naked eye for many miles around the Khiam compound.

In addition, as an OP, Khiam - sited on high ground - would have been a very prominent, high-visibility feature on the landscape. Having been in situ for at least three decades, OPs such as Khiam are referred to by the military as "Known Points" or "KPs".

UN posts such as OP Khiam have served as visual reference points in south Lebanon for UN troops as well as Hizbullah fighters and the IDF for almost 30 years. As a consequence, all such UN posts are clearly marked on UN and IDF tactical maps of the area, and are considered to be invaluable visual aides for the orientation of ground and airborne units in the vicinity.

At night, all UN posts are illuminated by searchlight powered by diesel generators located within the positions. During the current shelling, with most villages and the surrounding countryside in complete darkness, the UN posts are all the more clearly identifiable as the only illuminated structures in the area.

In addition, all IDF artillery units have 12-figure grid references for each UN position.

All Israeli Air Force squadrons would have similar detailed information on UN locations to include both grid references and electronically programmed GPS co-ordinates.

Having adjusted and bracketed missile and shell fire into this terrain for the past 30 years - from ground, sea and air - the IDF are fully aware, to the nearest metre, the exact location of each UN post in south Lebanon.

From eyewitness accounts, it would appear that OP Khiam was destroyed from the air - most likely by a F-16 fighter deploying a laser-guided 1,000kg bomb. During the previous 48 hours, OP Khiam had reported at least 14 "firings close" or direct hits on its position from Israeli forces. These incidents were brought to the attention of the IDF and emphasised by UN Force Commander Gen Alain Pellegrini to his Israeli military counterparts.

To claim - as the Israelis are currently claiming - that this attack was accidental stretches credibility to breaking point. The deliberate targeting of such a high profile and clearly identifiable UN post - the eyes and ears of the international community in south Lebanon - by guided missile, speaks of another agenda. This agenda is perhaps to drive the UN out of its OPs and to blind the international community to IDF activities in south Lebanon.

Dr Tom Clonan is The Irish Times Security Analyst. He lectures in the School of Media, DIT

Source here.

(Photo, The Guardian.)

Sick to death....

Another day of bombing, burning, blasting and horrific suffering in the Middle East.

And another day of business as usual in the western world....Oil to trade, weapons to ship, war profits to bank!

I am sick to death with the utter depravity of the Israeli and US militaries. JUST SAY NO! Refuse the orders to fire. Point the muzzles to the dirt. Ground the warplanes. Drop the missiles harmlessly into the sea. Follow your consciences and stop the killing!

Or have your consciences been co-opted?! I don't think I've ever felt such despair at the actions of my fellow human beings. Here we stand, possibly on the precipice of the end of “civilisation” through global warming, and all we can do is hasten our misery by several decades?

Truly, Mother Earth will be better off without the cancer humans represent.

If I were financially solvent, rather than an indebted wage slave, I'd quit my pointless job and volunteer for humanitarian relief work in Lebanon. At least that way I could feel like part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

In the meantime, I’m intensifying my efforts to find a more meaningful job. This crisis has made it painfully clear: I hate working in a bank.

"Sure, keep right on killing." (Photo:Reuters, Pool. NYT.)

Disproportionate....

You decide:

Toll, since the outbreak:

Lebanon
Military deaths 66
Civilian deaths 377
Wounded 1,550+

Israel
Military deaths 24
Civilian deaths 17
Wounded 360+

Statistics from here.

Twice yesterday, a confrontational co-worker tried to start an argument over the Lebanese invasion, both times in an elevator.

As the man both outranks me to the point where one word and he could have me fired and he's a bully, I refrained from engaging with him. But his approach was remarkable.

The first time, this armchair warrior from the safety and comfort of our intact, modern office building thousands of miles from the scene of bloodshed, blustered (for the benefit of another man in the elevator) that “They should just roll over the whole thing. Level it!” referring to Lebanon.

“They are,” I thought to myself sadly, turning away from his arrogant smirk.

The second time, after telling me that his mother was from Tel Aviv, he proceeded to lecture me. “They,” he said, meaning “the Arabs,” won’t rest until Israel is “wiped from the map. Pushed into the sea. They won’t rest until they’re all dead!”

The last sentence was more than a little ambiguous, considering the relentless pounding Israel is delivering to Lebanon and Gaza. Though I’m almost certain the "they" he was referring to again was the “Arabs” and not the Israelis.

Thinking back on the disturbing exchanges, I marvelled on how innocent people are still dying for the sins of World War II. Almost in a time-warp, the Israelis are virtuously fighting to right the wrongs of the Nazis, and in so doing are sowing an entirely new legacy of bitterness and vengeance that will continue for generations.

Also, talk about psychological projection. One of the most militarily powerful nations on earth feels threatened by homemade rockets.

It would be laughable, if it wasn’t so heartbreakingly terrible.

(Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company.)

The face of war....

I just read this story in the NYT this morning.

My heart goes out to this little boy and his mother!!! To his entire family.

Sitting at my desk afterwards, I look around at my neat, clean, air-conditioned office. Co-workers sit busy at their desks, tapping on keyboards, murmuring on phones, working as part of a much larger team that daily amasses hundreds of thousands of Euro profit for our South African investment banking employers. Below us, through floor-to-ceiling plate glass, Monday morning’s customary swarm of motor and foot traffic clogs Dublin’s city streets.

This is madness! Continuing on with business as usual while two time zones away, the Israeli air force rains down terror on fleeing families. The two worlds, Lebanon and Ireland, are not unconnected. What is happening there is a direct consequence of a series of actions, some of which undoubtedly flow through Dublin. Only through our collusion—all of us, every single average working person in Britain, the US, Ireland, France, Germany, the world over—does this carnage continue. Every one of us performing our little part of the bigger picture.

Were we to stop work, put down our pens, hang up our phones, leave our office buildings, refuse to continue to produce the profits that enable the so-called “world leaders” to perpetrate this immoral outrage, it would have to stop.

Without our continuing on with business as usual, this would have to stop.

NYT story here.