The Guardian:

In the dusty, broken village of Aita al-Shaab, where almost every house bears scars from the battle between Israel and Hizbullah, the war still lingers a month after it officially ended.

Israeli tanks and bulldozers roam back and forth across the border at night, locals say, while Hizbullah fighters patrol the thick green hills above the village. The sound of Israeli drones is familiar to the people of southern Lebanon, who report daily over-flights.

According to Alexander Ivanko, spokesman for the UN interim force in Lebanon (Unifil), there have been more than 100 recorded ceasefire violations by Israeli forces in the last month. These have been mostly over-flights and incursions by tanks, troops and bulldozers. Mr Ivanko said that 24 Lebanese civilians - including four men from Aita al-Shaab - had been detained at gunpoint by Israeli troops. All were later released.

In addition to the incursions, there have also been a number of shooting incidents - described by the residents of Aita al-Shaab as "intimidation fire".

more

(Crossposted at Planet Sundog)

Take a good, hard look at what the Bush administration would love to reduce the press to in our country. You can almost hear their wistful sighs...

SHANGHAI, China - Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday it was working to resolve a dispute over alleged labor abuses by an iPod manufacturer in China.

Hongfujin Precision Industry Co., a major exporter owned by a Taiwanese company, filed a defamation lawsuit against two journalists at the state-run newspaper China Business News who ran stories alleging that workers on iPod assembly lines worked under harsh conditions for low pay.

According to local media reports, the Shenzhen Intermediate Court, in the southern export hub of Shenzhen, accepted the case on July 10 and froze the personal assets of the two journalists, Wang You and editor Weng Bao, of the Shanghai-based paper.

"There's a convoy of 100 or more cars driving down to the south of Lebanon on saturday, August 12th, which marks the one-month anniversary of the Israeli bombing of Lebanon. To defy the Israeli order that all cars south of the Litani river will be considered legitimate targets (including in and around the port city of Tyre), and the forced displacement of 1 million Lebanese from their homes, the convoy will carry Lebanese citizens, foreigners from all over the world and food, sanitary and medical supplies; all aid to the south has been suspended, and tens of thousands of people and many hospitals remain trapped without access to basic necessities.

The Lebanese Ministry of Energy is supplying fuel for the convoy, Norwegian and Swiss NGOs are donating funds for food and medicine. Lebanese TV stations will accompany the convoy; we are trying to get American and European media outlets to do the same, to ensure our safe passage, which of course is not ensured. The Israeli government will not be directly contacted nor asked for permission or safe passage, but the Israeli media (Haaretz) has already reported on the upcoming event.

Please forward widely to individuals, protest organizers who wish to coordinate their events by livefeed with the convoy, and media outlets.

The success and safety of the operation depends on it."

-------------------------------------------------------

Press Release- Lebanon: An Open Country for Civil Resistance

Beirut August 7, 2006

Press Contacts:

Rasha Salti, +961 3 970855

Huwaida Arraf, +961 70 974452

Samah Idriss, +961 3 381349

Wadih Al Asmar, +961 70 950780

On August 12, at 7 am, Lebanese from throughout the country and international supporters who have come to Lebanon to express solidarity will gather in Martyr's Square in Beirut to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians will express their solidarity with the inhabitants of the heavily destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the Israeli military. This campaign is endorsed by more than 200 Lebanese and international organizations. This growing coalition of national and international non-governmental organizations hereby launches a campaign of civil resistance for the purpose of challenging the cruel and ruthless use of massive military force by Israel, the regional superpower, upon the people of Lebanon.

August 12 marks the start of this Campaign of Resistance, declaring Lebanon an Open Country for Civil Resistance. August 12 also marks both the international day of protest against the Israeli aggression .

"In the face of Israel's systematic killing of our people, the indiscriminate bombing of our towns, the scorching of our villages, and the attempted destruction of our civil infrastructure, we say No! In the face of the forced expulsion of a quarter of our population from their homes throughout Lebanon, and the complicity of governments and international bodies, we re-affirm the acts of civil resistance that began from the first day of the Israeli assault, and we stress and add the urgent need to act!," said Rasha Salti, one of the organizers of this national event.

After August 12, the campaign will continue with a series of civil actions, leading to an August 19 civilian march to reclaim the South . "Working together, in solidarity, we will overcome the complacency, inaction, and complicity of the international community and we will deny Israel its goal of removing Lebanese from their land and destroying the fabric of our country," explained Samah Idriss, writer and co-organizer of this campaign.

"An international civilian presence in Lebanon is not only an act of solidarity with the Lebanese people in the face of unparalleled Israeli aggression, it is an act of moral courage to defy the will of those who would seek to alienate the West from the rest and create a new Middle East out of the rubble and blood of the region," said Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and campaign co-organizer. "After having witnessed the wholesale destruction of villages by Israel's air force and navy and having visited the victims (so-called displaced) of Israel's policy of cleansing Lebanese civilians from their homes," continued Arraf, "it is imperative to go south and reach those who have stayed behind to resist by steadfastly remaining on their land."

If you are in Lebanon and want to sign up and join the convoy, contact either:

Rasha Salti. Email: convois.citoyens.sud.liban@gmail.com . Tel: +961 3 970 855

Rania Masri. Email: rania.masri@balamand.edu.lb . Tel: +961 3 135 279 or +961 6 930 250 xt. 5683 or xt. 3933

If you are outside Lebanon and want to sign up and join the convoy, you should know:

1) You need to obtain a visa for Lebanon and for Syria if your plan is to enter Lebanon from Syria.

2) We don't have the funds to cover for the cost of your travel, however we can help with finding accomodations.

For questions and help for all internationals please contact Adam Shapiro at: adamsop@hotmail.com

You can also sign up on our website: www.lebanonsolidarity.org

This campaign is thus far endorsed by more than 200 organizations, including: The Arab NGOs Network for Development (ANND), International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Cultural Center for Southern Lebanon, Norwegian People's Aid, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, Frontiers, Kafa, Nahwa al-Muwatiniya, Spring Hints, Hayya Bina, Lebanese Transparency Association, Amam05, Lebanese Center for Civic Education, Let's Build Trust, CRTD-A, Solida, National Association for Vocational Training and Social Services, Lebanese Development Pioneers, Nadi Li Koul Alnas, and Lecorvaw.

--

Hibah Osman, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Public Health

Department of Health Behavior and Education

Faculty of Health Sciences

Clinical Instructor of Family Medicine

Department of Family Medicine

Faculty of Medicine

American University of Beirut

Beirut, Lebanon

"Certainly The US has failed to instantly subdue the North Vietnamese. And no doubt in the court of public opinion -- including surprisingly all of these Western mainstream and "expert" voices -- The US is "losing."

But are they losing militarily?"

The original version is here, and Josh Marshall gave it his stamp of approval

And Now Laura Rozen links to this:

"What these suicide attackers — and their heirs today — shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force. Thus the new Israeli land offensive may take ground and destroy weapons, but it has little chance of destroying the Hezbollah movement. In fact, in the wake of the bombings of civilians, the incursion will probably aid Hezbollah’s recruiting."

The mainstream "discourse' on the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon reads like the National Review, and the Right Wing read like the German press on the invasion of Poland.

"War--all war, requires bloodshed. And it is true that when we are engaged against people who want to kill us, we have to be willing to return the favor."

That's from TPMC...

"They" want to kill "us"

Read the article Rozen links to in The Times. I get the impression that 4o years after Vietnam, this stuff is supposed to surprise you.

What a country.

I understood Zionism from childhood as the argument that my father, Robert I Edenbaum, born in the Bronx and the grandson of immigrants from Eastern Europe, had more rights to land in Israel than someone whose family had lived there for 20 generations. No one I have met has ever countered that definition, and the logic then as now could only be defined as racist.

The same people who defend my father's right of return to a place he never left also make demographic arguments for denying the approximately three million Palestinian refugees the right to return to their Israeli land: arguments predicated on the need to maintain the racial integrity of the Jewish State and reminiscent of the rantings of various reactionary movements around the globe, with the difference that this example is defended as moral even by liberals who fight against the implementation of such policies on their own soil.

The simplicity and clarity of the above points and my impatience with those who see them as anything other than clear place me to my chagrin in the company of Noam Chomsky. Chomsky does not understand psychology -though he might say that he simply has no interest in it- while consciousness is, of course, defined by neurosis. For that reason alone I suppose I should be more willing to accept the arguments of those to whom zionism was fed with mothers' milk: not to accept them as abstract logic- as truth- but as the result of the logic of their lives. Perhaps I should be more forgiving, but I'm not. Maybe I'm just a Jewish exceptionalist.

Still, I'm not surprised by arguments over the meaning of excessive or comparable force, even though comparable force would mean the destruction of entire sections of Tel Aviv, hundreds of thousands of refugees forced from their homes over a matter of days, billions of dollars in losses and threats to bomb Israel back to the stone age made by those actually able to do it.

---

On another more abstract note, it's a peculiarly American desire to turn everything into a question of "community,' as if somehow the opposite of a daily group hug is anarchy. I'm not particularly interested in most of the posters here, though the ramblings of the rank and file are consistently more interesting than those of the Poobahs. I'm not out to offend anyone but I'm not out to make friends either. As long as no one gets kicked in the teeth I prefer to let community take care of itself, and the concern for policing social niceties seems little more than another oddity of Americana.

Joe Lieberman in an act of rhetorical slight-of-hand and self-delusion has turned the American respect for courtesy into one for authority and from that into the defense of his own unctious self-importance. Chomsky and the rest of the liberal intellectual elite may all have no interest in psychology (though Chomsky is the only pundit who gives the defense of intellectual objectivity any weight) but that does nothing to deny what psychology brings to politics and daily life.

The people say Lieberman is a creep, and sometimes the people are right.

From the Techncrat/Insider's gabfest (everyone who's anyone... etc.) The Nelson Report, courtesy of JMM:

"[T]he Lebanon situation has exposed, once again, that US policy, under Bush, is largely whatever the Israeli government says it wants. So the long term effect of this on US-Arab relations generally, and the US ability to be constructively involved in any serious peace process, is once again under debate.

In any particular flare-up in this unhappy region, debating who shot first is a distraction, since the conflict has been going on for generations. The question is, or should be, does the US have a policy with a realistic chance of success, and is the US involved in a process to further that policy...in this case, to resolve the flare-up of the moment? "

EDB would put it differently:

What [the Israeli public] does buy, is that there's a consensus in the west that Israeli lives are worth more than Arab ones. In fact, two living Israeli soldiers and a few dead ones, are worth hundreds of Lebanese lives. They don't need John Bolton to spell it out in these terms: "There's no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from malicious terrorist acts.

At the heart of this lies the fact that, the state or nation-state-- the entity that was sloppily and haphazardly forced upon this region, by those same Europeans (and now Americans) who now condone a ratio of 1:10 in Israeli-to-Arab "casualties"-- is deemed to hold a moral monopoly on violence. If you have a flag and an international airport, then you can kill people.

Both Emily Dische-Becker, on the ground in Beirut, and Nelson, in his office at Samuels International would agree on the likely result of this absurdity, but I prefer EDB. She's also a lot funnier. Read the whole thing and laugh.

[This is post is not mine, but quoted in it's entirety from Aron's Israel Peace Weblog]

"What should Israel do? Just sit on its hands while Hezbollah rains missles on it?"

Answer: Exactly! The statement that Hezbollah has been constantly attacking Israel over the past six years is just a big lie. Since Israel withdrew from Lebanon, the border has been quite calm, except for very minor incidents and skirmishes.

It was precisely the calm border that was putting Sheikh Nasrallah under increasing international pressure to disarm. His main excuse not to, was that Hezbollah needed arms to defend Lebanon against Israeli agression. But what is he defending if no attacks on Lebanon are taking place?

Nasrallah also prides himself in scrupulously abiding by international law and only responding to "Zionist provocations." In fact, Hezbollah did start this incident by firing some Katyushas and capturing the Israeli soldiers. But the massive Israeli attack gave him the legitimacy to respond to Israeli violence with counter-violence. When he bombs Haifa and Israeli gun-boats, when his soldiers fight against Israeli ground troops, he can now honestly claim he is defending Lebanon against Israeli attacks.

The best Israeli response would have been a diplomatic one - to use this incident to point out that Hezbollah is armed to the teeth and out of control. Israel's restraint would have put Hezbullah in a bad light, and legitimized the central government's demands against Hezbullah. The international community could strengthen the Lebanese government and help it disarm Hezbullah, without it being seen as a "collaborator" with Israel.

Force is always an option. In fact, the threat of force is usually far more effective than its actual use. But Israel never said, "put your arms down or else." Instead, Israel acted like a big, scared bully and started firing in all directions. The result is that Israel, not Hezbullah, is seen as out of control and the Lebanese central government has been weakened. Despite the anger of many Lebanese against Hezbullah, many more support its actions. It will be far more difficult to bring pressure to bear to disarm Hezbullah now, since it is once more basking in its role as the defender of "Arab honor" against "Zionist aggression." Any government trying to disarm Hezullah, will be seen as "collaborating with the Zionists."

Milk and Medicine.

There have been recent discussion of of anti-semitism on this site, begun by M.J.Rosenberg and seconded by Kenneth Baer, both relying on little more than cowardly, and McCarthyite, tactics of insinuation.

"Now I understand you Jew-haters out there prefer the term anti-Zionist. Yeah, yeah."

And I have been warned that I risk expulsion?

"If you want to see the State of Israel eliminated, a nation with 6 million Jews living in it, you are advocating the mass murder of Jews. And you know that."

I do? If I wanted Apartheid South Africa eliminated, does that mean I wanted the elimination of the Boers? Do I know that?!

I will no longer use four letter words against those for whom I feel nothing but bitter contempt. And when I make accusations of racism, I will, unlike Baer and Rosenberg, be detailed and specific.

In the meantime, read Juan Cole.

I first read Crunchy Cons, by way of Russell Fox. I wouldn't have bothered to if he hadn't mentioned it.

I smiled when I found out that Bill Kauffman writes for Counterpunch. Cockburn is one of the few people who has actually paid attention to the red state anger and more importantly given it the respect it deserves. David Brooks' secret is that he feels as much contempt for people of small town america as the average urban and demi-urbane liberal; but unlike them, he's guilt-ridden and self flagellating. I've always found Atrios' Bobo's World posts offensive.

It's been commented upon often enough, but the perverse populism of Jerry Springer's trash TV show was rooted in the political populism of his past. "Our father the left-handed transvestite dwarf is having an affair with the family hog... We still love him but we still need our bacon and eggs." Springer at his worst was never putting himself above his guests, he just wallowed in the same mud. A child of the Holocaust trying to love and be loved and make a very good living in a world where events are lost to memory after half an hour. There are worse things.

The opinions or red state conservatives are no more or less symptomatic, reactionary in the strictest sense, as those of the majority of liberals. The thought that "we" need to worry about China or the Iranian bomb strikes me as odd; the world needs to worry about Pakistan, and the only reason to worry about Iran isn't Iran, it's Israel and our client state's culture of paranoia. I'm amazed that Brad DeLong and others can go on about logic and rationality, raging against obscurantism and religious gobbledegook while arguing from nationalism as if if were as self-evidently an objective truth as the earth revolving around the sun. But nationalism, like religion, is objectively a political truth. Why secular technocrats can't see faith in their own assumptions I can't claim to know, but it seems to me that like conservatives they prefer their answers neat, tidy, and with a ribbon on top. Maybe that's why they all read science fiction.

Having to decide whether or not to turn in a contractor who brings a crew of 15 and 16 year old Ecuadorian laborers to a job site in Manhattan; wondering whether they're better off here, living without their parents in an apartment in Williamsburg, or if they'd be safer back in the villages they spent so much time and money and blood to escape.

That's not economics, or science fiction. That's literature.

And the convergence of Counterpunch and the Crunchy Cons may be seen as relevant to this.

I would take Michael Lind's parodies more seriously if he paid more attention to the details.

Michael Froomkin is not like Donna Shalala.

Discuss