Is Hizbullah here? Only Children here

Israel's war in Gaza and Lebanon is escalating into an international
crisis which could soon engulf the whole region.
The promise by Bush and Blair in the lead up to the Iraq war
that their wars would bring freedom and democracy to the
Middle East and peace to Palestine, have yet again been
shown to be lies, just as the anti-war movement has consistently
said they were.

Israel's barbarism in Gaza and Lebanon, in which the world's
fourth most powerful military force is systematically destroying
the infrastructure of two defenceless countries, killing
hundreds of civilians, blockading the supply of food and
medical supplies, driving thousands of people from their
homes, must stop now.

The same motivation which lay behind the illegal wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, drives these latest wars. Israel, supported
by its paymaster the United States, is now inflicting
collective punishment on whole populations in contravention
of all international law. Behind the excuse of seeking the
release of three of Israel's captured soldiers lies the long-held
US and Israeli aim to attack Syria and Iran, all with the aim
of dominating the region which has the world's most valuable
resource: oil.

As US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said recently,
the only way the US sees now to rescue themselves from the
catastrophe of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is to extend
the conflict to more countries in the region.

The consequences of this barbarism are heartbreakingly conveyed
by this father in Lebanon:

The bomb fell on a small water canal home to 500 Palestinian
refugees. Its victims were 11 children taking an afternoon
swim in the canal. The first blast left a crater nearly
four metres deep, burying many of the swimmers under the
orange earth. Ismael, the father of one of the children, sat on
the edge of the crater, his head in his hands, weeping.
"Children! Children!" he roared through his tears, "Children
here! My son here!" He stood and looked down into the crater.
"Is Hizbullah here? Only children here."

Hiroshima Day

Sunday August 6th 11am The Peace Garden, (St.John’s Garden) Behind St. George’s Hall

Speakers: Gina Shaw (Co-chair MCND)

Laying of wreath by Cllr Joan Lang, Lord Mayor of Liverpool Gerry Poole (Co-chair MCND) Gwen Backwell (Women to Women for Peace) Father Austin Smith C.P.

What I am watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage

The beautiful viaduct that soars over the mountainside here has become a " terrorist" target. The Israelis attacked the international highway from Beirut to Damascus just after dawn yesterday and dropped a bomb clean through the
central span of the Italian-built bridge a symbol of Lebanon's co-operation with the European Union sending concrete crashing hundreds of feet down into the valley beneath. It was the pride of the murdered ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri,
the face of a new, emergent Lebanon. And now it is a " terrorist" target.

So I drove gingerly along the old mountain road towards the Bekaa yesterday – the Israeli jets were hissing through the sky above me – turned the corner once I rejoined the highway, and found a 50ft crater with an old woman climbing
wearily down the side on her hands and knees, trying to reach her home in the valley that glimmered to the east. This too had become a “terrorist” target.

It is now the same all over Lebanon. In the southern suburbs– where the Hizbollah, captors of the two missing Israeli soldiers, have their headquarters – a massive bomb had blasted off the sides of apartment blocks next to a church,
splintering windows and crashing balconies down to parked cars. This too had become a “terrorist” target.

One man was brought out shrieking with pain, covered in blood. Another “terrorist” target. All the way to the airport were broken bridges, holed roads. All these were “terrorist” targets. At the airport, tongues of fire blossomed into the sky from aircraft fuel storage tanks, darkening west Beirut. These too were now “terrorist” targets. At Jiyeh, the Israelis attacked the power station. This too was a “terrorist” target.

Yet when I drove to the actual headquarters of Hizbollah, a tall building in Haret Hreik, it was totally undamaged. Only last night did the Israelis manage to hit it.

So can the Lebanese be forgiven – can anyone here be forgiven – for believing that the Israelis have a greater interest in destroying Lebanon than they do in their two soldiers? No wonder Middle East Airlines, the national Lebanese
airline, put crews into its four stranded Airbuses at Beirut airport early yesterday and sneaked them out of the country for Amman before the Israelis realised they were under power and leaving.

European politicians have talked about Israel’s“disproportionate” response to Wednesday’s capture of its soldiers. They are wrong. What I am now watching in
Lebanon is an outrage. How can there be any excuse for the 73 dead Lebanese blown these past three days?

The same applies, of course, to the four Israeli civilians killed by Hizbollah rockets. But – please note the exchange rate of Israeli civilian lives to Lebanese civilian lives now stands at 1 to more than 15. This does not include the two children who were atomised in their home in Dweir on Thursday and whose bodies cannot be found. Their six brothers and sisters were buried yesterday, along with their mother and father. Another “terrorist” target. So was a neighbouring family with five children who were also buried yesterday. Another
“terrorist” target.

Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist. There is something perverse about all this, the slaughter and massive destruction and the self-righteous, constant, cancerous use of the word “terrorist”. No, let us not forget that the Hizbollah broke international law, crossed the Israeli border, killed three Israeli soldiers,
captured two others and dragged them back through the border fence. It was an act of calculated ruthlessness that should never allow Hizbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to grin so broadly ay his press conference. It has brought unparalleled tragedy to countless innocents in Lebanon. And of course, it has led Hizbollah to fire at least 170 Katyusha rockets into Israel.

But what would happen if the powerless Lebanese government had actually unleashed air attacks across Israel the last time Israel’s troops crossed into Lebanon? What if the Lebanese air force then killed 73 Israeli civilians in bombing raids in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Israeli West Jerusalem? What if a Lebanese fighter aircraft bombed Ben Gurion airport? What if a Lebanese plane destroyed 26 road bridges across Israel? Would it not be called “terrorism”? I rather think it would. But if Israel was the victim, it would also probably be Word War Three.

Of course, Lebanon cannot attack Tel Aviv. Its air force comprises three ancient Hawker Hunters and an equally ancient fleet of Vietnam-era Huey helicopters. Syria, however, has missiles that can reach Tel Aviv. So Syria – which Israel rightly believes to be behind Wednesday’s Hizbollah attack is not going to be bombed. It is Lebanon which must be punished. The Israeli leadership intends to “break” the Hizbollah and destroy its “terrorist cancer”. Really? Do the Israelis really believe they can “break” one of the toughest guerrilla armies in the world? And how? There are real issues here. Under UN Security Council Resolution 1559 – the same resolution that got the Syrian army out of Lebanon – the Shia Muslim Hizbollah should have been disarmed. They were not because, if the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, had tried to do so, the Lebanese army would have had to fight them and the army would almost certainly broken apart because most Lebanese soldiers are Shia Muslims. We could see the restarting of the civil war in Lebanon – a fact which Nasrallah is cynically aware of – but attempts by Siniora and his cabinet colleagues to find a new role for Hizbollah, which has a minister in the government (he is Minister of Labour) foundered. And the greatest now is that the Lebanese government will collapse and be replaced by a pro-Syrian government which could reinvite the Syrians back into the country.

So there’s a real conundrum to be solved. But it’s not going to succeed with the mass bombing of the country by Israel. Not the obsession with terrorists, terrorists, terrorists.

Robert Fisk in Mdeirej, Central Lebanon – The Independent July 15, 2006
What I am watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage.

National Demonstration

Outside Labour Party Conference Saturday 23rd September

This years Labour Conference promises to be stormy! Delegates will be asking questions re the Iraq War, Afghanistan, a possible attack on Iran and Trident. It is vital that the Peace Movement’s voice is heard outside this conference. This should be the last conference for B-liar as Prime Minister and quite possibly be the last demo before an attack on Iran. We need to mobilise as never before!

Let’s ensure that the carnage and dreadful loss of life that happened in Iraq does not happen to Iran. Manchester is only 50 minutes away, so let’s see how
many coaches we can fill! At least twenty coaches should go from Merseyside. Please speak to your work mates, friends and relatives. Please explain to them how important it is that we demonstrate outside this conference calling for troops out of Iraq and for B-liars head!

Please speak to your trade union branches and ask them to put on a coach for your place of work. Put on a coach yourself and fill it with people from your local community. On this demo we aim to have a die in. So bring fake blood and bandages, bring baby dolls with arms missing etc. We want to show the people of Manchester and the world’s media what Baghdad looks like. It is vital we mobilise as many people as possible. You can help!

Coaches leave Liverpool 11am outside the former unemployed people’s Centre, Hardman St. Tickets are on sale from News from Nowhere, Bold St. £6
Be there!

Links:

National CND