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“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”
- Rumi (Sufi poet)
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This is a background summary. If I have more time, I might add more later when we see the situation evolve. The conflict is now going to widen, both locally and internationally, as it was impossible to contain things. Neither EU nor UN were capable of halting the aggression of Israel on its neighbour.
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Many seem to focus on the cleric and commander Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (born August 31st, 1960 in Beirut) - the leader and designer of this modern militia of which military experts know very little, apart from that it operates very quietly and rigorously in order to defend its country and organize resistance against inhuman if not alien aggressor forces.
Below is a list of links -- with few excerpts from each -- selected to see some more context, background, and comments.
Last week, in an amazing display of arrogance, Jerusalem twisted the international crisis summit hastily convened in Rome into a green light for further military strikes. Israel conveniently interpreted the inability of 15 high-ranking diplomats from Europe and Arab countries, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to agree on an immediate cease-fire as tacit approval for its continued campaign in Lebanon.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, rejected this interpretation as being "totally incorrect." Even the US State Department said that Jerusalem's interpretation was "scandalous." But these protests had little effect on the Israeli military.
One week later, now, in Scorpio moon:
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Israel ready for massive invasion
"Witnesses in Baalbek reported seeing dozens of Israeli helicopters hovering over the town and said a private hospital in Baalbek, filled with patients and wounded people, was bombed by Israeli helicopters."
More - http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1835303,00.html
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Shockwaves from Lebanon
"None of this is to endorse Nasrallah or what he stands for but the world must recognise the strength of his appeal, and the reasons for it. By focusing too narrowly on Hizbullah's guerrilla war with Israel the world risks losing sight of the broader picture - of American-Israeli policies which are reshaping the Middle East in ways that their creators neither desired nor intended."
More - http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1835272,00.html
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Targetting the Lebanese militia in Baalbek:
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5236834.stm
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Syria to gain from Lebanon pain
Hizbullah's stock is rising among the Arab public, and the Syrian regime is making the most of it,
reports Brian Whitaker from Damascus -
"Syria doesn't have to do very much to be potentially in a position to gain," said one western diplomat in Damascus.
After years of international isolation, the regime is acquiring leverage again through its ties with Hizbullah, though political analyst Sami Moubayed doubts Syria can impose its will on the Lebanese Shia if acting on its own.
"Only with Syrian-Iranian support can this war come to an end," he said. "Bringing Syria alone into talks will not end it."
Damascus would also expect rewards for its help, he added. "The Syrians need carrots - big carrots." Among these would be a resumption of talks about the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the lifting of US-imposed sanctions.
More - http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1834114,00.html
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The Forgotten Army in the Bekaa Valley
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1834159,00.html
First picture of Hizbollah's hidden menace
Independent
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/01/wmid201.xml
Resistance in Lebanon: http://www.alghaliboun.net/english/
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I suggest you actually open the links to see what it is I meant to show you. Then you can come to your own conclusions, based on reports I found interesting to shed more light on the issue at hand.
Maps:
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/5177932.stm
* http://medias.lemonde.fr/mmpub/edt/ill/2006/08/01/h_4_BoulotLibanFrappes2_03.gif
* http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/dpko/unifil.pdf
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St.Clair post script:
Two weeks ago, a small group of Iranian leaders met with revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to discuss how Iran should proceed. Hawks like Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, the country's former ambassador in Damascus and founder of Hezbollah, apparently pushed for Iran to take a tougher approach and define its foreign policy position more clearly.
Others, led by former President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, warned against an escalation. "It seems that the moderates prevailed, at least for the time being," says a diplomat in Tehran. France wanted to see an immediate cease-fire without condition. This did not happen.
Now, French, Iranian and Syrian diplomats, and others unnamed yet, are synchronizing a new strategy. Philippe Douste-Blazy, former cardiologist and foreign minister of France, sees in Iran a "country with a great civilization and with a stabilizing role to play in the Middle East."
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A new solution is dawning, one which will emerge once Israel will start to see and experience the international "Nasrallah effect" at work. This solution will have economic effects on the Western world that the planners of this invasion had not yet foreseen.
Again: Start looking for the safe places!
Baalbek - Places of Peace & Power:
http://www.sacredsites.com/middle_east/lebanon/baalbek.htm
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Here I like to close this with the site offered by Farsight3:
"THE NEW FRONTIER", by Khalil Gibran on the Middle East
(written in 1925) http://www.leb.net/~mira/works/frontier.html
Peace -
St.Clair
