Sunday bloody Sunday

On Sunday there was a bloody killing of civilians in Qana. Just one night before, on Saturday night, I was sitting in a cafe with friends. We were arguing about the killing of Lebanese civilians. They were convinced that all the civilians that were killed were supporters of Hezbollah and not so innocent. I didn’t think so, but we don’t know the exact facts, so this didn’t lead anywhere. I raised another argument and said: “Forget moral issues, aren’t you worried that mass killing of Lebanese civilians will cause the world to halt our just operation against Hezbollah? Remember ‘Grapes of Wrath’?”. 

Contrary to my previous English post, Sunday sure was bloody. Its amazing how history repeats itself. 10 years ago, a military operation by Israel was halted after bombarding the exact same place and killing 100 civilians. This time it resulted in less casualties. But, anyway, it was deadly. I was sorry for all the Lebanese civilians. I was also soory for my country’s stupid actions, shooting itself in the leg, and destroying what was left of international support. The world will hate us much more, and the war will end with our “loss”. The limited achievements of our military against Hezbollah will be jepordized by this tragedy.

But the war didn’t end! It wasn’t supposed to go this way. After two calmer days, it was “war as usual” once again. Fresh rocket attacks in the north of Israel, Renewed bombardments in Lebanon, and fiercer fighting on the ground. Today (Thursday) was the deadliest day in Israel since the war began: 8 civilians and 4 soldiers were killed.  

Everybody still remembers how the war began. But it becomes harder to remember how life was different just a few weeks ago. My personal life wasn’t affected, but a third of my country’s population live a totally different life. On the other side, things are much worse.

Prospering tourism in northern Israel? Gone. Prospering tourism in Lebanon? Gone. It seems so distant.

Tonight, Nasrallah promised that an attack on Beirut would be followed by rockets on Tel Aviv. He said that at about 20:30, prime time on Israeli TV. At 1:00 there were reports of Israeli bombardments of Beirut. So, are we going to see rockets / missiles here in the morning? At least we’ll get rid of the traffic jams…

I got to see my friends from Haifa. So the war did bring us together. They told me that the war ruined their plans for working this summer. So, no vacation for them this year ! Now they are already back in Haifa and they report that Haifa is quiet.

We are already 23 days into the war. It seems that America still encourages Israel, Iran still encourages Hezbollah, and Europe is slow as usual. So, we are stuck. Maybe the upcoming UN Security Council meeting  will bring an end to the hostilities.

Maybe not.