Understanding the War in Lebanon

Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press Mourning light: A Lebanese girl lights a candle in front of a concrete slab bearing the name of a person who has died during the war with Israel, in Martyr's Square in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday. About 250 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in downtown Beirut for the more than 700 victims confirmed dead in Israel's offensive.

photo by Kevork Djansezian
A Lebanese young girl flashes a victory sign while holding a poster showing Israeli children writing messages on shells at a heavy artillery position

Understanding the war in Lebanon
from http://cparaullo.blogspot.com/
Businessworld, 11 August 2006

The impact on the Philippines of fresh fighting in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon where a full-scale war has erupted between the Israeli Defense Forces and the Hezbollah has mainly been felt through the ordeals of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) working in Lebanon and another round of steep increases in fuel prices. Of course, the horrors of war are brought home to us by photos of lifeless bodies of children and entire families being dug out of the rubble of their homes or places of refuge.

But the reasons for the new outbreak in fighting elude most. In fact, a cursory reading of the news gives one the impression that the Palestinian organization Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah started it all – they who are said to have sneakily gone across the border into neighboring Israel to kill and capture Israeli soldiers.

The history and the current issues surrounding the creation of a Jewish state in the heart of the Arab Muslim world, most especially the continuing displacement and inhumane work and living conditions imposed on the Palestinian people by Israel, are hugely complex and complicated further by the overweening presence of the US, Israel’s principal backer, and the source of $4 B in yearly aid and the most sophisticated nuclear and non-nuclear weaponry.

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