War in Haifa
The only thing I do know about the current escalation of conflict in the Middle East is that I don’t know enough. It goes back too far for me to know all the facts, is too involved for me to know what to say. Strictly speaking, it’s none of my business, and all a very long way from here. I can quite easily throw in remarks about the lamentable contribution the US and the UK have so far made to cooling everything down, or the hypocrisy and absurdity of the US getting involved in yet another international security situation when they themselves are happily selling arms to the combatants… Whoops, there, I said them. Counts for nothing, because everyone has an opinion on this it seems, and mine is worth not a great deal at all.
I met Hadas, an Israeli, last year in India. Hell, who hasn’t met an Israeli in India – the difference from the stereotype is, Hadas was great company, very friendly, and not obsessed with falafel, trance parties and sitting sullenly around playing guitar. In fact, she makes the best chocolate brownies I’ve ever eaten. I asked her just recently whether she had been affected by the recent conflict – she has. Her younger brother and boyfriend are both fighting at the border, the school she works at is closed because it is in nearby Haifa, and alarms are sounding on a regular basis. The Israelis have had a lot of criticism for the ‘disproportionate response’ to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, but Hadas tells me her side of the story, which is that “we are victims of Nasralla who intentionally tries to hurt the Israeli civilians”. So between the news coverage, Bush’s ever-so-helpful suggestion that Hezbollah “stop doing this shit”, and an e-mail from a friend in Israel, I’m no further forward than I was before, other than knowing that it’s a crappy situation I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of.
Hadas sent me these photos of Haifa:
Quite Random is the blog of Nathan Nelson, a human male who lives in the UK and is not entirely sure what he's going to do when he grows up but is interested in international development, photography, secularism, technology, music and movies and other things anyone of his age would be.
Yes, the Israelis are having a rough time too. Yes, civilians are being killed in Israel. Yes, Hezbollah has been a constant threat, but… This is not going to be resolved soon, and it certainly won’t be resolved by destroying Lebanon. Many moderate and left-wing Jews would agree. Jews for Justice for Palestinians took out an advert in the Times recently, condemning the bombing of the power station in Gaza that cut off water, food and dialysis machines, while many British Jews are experiencing a rise in anti-semetism as a result of Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, just as Muslims experience a rise in anti-Islamic feeling after events like 7/7. In an article in the Independent on July 18, Linda Grant reported ‘Privately, figures in what is known as the Jewish “establishment” have been aghast at right-wing American support for Israel…’. She also reports that, on the whole, British Jewry, as opposed to US Jewry, has tended to support those Israeli Governments ‘who’ve made moves towards peace.’ US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton (whose appointment was widely criticised) said something about not negotiating with terrorists, but as someone pointed out in a letter to the Independent the other day, he should take advice from British politicians, and from some senior US politicians, who’ve negotiated with the IRA. Imagine if the British Government’s strategy had been to bomb Northern Ireland wherever they suspected an IRA stronghold, regardless of civilian deaths?