GUWonder

Such would damage or even destroy innocent people's homes and their worldly possessions.

Dovster

BEYFlyer, please take this warning seriously. Go into the center of Beirut and earn some points at the hotel of your choice.

It may be a bluff but I doubt it. Things have gone too far for either side to make empty threats and we both know that the IDF has the ability to strike those suburbs if it wants to.

In 1982, I was a reporter who accompanied the Israeli Army into Lebanon (I had not yet lived in Israel long enough to be in the Army). I have seen what the IDF can do there and I don't want you to be anywhere close to it.

I have in front of me a copy of an article I wrote then. Let me quote from its opening and closing paragraphs:

My son has a new toy. An inflatable pink panther. I paid three dollars for it, but its real price was the destruction of South Lebanon and the terrible toll of suffering on both sides of the border.

I bought the panther in Tyre, a once beautiful seaside city tht now looks like a cross between an Israeli army installation and a town which has suffered an earthquake.

(Much of the rest of the article is omitted here.)

I walked past a toy shop. The building had been heavily hit by artillery. The owner moved all his merchandise out onto the sidewalk.

In speaking to him I found out that his apartment had been above the shop but was completely destroyed. A good part of it collapsed on his BMW which had been parked outside.

He was worried. He had no way to lock up his merchandise. Although looting has been kept to an absolute minimum by the Israelis, a shop full of toys is a very big temptation to children who now have nothing.

I wanted to buy something from him but had no way of taking anything big back with me. Finally I settled on the inflatable panther.

My two-year-old likes to play with it. For him, it's just a toy. He has no idea of the price.

GUWonder

Going to the center would be my suggestion too, although it might be better to be at private accomodations somewhere there rather than at a points-earning hotel.

BEYFlyer

Trust me I know what you mean. I was here in Beirut in 1982 and I know very well what the IDF is capable of doing. Most of the Palestinian camps around Sports City were just a few hundred meters from where I lived (and still live) and that was the first place the planes bombed when the IDF invaded Beirut in '82. This whole situation is going nowhere very fast... God help us all...

CDG1

BEYFlyer, please stay safe.

Dovster

Talk about surrealism!

A few seconds ago I was watching CNN as its reporter in Lebanon was talking about Israeli attacks in South Lebanon as a barrage of rockets started incoming here.

(And, as I typed that sentence, CNN announced that a Hizbollah rocket just hit the city of Safed -- a bit south of where I live and where I had intended to go in an hour. I think I may pass up on that drive today.)

pbiflyer

Dovster, is there anything that resembles a normal life going on where you live? Are shops open? Are people on the streets?
How widespread are the attacks?

This makes our occasional hurricanes seem like a piece of cake.

Dovster and all our FTers in the area, stay safe, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

apirchik

All the people who live from Acco to the north are called to stay in shelters and all other people who live south of Acco are called not to go there. All the activity is halted including stores, hotels, vacation spots and so on. It's the middle of July and this area is supposed to be filled with travelers so it's a big hit for all businesses in Northern Israel.

Dovster

Keep in mind that I live on a kibbutz and there is only one shop on it -- and it is only open about two hours per day -- with or without rockets. I haven't been in a city in the past two days, so I can't tell you what is happening there. I imagine it depends on just how close the city is to the border.

On the kibbutz, life is continuing as usual. The only changes we have made is to sleep in the bomb shelters (most, like me, in the ones that are in our houses and most children in the bigger, underground, ones) and to send the children away during the day.

The attacks are quite widespread. They range along the entire length of the Israeli-Lebanese border and have hit as far south as 20 kilometers from it. Hizbollah is now threatening to hit Haifa, which is about 60 kilometers away. It is believed that they have a few rockets capable of doing that.

Haifa is one of Israel's three large cities and an attack on it would unquestionably step up the level of Israeli response -- especially in the Beirut area.

As of about 15 minutes ago, a new artillery battery was placed near my kibbutz and has been firing constantly ever since. Its noise is so loud that if a rocket were to land here now it would be quiet in comparison.

What I find most interesting is the reaction of people to the situation. Generally, combat either gets people stirred up with patriotic fervor, hatred of the enemy, or strong anti-war emotions.

I have seen none of this.

Instead, the reaction seems to be one of frustration. Almost everyone I have spoken to is saying, "How come we have to go through this again?"

While Hizbollah, certainly, would win no popularity contest here, I am yet to hear one person express joy at what the Lebanese are suffering. The "we" I referred to in the last paragraph does not mean just Israelis but Israelis and Lebanese alike.

underpressure

Note to Dov and the mods...

I appreciate reading this thread with an account of what is happening on the ground.

Thanks for keeping it clean.

Dovster

Well, UP, now it is going to get really dirty!

I discovered the motivation for the initial Hizbollah attack and once the word gets around, partisans on both sides will be chipping in with the most furious of responses.

Lebanon was, for a long time, a protectorate of France. The two countries still have very close relations -- indeed, French is the second language there.

Soon after the World Cup Final was played, Hizbollah learned about me having a Used Italian Girlfriend and flipped out!

The rest is history.

Dovster

PBIFlyer, in further answer to what you asked:

Our kibbutz shop opened at 5:30 and was supposed to be open until 7:30.

At 6 pm, we received an SMS telling us that we can not walk around the kibbutz, that the shop was being closed immediately, and that the dining room will not be open tonight. (Last night, both the shop and the dining room were open as usual.)

There has also been a new factor added into the equation. Israeli helicopter gunships are over the kibbutz firing with heavy machine guns into Lebanon. The only explanation for that can be that they have spotted terrorists in the immediate area.

iCorpRoadie

Those UIG get in the way of international crisis all the time, now you learned your lession!

Jakebeth

Dov - do you have any sense of how seriously Israel takes the possibility that Haifa could actually be hit by their weapons?

GUWonder

Or firing to provide cover for moving in additional resources, permitting such resources to move around a wee bit, or to suppress whatever (if any) ground-to-air and ground-to-ground capabilities are on the other side?