Speechless and Sleepless on Lebanon

I could not keep myself away from the non-stop news coverage of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon yesterday. I went home and continued to watch the news until 1:30 AM and decided to sleep on the couch while the tv was on so I could keep following everything by the minute. I woke up every hour to check the updates, until 6:00 AM when the sun came out and Israel decided to take a break from the bombings. How can one possibly sleep during a time like this?

The Lebanese border is only a couple hours away from where I am staying right now. People fleeing from the fighting will go to Syria then drive down to the Jordanian border and pass through Irbid on their way to Amman. Now that possibility is diminished as Israel has been destroying the highway connecting Beirut to Damascus, in addition to the Lebanese airport which is now crippled.

I am not shocked by Israel's scare & terror tactics. And I am not shocked that the US has yet again stood behind Israel as it "defends" itself. Nor am I surprised that Arab countries have yet to do anything other than issue some condemnations and schedule a meeting which will produce yet a few more condemnations.

What did surprise me last night, however, were the statements coming from the Saudi government which cast the blame on Hezbollah for what is taking place now. This I did not expect, although I probably should've because it doesn't seem that complicated. The Saudis are scared shitless (excuse my French) that an all out war might ensue in the next few weeks. They are definitely threatened by Iran's power, and feel that they no longer have any role in what goes on in the Middle East. Surely, they did not expect that everyone will sit around like them and watch Gazans being butchered?!

The Saudis did that for three whole weeks, while Gaza plunged into a humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel's invasion of the Strip. They stayed quiet, taking absolutely no action to defend the lives of their fellow Arab and Muslim brethren. And now, the most they could muster was a condemnation of Hezbollah's resistance against Israel and retaliation for its actions in the Gaza Strip?! SHAME SHAME SHAME!

The international community's reaction has been limited to some condemnations from Europe and Russia:

"Actions, which are contrary to international humanitarian law, can only aggravate the vicious circle of violence and retribution," the EU presidency said in a statement.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, denounced Israel's attack on Lebanon and its operations against the occupied Palestinian territories.

"This is a disproportionate response to what has happened, and if both sides are going to drive each other into a tight corner, then I think that all this will develop in a very dramatic and tragic way," Interfax news agency reported him as saying.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called Israel's bombardment of the Beirut airport "a disproportionate act of war", saying there was a risk of a regional war.

The UN Security Council will meet today to discuss the tensions in Lebanon. Let's wait and see if the US will use abuse its veto power yet again. Let's wait and see if the Arab foreign ministers' meeting will bring anything but useless statements and fake plans of action. Let's wait and see if the US will defend Lebanon, a country that it has championed over the past year as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East for pushing out the Syrian army. Let's wait and see if the Arab and Muslim world will come out in thousands to protest the attacks on Palestine and Lebanon and demand action by their puppet leaders.

Let's wait and see, dammit, if another Arab-Israeli war is on the horizon.

[technorati tags: Israel, IDF, Lebanon, Gaza, Palestine, Hezbollah, Bush,UN, Security Council]