A cease fire is actually in sight- just 15 hours to go. There were times when I imagined the end of the fighting would send me out into the street dancing. Now all I want to do is curl up with a book and close out the world. Running through my head all day has been the list of casulties. A list that both sides will do their utmost to increase throughout the course of the night. All through the war I have been mourning the dead on both sides, the people that have evacuated the north of Israel, those that left their homes in Lebanon and have no home to return to, the fallen soldiers and their families. The children that died on Miriam's street in Nazareth, the children that died in the collapsed apartment building in Lebanon. The men loading fruits and vegetables into trucks that were then bombed from the air killing, I don't remember how many- was it 15 or 28?
The list of casulties goes beyond the people. There were over 800,000 trees burned on the Israeli side in fires started by rockets. There is the loss of who knows how many Lebanese leftists and centerists who hated Hizbullah and have now moved to the right. There is the destruction of Beirut, a city that the country had invested so much in and that stood as a symbol of healing, hope, and growth after a devastating civil war. There is the loss of Olmert's power to enact any kind of withdrawl from the West Bank. Once there is no West Bank, Tel Aviv will no longer be the refuge it was in this war and will become only a few miles from the border. Jerusalem will be on the border. At this point, and for who knows how long, no one will agree to give up the barrier that is the West Bank. People here are looking at Lebanon and saying, "We withdrew. We did what Hezbullah wanted and what did they do in the meantime? They built up their military capacity, they trained their soldiers, they prepared for conflict. How can we ever withdraw again?" The same thing with the withdrawl from Gaza. There aren't many people here still saying that it was a good idea. The lesson being learned isn't that withdrawls shouldn't be done unilaterally, but rather with an agreement from both sides, such as what occurred with Egypt and Israel's withdrawl from the Sinai, but simply that no more withdrawls should be made.
I think the disaster that has been ongoing in Gaza and the dead there should be added to the list of casulties of this war. I don't know that the amount of military activity that has taken place there the last few weeks would have occurred if the Israeli government and the world hadn't been keeping all eyes on Lebanon.
While I am devastasted by the death, damage, and destruction in my corner of the world, I'm still amazed at the powers that be in the US, France, England, etc. and the UN Security counsel managing to come to an agreement and find troops to send over (even after Israel kept accidentally killing the ones that were here) and yet the fighting in Sudan has carried on for years and it is estimated that "3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far." See www.savedarfur.org for more.
It's amazing what powerful allies are willing to do, or not.
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