the human province

The Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten has sattelite images of Beirut (I think this is in the Dahiye, the southern suburb of the capital) from 12 July and 31 July:

Beirut responds to the text of the proposed Security Council resolution:

Nouhad Mahmoud, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, said on Sunday that the government "would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text" of the draft resolution.

"Unfortunately, it lacked, for instance, a call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon. That is a recipe for more confrontation."

He said the government was also unhappy that the resolution does not call for the Shebaa Farms area to be put under UN control, as Lebanon has asked, while its future status is figured out.

I went to Tel Aviv last night for a protest againt the war in Lebanon. There was a group of Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners protesting the war and a group of Israelis protesting the protest. The first group was holding signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English calling for an end to the war and to the occuptation. The others were holding signs with slogans like "Let the Army win" and "All terrorists are Muslim." Yael Dayan, the daughter of Moshe Dayen also spoke at the protest. She was initially applauded when she said that the war should stop, but was then booed when she said that the war had started out as a "just war."

The police were sometimes violent and at one point beat up a Palestinian guy. There were five policemen against a single guy, whose head they repeatedly smashed onto a car hood. Israeli spectators were screaming that he was just a dirty Arab and deserved to be "sent to Gaza to be killed."

I spoke to a young Israeli woman whose parents were from Kazakhstan. She was against the war but stayed at the edges of the protest, because she felt a little hypocritical. AS it turns out, she'll be starting her military service in a couple of months. As a woman, she won't be sent to Lebanon or Gaza, but she still feels guilty. When I reminded her that it was compulsory for all Israelis, she told me that as a woman, it's fairly easy to get out of, but for reasons that she was unsure of, she didn't.

After the protest, we had dinner in the area and then came back to Jerusalem and took a stroll in the western part of the city. I was shocked to see young Israeli men out for a night on the town with their friends or girlfriends carrying automatic weapons and spare ammunition. They were not soldiers and were not in any sort of uniform. They brought their weapons into the bars and restaurants, sometimes when the streets were especially crowded, you might have the muzzle of an M-16 bump your leg as you wade through the scantily clad human masses. I am used to seeing civilians with guns and soldiers and policemen, but I was taken aback at the amount of young Israelis armed to the teeth in the West Jerusalem equivalent of Times Square or the Bastille.

I asked a policewoman about it this morning in the old city, and she told me that they were probably soldiers, but when she left, I was called back to the shopfront by some Palestinians. They asked me if the armed youth were wearing big watches or if they were wearing yarmukles.

From Human Rights Watch's press release about their report on Israeli war crimes.

Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) ? Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.

"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."

The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals, humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

Read the rest of the press release and the report itself for specific instances of indiscriminate killing.

The US says that it is involved in diplomacy, but it's hard to call only meeting with the people who agree with you diplomatic. It is obvious that peace in Lebanon and Israel will have to involve Syria, but the US refuses to talk to Damascus.

This piece in the LA Times by Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States (often called the lonliest diplomat in Washington) is interesting:

The underlying idea behind demanding Syrian withdrawal [from Lebanon] was simple: It would precipitate the fall of the Syrian regime, and the U.S. would end up with a new government in Damascus that is both Israel-friendly and an ally of the U.S. Does that have any resemblance to the neoconservative justification for the war on Iraq?

To the dismay of U.S. policymakers, this belligerent attitude only rallied Syrians behind their own government.

Ultimately, the Bush administration has to realize that by trying to isolate Syria politically and diplomatically, the U.S. continues to lose ability to influence a major player in the Middle East. In the wake of the ongoing instability in Iraq and violence in Palestine and Lebanon, it begs the larger question: Has isolating Syria made the region more secure?

Currently, the White House doesn't talk to the democratically elected government of Palestine. It does not talk to Hezbollah, which has democratically elected members in the Lebanese parliament and is a member of the Lebanese coalition government. It does not talk to Iran, and it certainly does not talk to Syria.

Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter.

When the United States realizes that it is high time to reconsider its policies toward Syria, Syria will be more than willing to engage. However, the rules of the game should be clear. As President Bashar Assad has said, Syria is not a charity. If the U.S. wants something from Syria, then Syria requires something in return from the U.S.: Let us address the root cause of instability in the Middle East.

The current crisis in Lebanon needs an urgent solution because of the disastrous human toll. Moreover, the whole Middle East deserves a comprehensive deal that would put an end to occupation and allow all countries to equally prosper and live in dignity and peace.

Of course, as an ambassador, his points toe the Syrian line (a line that I generally don't believe as regards Lebanon), but he does have some interesting and valid points. It might seem obvious that diplomacy is not the same as dictating orders, but many don't see it that way in Washington.

Ramallah was interesting. I met an American-Palestinian woman who works in one of the minstries there. She talked about a lot of things, but mostly about how she hasn't been paid for a while and how the financial squeeze has gotten so bad that employees who live outside Ramallah only come in three times a week, since they haven't been paid and cannot afford to pay for transportation to work and back every day.

Most business with foreign countries is being done through the office of the President, because no one wants to work with the new Hamas government. Interestingly enough though, in the ministries that Hamas controls now, only the ministers have been changed. Everyone, including the deputies, have stayed the same. So just liek most governments and large organizations, there is always a core of career bureaucrats that stays the same, regardless of who is in charge of the ministry.

The wall was again very present, impossible to miss. It cuts the landscape and lengthens commutes. It is often covered with graffiti, both domestic and foreign, in Arabic and English. To get back to Jerusalem, we had to go through two different checkpoints, just as we had to got through two on the way there. Without these checkpoints, the trip would only take about 30 minutes.

I went out last night in West Jerusalem with a couple from Europe who work in NGOs here in the West Bank and Jerusalem. On our way back to the old city, we ran into a couple of young and hip Israelis busily tearing down fliers for a protest against the war in Lebanon.

I'm increasingly worried about a probable escalation. Nasrallah said the night before last on television that if the center of Beirut was hit, then he would hit Tel Aviv. I beleive that this is a warning, not a bluff. Israel probably won't accept this as a deterrant and will probably hit Beirut, if only to assert its manliness and regain the IDF's "honor." Then since he said he would, Nasrallah will order an attack on Tel Aviv.

If only the belligerents in the Middle East were less worried about being "manly" and more interested in being humane, we'd all be a lot better off.

The Times has done a simple interactive graphic of the Southern suburb of Beirut, Haret Hreik, which is where Hizbollah has its offices and which has been the target of many of the Israeli attacks.

It's good that the Times has decided to put it next to a map of Manhatten (at the same scale). Maybe some people might better be able to imagine what it would be like if New York were being attacked instead of Beirut.

The London Review of Books has several pieces by people in Beirut now. This one reminds me the most of my Beirut, parfticularly the ambivalence about leaving Lebanon. It wouldn't surprise me if we went to the same café in Hamra:

I am a secular person and I?m democratically inclined. I have never supported Hizbullah, but I do not question its legitimacy as a political force in Lebanon. It would be folly to regard Hizbullah as just another radical Islamist terrorist organisation. It is a mature political organisation with an Islamist ideology. It has learned (very quickly) to coexist with other political agents in the country, as well as other sects. There have been exceptional moments when the country has united willingly and spontaneously (as during the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but other less spectacular moments have punctuated the lived postwar experience of every single Lebanese, in which sectarian prejudice was easily set aside. When Hariri was assassinated, the country seemed divided into two camps. There was, however, an overwhelming consensus that we would not go back to fighting one another. If Israel plans to annihilate Hizbullah, it will annihilate Lebanon. Hizbullah is an essential element of contemporary Lebanon.

Otherwise, I'm supposed to be going to Ramallah today, which should prove to be an interesting trip.

The death toll in Lebanon has topped 900 people now, with 3,000 people injured. Only about 100 of the dead were from Hizbollah. (Israel claims that 300 Hizbollah militants have been killed, but I believe the number is closer to the Lebanese security force's estimate, since Nasrallah is always forthright about Hizbollah deaths.)

Compare that to 37 dead Israeli soldiers and 19 civilians.

I spent all day in Bethlehem, exploring several refugee camps and the Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Camp in the Aida Camp. The children were bright-eyed and friendly, and everyone else was welcoming and helpful.

I got up close to the seperation wall, which often came about 10 meters from Palestinian houses, cutting the family off from the rest of their land.

On the way back, I took a bus back to Jerusalem with my friend. When we were stopped at the checkpoint, everyone in the bus got out and showed their bags and identity cards to the young Israeli soldier, who only spoke to us in Hebrew. He was kurt and methodical. Sometimes, apparently, they won't make you get out of the bus, but we saw that they were making women and children get out and show their ID, so we knew that we would have to also. When we got back into the bus, I asked my friend how often these searches happened. "All the time," he told me.

I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday. I set out in a taxi from Amman to the Allenby Bridge crossing. Once I was on the Israeli side of the border, everything slowed to a crawl. I was expecting a modern border crossing that was orderly and efficient. I was wrong.

There were practically no signs, and the Israeli soldiers on duty were usually not at all helpful: one girl refused to even talk to me when I asked her a question. I was held for about 3 hours and interrogated by a young Ethiopian girl, who I assume was doing her military service. She told me to sit down, because it was going to be a long time before I went anywhere. I asked why, and she responded, "Because you was in Lebanon." She asked why I was there, and I told her that I was on vacation. "Vacation in Beirut?" she asked with suprise. "Yes, it's a wonderful city, hopefully, one day you'll be able to visit." She said that "they" would kill her, and I suggested that she should just speak in Amahric, since there are many Ethiopians in Beirut.

When I finally made it into Jerusalem, I was met by a Palestinian friend of the family who has put me up in Amman. He took me out for a very late lunch, showed me around the neighborhood (East Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate), and we talked about mutual friends and politics. He introduced me to his friends and some of his family; everyone seems to know him in the neighborhood. After talking and eating with a group that got bigger and bigger, we went to a candle light vigil against the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. He told me about a protest in front of the American consulate in East Jerusalem (there's also one in West Jerusalem and an Embassy in Tel Aviv). Since they couldn't get a permit, the police came and broke it up with clubs and tear gas.

After the vigil, I went out with a Palestinian girl who is a citizen of Israel, who tried to explain to me why she refuses to be called an Israeli Arab, and an Israeli Jewish girl from Moldavia. They talked about the news here (the Palestinian girl speaks Hebrew as well as Arabic and English) and about how all but the most radical of the left supports the war in Lebanon.

The hotels are mostly full here, because many people have left the north because of Hizbollah's rocket attacks. Otherwise, my friends back in Lebanon tell me that the Israelis have gone farther and farther into southern Lebanon, and there is talk of going as far north as the Litani, which is eerily reminiscent of the 1982 invasion. I've been taking pictures, but I don't have my computer here, so I'll have to upload them when I get back to Amman in a few days.

Otherwise, Al Aqsa is closed to non-Muslim foreigners for "security reasons," but I am convinced to see al-Haram ah-Sherif before I leave. Tomorrow, my friend is going to take me to see Bethlehem and part of the separation wall.

The Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten has sattelite images of Beirut (I think this is in the Dahiye, the southern suburb of the capital) from 12 July and 31 July:

Beirut responds to the text of the proposed Security Council resolution:

Nouhad Mahmoud, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, said on Sunday that the government "would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text" of the draft resolution.

"Unfortunately, it lacked, for instance, a call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon. That is a recipe for more confrontation."

He said the government was also unhappy that the resolution does not call for the Shebaa Farms area to be put under UN control, as Lebanon has asked, while its future status is figured out.

I went to Tel Aviv last night for a protest againt the war in Lebanon. There was a group of Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners protesting the war and a group of Israelis protesting the protest. The first group was holding signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English calling for an end to the war and to the occuptation. The others were holding signs with slogans like "Let the Army win" and "All terrorists are Muslim." Yael Dayan, the daughter of Moshe Dayen also spoke at the protest. She was initially applauded when she said that the war should stop, but was then booed when she said that the war had started out as a "just war."

The police were sometimes violent and at one point beat up a Palestinian guy. There were five policemen against a single guy, whose head they repeatedly smashed onto a car hood. Israeli spectators were screaming that he was just a dirty Arab and deserved to be "sent to Gaza to be killed."

I spoke to a young Israeli woman whose parents were from Kazakhstan. She was against the war but stayed at the edges of the protest, because she felt a little hypocritical. AS it turns out, she'll be starting her military service in a couple of months. As a woman, she won't be sent to Lebanon or Gaza, but she still feels guilty. When I reminded her that it was compulsory for all Israelis, she told me that as a woman, it's fairly easy to get out of, but for reasons that she was unsure of, she didn't.

After the protest, we had dinner in the area and then came back to Jerusalem and took a stroll in the western part of the city. I was shocked to see young Israeli men out for a night on the town with their friends or girlfriends carrying automatic weapons and spare ammunition. They were not soldiers and were not in any sort of uniform. They brought their weapons into the bars and restaurants, sometimes when the streets were especially crowded, you might have the muzzle of an M-16 bump your leg as you wade through the scantily clad human masses. I am used to seeing civilians with guns and soldiers and policemen, but I was taken aback at the amount of young Israelis armed to the teeth in the West Jerusalem equivalent of Times Square or the Bastille.

I asked a policewoman about it this morning in the old city, and she told me that they were probably soldiers, but when she left, I was called back to the shopfront by some Palestinians. They asked me if the armed youth were wearing big watches or if they were wearing yarmukles.

From Human Rights Watch's press release about their report on Israeli war crimes.

Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) ? Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.

"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."

The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals, humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

Read the rest of the press release and the report itself for specific instances of indiscriminate killing.

The US says that it is involved in diplomacy, but it's hard to call only meeting with the people who agree with you diplomatic. It is obvious that peace in Lebanon and Israel will have to involve Syria, but the US refuses to talk to Damascus.

This piece in the LA Times by Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States (often called the lonliest diplomat in Washington) is interesting:

The underlying idea behind demanding Syrian withdrawal [from Lebanon] was simple: It would precipitate the fall of the Syrian regime, and the U.S. would end up with a new government in Damascus that is both Israel-friendly and an ally of the U.S. Does that have any resemblance to the neoconservative justification for the war on Iraq?

To the dismay of U.S. policymakers, this belligerent attitude only rallied Syrians behind their own government.

Ultimately, the Bush administration has to realize that by trying to isolate Syria politically and diplomatically, the U.S. continues to lose ability to influence a major player in the Middle East. In the wake of the ongoing instability in Iraq and violence in Palestine and Lebanon, it begs the larger question: Has isolating Syria made the region more secure?

Currently, the White House doesn't talk to the democratically elected government of Palestine. It does not talk to Hezbollah, which has democratically elected members in the Lebanese parliament and is a member of the Lebanese coalition government. It does not talk to Iran, and it certainly does not talk to Syria.

Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter.

When the United States realizes that it is high time to reconsider its policies toward Syria, Syria will be more than willing to engage. However, the rules of the game should be clear. As President Bashar Assad has said, Syria is not a charity. If the U.S. wants something from Syria, then Syria requires something in return from the U.S.: Let us address the root cause of instability in the Middle East.

The current crisis in Lebanon needs an urgent solution because of the disastrous human toll. Moreover, the whole Middle East deserves a comprehensive deal that would put an end to occupation and allow all countries to equally prosper and live in dignity and peace.

Of course, as an ambassador, his points toe the Syrian line (a line that I generally don't believe as regards Lebanon), but he does have some interesting and valid points. It might seem obvious that diplomacy is not the same as dictating orders, but many don't see it that way in Washington.

Ramallah was interesting. I met an American-Palestinian woman who works in one of the minstries there. She talked about a lot of things, but mostly about how she hasn't been paid for a while and how the financial squeeze has gotten so bad that employees who live outside Ramallah only come in three times a week, since they haven't been paid and cannot afford to pay for transportation to work and back every day.

Most business with foreign countries is being done through the office of the President, because no one wants to work with the new Hamas government. Interestingly enough though, in the ministries that Hamas controls now, only the ministers have been changed. Everyone, including the deputies, have stayed the same. So just liek most governments and large organizations, there is always a core of career bureaucrats that stays the same, regardless of who is in charge of the ministry.

The wall was again very present, impossible to miss. It cuts the landscape and lengthens commutes. It is often covered with graffiti, both domestic and foreign, in Arabic and English. To get back to Jerusalem, we had to go through two different checkpoints, just as we had to got through two on the way there. Without these checkpoints, the trip would only take about 30 minutes.

I went out last night in West Jerusalem with a couple from Europe who work in NGOs here in the West Bank and Jerusalem. On our way back to the old city, we ran into a couple of young and hip Israelis busily tearing down fliers for a protest against the war in Lebanon.

I'm increasingly worried about a probable escalation. Nasrallah said the night before last on television that if the center of Beirut was hit, then he would hit Tel Aviv. I beleive that this is a warning, not a bluff. Israel probably won't accept this as a deterrant and will probably hit Beirut, if only to assert its manliness and regain the IDF's "honor." Then since he said he would, Nasrallah will order an attack on Tel Aviv.

If only the belligerents in the Middle East were less worried about being "manly" and more interested in being humane, we'd all be a lot better off.

The Times has done a simple interactive graphic of the Southern suburb of Beirut, Haret Hreik, which is where Hizbollah has its offices and which has been the target of many of the Israeli attacks.

It's good that the Times has decided to put it next to a map of Manhatten (at the same scale). Maybe some people might better be able to imagine what it would be like if New York were being attacked instead of Beirut.

The London Review of Books has several pieces by people in Beirut now. This one reminds me the most of my Beirut, parfticularly the ambivalence about leaving Lebanon. It wouldn't surprise me if we went to the same café in Hamra:

I am a secular person and I?m democratically inclined. I have never supported Hizbullah, but I do not question its legitimacy as a political force in Lebanon. It would be folly to regard Hizbullah as just another radical Islamist terrorist organisation. It is a mature political organisation with an Islamist ideology. It has learned (very quickly) to coexist with other political agents in the country, as well as other sects. There have been exceptional moments when the country has united willingly and spontaneously (as during the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but other less spectacular moments have punctuated the lived postwar experience of every single Lebanese, in which sectarian prejudice was easily set aside. When Hariri was assassinated, the country seemed divided into two camps. There was, however, an overwhelming consensus that we would not go back to fighting one another. If Israel plans to annihilate Hizbullah, it will annihilate Lebanon. Hizbullah is an essential element of contemporary Lebanon.

Otherwise, I'm supposed to be going to Ramallah today, which should prove to be an interesting trip.

The death toll in Lebanon has topped 900 people now, with 3,000 people injured. Only about 100 of the dead were from Hizbollah. (Israel claims that 300 Hizbollah militants have been killed, but I believe the number is closer to the Lebanese security force's estimate, since Nasrallah is always forthright about Hizbollah deaths.)

Compare that to 37 dead Israeli soldiers and 19 civilians.

I spent all day in Bethlehem, exploring several refugee camps and the Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Camp in the Aida Camp. The children were bright-eyed and friendly, and everyone else was welcoming and helpful.

I got up close to the seperation wall, which often came about 10 meters from Palestinian houses, cutting the family off from the rest of their land.

On the way back, I took a bus back to Jerusalem with my friend. When we were stopped at the checkpoint, everyone in the bus got out and showed their bags and identity cards to the young Israeli soldier, who only spoke to us in Hebrew. He was kurt and methodical. Sometimes, apparently, they won't make you get out of the bus, but we saw that they were making women and children get out and show their ID, so we knew that we would have to also. When we got back into the bus, I asked my friend how often these searches happened. "All the time," he told me.

I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday. I set out in a taxi from Amman to the Allenby Bridge crossing. Once I was on the Israeli side of the border, everything slowed to a crawl. I was expecting a modern border crossing that was orderly and efficient. I was wrong.

There were practically no signs, and the Israeli soldiers on duty were usually not at all helpful: one girl refused to even talk to me when I asked her a question. I was held for about 3 hours and interrogated by a young Ethiopian girl, who I assume was doing her military service. She told me to sit down, because it was going to be a long time before I went anywhere. I asked why, and she responded, "Because you was in Lebanon." She asked why I was there, and I told her that I was on vacation. "Vacation in Beirut?" she asked with suprise. "Yes, it's a wonderful city, hopefully, one day you'll be able to visit." She said that "they" would kill her, and I suggested that she should just speak in Amahric, since there are many Ethiopians in Beirut.

When I finally made it into Jerusalem, I was met by a Palestinian friend of the family who has put me up in Amman. He took me out for a very late lunch, showed me around the neighborhood (East Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate), and we talked about mutual friends and politics. He introduced me to his friends and some of his family; everyone seems to know him in the neighborhood. After talking and eating with a group that got bigger and bigger, we went to a candle light vigil against the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. He told me about a protest in front of the American consulate in East Jerusalem (there's also one in West Jerusalem and an Embassy in Tel Aviv). Since they couldn't get a permit, the police came and broke it up with clubs and tear gas.

After the vigil, I went out with a Palestinian girl who is a citizen of Israel, who tried to explain to me why she refuses to be called an Israeli Arab, and an Israeli Jewish girl from Moldavia. They talked about the news here (the Palestinian girl speaks Hebrew as well as Arabic and English) and about how all but the most radical of the left supports the war in Lebanon.

The hotels are mostly full here, because many people have left the north because of Hizbollah's rocket attacks. Otherwise, my friends back in Lebanon tell me that the Israelis have gone farther and farther into southern Lebanon, and there is talk of going as far north as the Litani, which is eerily reminiscent of the 1982 invasion. I've been taking pictures, but I don't have my computer here, so I'll have to upload them when I get back to Amman in a few days.

Otherwise, Al Aqsa is closed to non-Muslim foreigners for "security reasons," but I am convinced to see al-Haram ah-Sherif before I leave. Tomorrow, my friend is going to take me to see Bethlehem and part of the separation wall.

The Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten has sattelite images of Beirut (I think this is in the Dahiye, the southern suburb of the capital) from 12 July and 31 July:

Beirut responds to the text of the proposed Security Council resolution:

Nouhad Mahmoud, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, said on Sunday that the government "would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text" of the draft resolution.

"Unfortunately, it lacked, for instance, a call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon. That is a recipe for more confrontation."

He said the government was also unhappy that the resolution does not call for the Shebaa Farms area to be put under UN control, as Lebanon has asked, while its future status is figured out.

I went to Tel Aviv last night for a protest againt the war in Lebanon. There was a group of Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners protesting the war and a group of Israelis protesting the protest. The first group was holding signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English calling for an end to the war and to the occuptation. The others were holding signs with slogans like "Let the Army win" and "All terrorists are Muslim." Yael Dayan, the daughter of Moshe Dayen also spoke at the protest. She was initially applauded when she said that the war should stop, but was then booed when she said that the war had started out as a "just war."

The police were sometimes violent and at one point beat up a Palestinian guy. There were five policemen against a single guy, whose head they repeatedly smashed onto a car hood. Israeli spectators were screaming that he was just a dirty Arab and deserved to be "sent to Gaza to be killed."

I spoke to a young Israeli woman whose parents were from Kazakhstan. She was against the war but stayed at the edges of the protest, because she felt a little hypocritical. AS it turns out, she'll be starting her military service in a couple of months. As a woman, she won't be sent to Lebanon or Gaza, but she still feels guilty. When I reminded her that it was compulsory for all Israelis, she told me that as a woman, it's fairly easy to get out of, but for reasons that she was unsure of, she didn't.

After the protest, we had dinner in the area and then came back to Jerusalem and took a stroll in the western part of the city. I was shocked to see young Israeli men out for a night on the town with their friends or girlfriends carrying automatic weapons and spare ammunition. They were not soldiers and were not in any sort of uniform. They brought their weapons into the bars and restaurants, sometimes when the streets were especially crowded, you might have the muzzle of an M-16 bump your leg as you wade through the scantily clad human masses. I am used to seeing civilians with guns and soldiers and policemen, but I was taken aback at the amount of young Israelis armed to the teeth in the West Jerusalem equivalent of Times Square or the Bastille.

I asked a policewoman about it this morning in the old city, and she told me that they were probably soldiers, but when she left, I was called back to the shopfront by some Palestinians. They asked me if the armed youth were wearing big watches or if they were wearing yarmukles.

From Human Rights Watch's press release about their report on Israeli war crimes.

Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) ? Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.

"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."

The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals, humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

Read the rest of the press release and the report itself for specific instances of indiscriminate killing.

The US says that it is involved in diplomacy, but it's hard to call only meeting with the people who agree with you diplomatic. It is obvious that peace in Lebanon and Israel will have to involve Syria, but the US refuses to talk to Damascus.

This piece in the LA Times by Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States (often called the lonliest diplomat in Washington) is interesting:

The underlying idea behind demanding Syrian withdrawal [from Lebanon] was simple: It would precipitate the fall of the Syrian regime, and the U.S. would end up with a new government in Damascus that is both Israel-friendly and an ally of the U.S. Does that have any resemblance to the neoconservative justification for the war on Iraq?

To the dismay of U.S. policymakers, this belligerent attitude only rallied Syrians behind their own government.

Ultimately, the Bush administration has to realize that by trying to isolate Syria politically and diplomatically, the U.S. continues to lose ability to influence a major player in the Middle East. In the wake of the ongoing instability in Iraq and violence in Palestine and Lebanon, it begs the larger question: Has isolating Syria made the region more secure?

Currently, the White House doesn't talk to the democratically elected government of Palestine. It does not talk to Hezbollah, which has democratically elected members in the Lebanese parliament and is a member of the Lebanese coalition government. It does not talk to Iran, and it certainly does not talk to Syria.

Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter.

When the United States realizes that it is high time to reconsider its policies toward Syria, Syria will be more than willing to engage. However, the rules of the game should be clear. As President Bashar Assad has said, Syria is not a charity. If the U.S. wants something from Syria, then Syria requires something in return from the U.S.: Let us address the root cause of instability in the Middle East.

The current crisis in Lebanon needs an urgent solution because of the disastrous human toll. Moreover, the whole Middle East deserves a comprehensive deal that would put an end to occupation and allow all countries to equally prosper and live in dignity and peace.

Of course, as an ambassador, his points toe the Syrian line (a line that I generally don't believe as regards Lebanon), but he does have some interesting and valid points. It might seem obvious that diplomacy is not the same as dictating orders, but many don't see it that way in Washington.

Ramallah was interesting. I met an American-Palestinian woman who works in one of the minstries there. She talked about a lot of things, but mostly about how she hasn't been paid for a while and how the financial squeeze has gotten so bad that employees who live outside Ramallah only come in three times a week, since they haven't been paid and cannot afford to pay for transportation to work and back every day.

Most business with foreign countries is being done through the office of the President, because no one wants to work with the new Hamas government. Interestingly enough though, in the ministries that Hamas controls now, only the ministers have been changed. Everyone, including the deputies, have stayed the same. So just liek most governments and large organizations, there is always a core of career bureaucrats that stays the same, regardless of who is in charge of the ministry.

The wall was again very present, impossible to miss. It cuts the landscape and lengthens commutes. It is often covered with graffiti, both domestic and foreign, in Arabic and English. To get back to Jerusalem, we had to go through two different checkpoints, just as we had to got through two on the way there. Without these checkpoints, the trip would only take about 30 minutes.

I went out last night in West Jerusalem with a couple from Europe who work in NGOs here in the West Bank and Jerusalem. On our way back to the old city, we ran into a couple of young and hip Israelis busily tearing down fliers for a protest against the war in Lebanon.

I'm increasingly worried about a probable escalation. Nasrallah said the night before last on television that if the center of Beirut was hit, then he would hit Tel Aviv. I beleive that this is a warning, not a bluff. Israel probably won't accept this as a deterrant and will probably hit Beirut, if only to assert its manliness and regain the IDF's "honor." Then since he said he would, Nasrallah will order an attack on Tel Aviv.

If only the belligerents in the Middle East were less worried about being "manly" and more interested in being humane, we'd all be a lot better off.

The Times has done a simple interactive graphic of the Southern suburb of Beirut, Haret Hreik, which is where Hizbollah has its offices and which has been the target of many of the Israeli attacks.

It's good that the Times has decided to put it next to a map of Manhatten (at the same scale). Maybe some people might better be able to imagine what it would be like if New York were being attacked instead of Beirut.

The London Review of Books has several pieces by people in Beirut now. This one reminds me the most of my Beirut, parfticularly the ambivalence about leaving Lebanon. It wouldn't surprise me if we went to the same café in Hamra:

I am a secular person and I?m democratically inclined. I have never supported Hizbullah, but I do not question its legitimacy as a political force in Lebanon. It would be folly to regard Hizbullah as just another radical Islamist terrorist organisation. It is a mature political organisation with an Islamist ideology. It has learned (very quickly) to coexist with other political agents in the country, as well as other sects. There have been exceptional moments when the country has united willingly and spontaneously (as during the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but other less spectacular moments have punctuated the lived postwar experience of every single Lebanese, in which sectarian prejudice was easily set aside. When Hariri was assassinated, the country seemed divided into two camps. There was, however, an overwhelming consensus that we would not go back to fighting one another. If Israel plans to annihilate Hizbullah, it will annihilate Lebanon. Hizbullah is an essential element of contemporary Lebanon.

Otherwise, I'm supposed to be going to Ramallah today, which should prove to be an interesting trip.

The death toll in Lebanon has topped 900 people now, with 3,000 people injured. Only about 100 of the dead were from Hizbollah. (Israel claims that 300 Hizbollah militants have been killed, but I believe the number is closer to the Lebanese security force's estimate, since Nasrallah is always forthright about Hizbollah deaths.)

Compare that to 37 dead Israeli soldiers and 19 civilians.

I spent all day in Bethlehem, exploring several refugee camps and the Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Camp in the Aida Camp. The children were bright-eyed and friendly, and everyone else was welcoming and helpful.

I got up close to the seperation wall, which often came about 10 meters from Palestinian houses, cutting the family off from the rest of their land.

On the way back, I took a bus back to Jerusalem with my friend. When we were stopped at the checkpoint, everyone in the bus got out and showed their bags and identity cards to the young Israeli soldier, who only spoke to us in Hebrew. He was kurt and methodical. Sometimes, apparently, they won't make you get out of the bus, but we saw that they were making women and children get out and show their ID, so we knew that we would have to also. When we got back into the bus, I asked my friend how often these searches happened. "All the time," he told me.

I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday. I set out in a taxi from Amman to the Allenby Bridge crossing. Once I was on the Israeli side of the border, everything slowed to a crawl. I was expecting a modern border crossing that was orderly and efficient. I was wrong.

There were practically no signs, and the Israeli soldiers on duty were usually not at all helpful: one girl refused to even talk to me when I asked her a question. I was held for about 3 hours and interrogated by a young Ethiopian girl, who I assume was doing her military service. She told me to sit down, because it was going to be a long time before I went anywhere. I asked why, and she responded, "Because you was in Lebanon." She asked why I was there, and I told her that I was on vacation. "Vacation in Beirut?" she asked with suprise. "Yes, it's a wonderful city, hopefully, one day you'll be able to visit." She said that "they" would kill her, and I suggested that she should just speak in Amahric, since there are many Ethiopians in Beirut.

When I finally made it into Jerusalem, I was met by a Palestinian friend of the family who has put me up in Amman. He took me out for a very late lunch, showed me around the neighborhood (East Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate), and we talked about mutual friends and politics. He introduced me to his friends and some of his family; everyone seems to know him in the neighborhood. After talking and eating with a group that got bigger and bigger, we went to a candle light vigil against the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. He told me about a protest in front of the American consulate in East Jerusalem (there's also one in West Jerusalem and an Embassy in Tel Aviv). Since they couldn't get a permit, the police came and broke it up with clubs and tear gas.

After the vigil, I went out with a Palestinian girl who is a citizen of Israel, who tried to explain to me why she refuses to be called an Israeli Arab, and an Israeli Jewish girl from Moldavia. They talked about the news here (the Palestinian girl speaks Hebrew as well as Arabic and English) and about how all but the most radical of the left supports the war in Lebanon.

The hotels are mostly full here, because many people have left the north because of Hizbollah's rocket attacks. Otherwise, my friends back in Lebanon tell me that the Israelis have gone farther and farther into southern Lebanon, and there is talk of going as far north as the Litani, which is eerily reminiscent of the 1982 invasion. I've been taking pictures, but I don't have my computer here, so I'll have to upload them when I get back to Amman in a few days.

Otherwise, Al Aqsa is closed to non-Muslim foreigners for "security reasons," but I am convinced to see al-Haram ah-Sherif before I leave. Tomorrow, my friend is going to take me to see Bethlehem and part of the separation wall.

The Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten has sattelite images of Beirut (I think this is in the Dahiye, the southern suburb of the capital) from 12 July and 31 July:

Beirut responds to the text of the proposed Security Council resolution:

Nouhad Mahmoud, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, said on Sunday that the government "would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text" of the draft resolution.

"Unfortunately, it lacked, for instance, a call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon. That is a recipe for more confrontation."

He said the government was also unhappy that the resolution does not call for the Shebaa Farms area to be put under UN control, as Lebanon has asked, while its future status is figured out.

I went to Tel Aviv last night for a protest againt the war in Lebanon. There was a group of Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners protesting the war and a group of Israelis protesting the protest. The first group was holding signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English calling for an end to the war and to the occuptation. The others were holding signs with slogans like "Let the Army win" and "All terrorists are Muslim." Yael Dayan, the daughter of Moshe Dayen also spoke at the protest. She was initially applauded when she said that the war should stop, but was then booed when she said that the war had started out as a "just war."

The police were sometimes violent and at one point beat up a Palestinian guy. There were five policemen against a single guy, whose head they repeatedly smashed onto a car hood. Israeli spectators were screaming that he was just a dirty Arab and deserved to be "sent to Gaza to be killed."

I spoke to a young Israeli woman whose parents were from Kazakhstan. She was against the war but stayed at the edges of the protest, because she felt a little hypocritical. AS it turns out, she'll be starting her military service in a couple of months. As a woman, she won't be sent to Lebanon or Gaza, but she still feels guilty. When I reminded her that it was compulsory for all Israelis, she told me that as a woman, it's fairly easy to get out of, but for reasons that she was unsure of, she didn't.

After the protest, we had dinner in the area and then came back to Jerusalem and took a stroll in the western part of the city. I was shocked to see young Israeli men out for a night on the town with their friends or girlfriends carrying automatic weapons and spare ammunition. They were not soldiers and were not in any sort of uniform. They brought their weapons into the bars and restaurants, sometimes when the streets were especially crowded, you might have the muzzle of an M-16 bump your leg as you wade through the scantily clad human masses. I am used to seeing civilians with guns and soldiers and policemen, but I was taken aback at the amount of young Israelis armed to the teeth in the West Jerusalem equivalent of Times Square or the Bastille.

I asked a policewoman about it this morning in the old city, and she told me that they were probably soldiers, but when she left, I was called back to the shopfront by some Palestinians. They asked me if the armed youth were wearing big watches or if they were wearing yarmukles.

From Human Rights Watch's press release about their report on Israeli war crimes.

Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) ? Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.

"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."

The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals, humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

Read the rest of the press release and the report itself for specific instances of indiscriminate killing.

The US says that it is involved in diplomacy, but it's hard to call only meeting with the people who agree with you diplomatic. It is obvious that peace in Lebanon and Israel will have to involve Syria, but the US refuses to talk to Damascus.

This piece in the LA Times by Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States (often called the lonliest diplomat in Washington) is interesting:

The underlying idea behind demanding Syrian withdrawal [from Lebanon] was simple: It would precipitate the fall of the Syrian regime, and the U.S. would end up with a new government in Damascus that is both Israel-friendly and an ally of the U.S. Does that have any resemblance to the neoconservative justification for the war on Iraq?

To the dismay of U.S. policymakers, this belligerent attitude only rallied Syrians behind their own government.

Ultimately, the Bush administration has to realize that by trying to isolate Syria politically and diplomatically, the U.S. continues to lose ability to influence a major player in the Middle East. In the wake of the ongoing instability in Iraq and violence in Palestine and Lebanon, it begs the larger question: Has isolating Syria made the region more secure?

Currently, the White House doesn't talk to the democratically elected government of Palestine. It does not talk to Hezbollah, which has democratically elected members in the Lebanese parliament and is a member of the Lebanese coalition government. It does not talk to Iran, and it certainly does not talk to Syria.

Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter.

When the United States realizes that it is high time to reconsider its policies toward Syria, Syria will be more than willing to engage. However, the rules of the game should be clear. As President Bashar Assad has said, Syria is not a charity. If the U.S. wants something from Syria, then Syria requires something in return from the U.S.: Let us address the root cause of instability in the Middle East.

The current crisis in Lebanon needs an urgent solution because of the disastrous human toll. Moreover, the whole Middle East deserves a comprehensive deal that would put an end to occupation and allow all countries to equally prosper and live in dignity and peace.

Of course, as an ambassador, his points toe the Syrian line (a line that I generally don't believe as regards Lebanon), but he does have some interesting and valid points. It might seem obvious that diplomacy is not the same as dictating orders, but many don't see it that way in Washington.

Ramallah was interesting. I met an American-Palestinian woman who works in one of the minstries there. She talked about a lot of things, but mostly about how she hasn't been paid for a while and how the financial squeeze has gotten so bad that employees who live outside Ramallah only come in three times a week, since they haven't been paid and cannot afford to pay for transportation to work and back every day.

Most business with foreign countries is being done through the office of the President, because no one wants to work with the new Hamas government. Interestingly enough though, in the ministries that Hamas controls now, only the ministers have been changed. Everyone, including the deputies, have stayed the same. So just liek most governments and large organizations, there is always a core of career bureaucrats that stays the same, regardless of who is in charge of the ministry.

The wall was again very present, impossible to miss. It cuts the landscape and lengthens commutes. It is often covered with graffiti, both domestic and foreign, in Arabic and English. To get back to Jerusalem, we had to go through two different checkpoints, just as we had to got through two on the way there. Without these checkpoints, the trip would only take about 30 minutes.

I went out last night in West Jerusalem with a couple from Europe who work in NGOs here in the West Bank and Jerusalem. On our way back to the old city, we ran into a couple of young and hip Israelis busily tearing down fliers for a protest against the war in Lebanon.

I'm increasingly worried about a probable escalation. Nasrallah said the night before last on television that if the center of Beirut was hit, then he would hit Tel Aviv. I beleive that this is a warning, not a bluff. Israel probably won't accept this as a deterrant and will probably hit Beirut, if only to assert its manliness and regain the IDF's "honor." Then since he said he would, Nasrallah will order an attack on Tel Aviv.

If only the belligerents in the Middle East were less worried about being "manly" and more interested in being humane, we'd all be a lot better off.

The Times has done a simple interactive graphic of the Southern suburb of Beirut, Haret Hreik, which is where Hizbollah has its offices and which has been the target of many of the Israeli attacks.

It's good that the Times has decided to put it next to a map of Manhatten (at the same scale). Maybe some people might better be able to imagine what it would be like if New York were being attacked instead of Beirut.

The London Review of Books has several pieces by people in Beirut now. This one reminds me the most of my Beirut, parfticularly the ambivalence about leaving Lebanon. It wouldn't surprise me if we went to the same café in Hamra:

I am a secular person and I?m democratically inclined. I have never supported Hizbullah, but I do not question its legitimacy as a political force in Lebanon. It would be folly to regard Hizbullah as just another radical Islamist terrorist organisation. It is a mature political organisation with an Islamist ideology. It has learned (very quickly) to coexist with other political agents in the country, as well as other sects. There have been exceptional moments when the country has united willingly and spontaneously (as during the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but other less spectacular moments have punctuated the lived postwar experience of every single Lebanese, in which sectarian prejudice was easily set aside. When Hariri was assassinated, the country seemed divided into two camps. There was, however, an overwhelming consensus that we would not go back to fighting one another. If Israel plans to annihilate Hizbullah, it will annihilate Lebanon. Hizbullah is an essential element of contemporary Lebanon.

Otherwise, I'm supposed to be going to Ramallah today, which should prove to be an interesting trip.

The death toll in Lebanon has topped 900 people now, with 3,000 people injured. Only about 100 of the dead were from Hizbollah. (Israel claims that 300 Hizbollah militants have been killed, but I believe the number is closer to the Lebanese security force's estimate, since Nasrallah is always forthright about Hizbollah deaths.)

Compare that to 37 dead Israeli soldiers and 19 civilians.

I spent all day in Bethlehem, exploring several refugee camps and the Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Camp in the Aida Camp. The children were bright-eyed and friendly, and everyone else was welcoming and helpful.

I got up close to the seperation wall, which often came about 10 meters from Palestinian houses, cutting the family off from the rest of their land.

On the way back, I took a bus back to Jerusalem with my friend. When we were stopped at the checkpoint, everyone in the bus got out and showed their bags and identity cards to the young Israeli soldier, who only spoke to us in Hebrew. He was kurt and methodical. Sometimes, apparently, they won't make you get out of the bus, but we saw that they were making women and children get out and show their ID, so we knew that we would have to also. When we got back into the bus, I asked my friend how often these searches happened. "All the time," he told me.

I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday. I set out in a taxi from Amman to the Allenby Bridge crossing. Once I was on the Israeli side of the border, everything slowed to a crawl. I was expecting a modern border crossing that was orderly and efficient. I was wrong.

There were practically no signs, and the Israeli soldiers on duty were usually not at all helpful: one girl refused to even talk to me when I asked her a question. I was held for about 3 hours and interrogated by a young Ethiopian girl, who I assume was doing her military service. She told me to sit down, because it was going to be a long time before I went anywhere. I asked why, and she responded, "Because you was in Lebanon." She asked why I was there, and I told her that I was on vacation. "Vacation in Beirut?" she asked with suprise. "Yes, it's a wonderful city, hopefully, one day you'll be able to visit." She said that "they" would kill her, and I suggested that she should just speak in Amahric, since there are many Ethiopians in Beirut.

When I finally made it into Jerusalem, I was met by a Palestinian friend of the family who has put me up in Amman. He took me out for a very late lunch, showed me around the neighborhood (East Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate), and we talked about mutual friends and politics. He introduced me to his friends and some of his family; everyone seems to know him in the neighborhood. After talking and eating with a group that got bigger and bigger, we went to a candle light vigil against the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. He told me about a protest in front of the American consulate in East Jerusalem (there's also one in West Jerusalem and an Embassy in Tel Aviv). Since they couldn't get a permit, the police came and broke it up with clubs and tear gas.

After the vigil, I went out with a Palestinian girl who is a citizen of Israel, who tried to explain to me why she refuses to be called an Israeli Arab, and an Israeli Jewish girl from Moldavia. They talked about the news here (the Palestinian girl speaks Hebrew as well as Arabic and English) and about how all but the most radical of the left supports the war in Lebanon.

The hotels are mostly full here, because many people have left the north because of Hizbollah's rocket attacks. Otherwise, my friends back in Lebanon tell me that the Israelis have gone farther and farther into southern Lebanon, and there is talk of going as far north as the Litani, which is eerily reminiscent of the 1982 invasion. I've been taking pictures, but I don't have my computer here, so I'll have to upload them when I get back to Amman in a few days.

Otherwise, Al Aqsa is closed to non-Muslim foreigners for "security reasons," but I am convinced to see al-Haram ah-Sherif before I leave. Tomorrow, my friend is going to take me to see Bethlehem and part of the separation wall.

The Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten has sattelite images of Beirut (I think this is in the Dahiye, the southern suburb of the capital) from 12 July and 31 July:

Beirut responds to the text of the proposed Security Council resolution:

Nouhad Mahmoud, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, said on Sunday that the government "would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text" of the draft resolution.

"Unfortunately, it lacked, for instance, a call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon. That is a recipe for more confrontation."

He said the government was also unhappy that the resolution does not call for the Shebaa Farms area to be put under UN control, as Lebanon has asked, while its future status is figured out.

I went to Tel Aviv last night for a protest againt the war in Lebanon. There was a group of Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners protesting the war and a group of Israelis protesting the protest. The first group was holding signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English calling for an end to the war and to the occuptation. The others were holding signs with slogans like "Let the Army win" and "All terrorists are Muslim." Yael Dayan, the daughter of Moshe Dayen also spoke at the protest. She was initially applauded when she said that the war should stop, but was then booed when she said that the war had started out as a "just war."

The police were sometimes violent and at one point beat up a Palestinian guy. There were five policemen against a single guy, whose head they repeatedly smashed onto a car hood. Israeli spectators were screaming that he was just a dirty Arab and deserved to be "sent to Gaza to be killed."

I spoke to a young Israeli woman whose parents were from Kazakhstan. She was against the war but stayed at the edges of the protest, because she felt a little hypocritical. AS it turns out, she'll be starting her military service in a couple of months. As a woman, she won't be sent to Lebanon or Gaza, but she still feels guilty. When I reminded her that it was compulsory for all Israelis, she told me that as a woman, it's fairly easy to get out of, but for reasons that she was unsure of, she didn't.

After the protest, we had dinner in the area and then came back to Jerusalem and took a stroll in the western part of the city. I was shocked to see young Israeli men out for a night on the town with their friends or girlfriends carrying automatic weapons and spare ammunition. They were not soldiers and were not in any sort of uniform. They brought their weapons into the bars and restaurants, sometimes when the streets were especially crowded, you might have the muzzle of an M-16 bump your leg as you wade through the scantily clad human masses. I am used to seeing civilians with guns and soldiers and policemen, but I was taken aback at the amount of young Israelis armed to the teeth in the West Jerusalem equivalent of Times Square or the Bastille.

I asked a policewoman about it this morning in the old city, and she told me that they were probably soldiers, but when she left, I was called back to the shopfront by some Palestinians. They asked me if the armed youth were wearing big watches or if they were wearing yarmukles.

From Human Rights Watch's press release about their report on Israeli war crimes.

Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) ? Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.

"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."

The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals, humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

Read the rest of the press release and the report itself for specific instances of indiscriminate killing.

The US says that it is involved in diplomacy, but it's hard to call only meeting with the people who agree with you diplomatic. It is obvious that peace in Lebanon and Israel will have to involve Syria, but the US refuses to talk to Damascus.

This piece in the LA Times by Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States (often called the lonliest diplomat in Washington) is interesting:

The underlying idea behind demanding Syrian withdrawal [from Lebanon] was simple: It would precipitate the fall of the Syrian regime, and the U.S. would end up with a new government in Damascus that is both Israel-friendly and an ally of the U.S. Does that have any resemblance to the neoconservative justification for the war on Iraq?

To the dismay of U.S. policymakers, this belligerent attitude only rallied Syrians behind their own government.

Ultimately, the Bush administration has to realize that by trying to isolate Syria politically and diplomatically, the U.S. continues to lose ability to influence a major player in the Middle East. In the wake of the ongoing instability in Iraq and violence in Palestine and Lebanon, it begs the larger question: Has isolating Syria made the region more secure?

Currently, the White House doesn't talk to the democratically elected government of Palestine. It does not talk to Hezbollah, which has democratically elected members in the Lebanese parliament and is a member of the Lebanese coalition government. It does not talk to Iran, and it certainly does not talk to Syria.

Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter.

When the United States realizes that it is high time to reconsider its policies toward Syria, Syria will be more than willing to engage. However, the rules of the game should be clear. As President Bashar Assad has said, Syria is not a charity. If the U.S. wants something from Syria, then Syria requires something in return from the U.S.: Let us address the root cause of instability in the Middle East.

The current crisis in Lebanon needs an urgent solution because of the disastrous human toll. Moreover, the whole Middle East deserves a comprehensive deal that would put an end to occupation and allow all countries to equally prosper and live in dignity and peace.

Of course, as an ambassador, his points toe the Syrian line (a line that I generally don't believe as regards Lebanon), but he does have some interesting and valid points. It might seem obvious that diplomacy is not the same as dictating orders, but many don't see it that way in Washington.

Ramallah was interesting. I met an American-Palestinian woman who works in one of the minstries there. She talked about a lot of things, but mostly about how she hasn't been paid for a while and how the financial squeeze has gotten so bad that employees who live outside Ramallah only come in three times a week, since they haven't been paid and cannot afford to pay for transportation to work and back every day.

Most business with foreign countries is being done through the office of the President, because no one wants to work with the new Hamas government. Interestingly enough though, in the ministries that Hamas controls now, only the ministers have been changed. Everyone, including the deputies, have stayed the same. So just liek most governments and large organizations, there is always a core of career bureaucrats that stays the same, regardless of who is in charge of the ministry.

The wall was again very present, impossible to miss. It cuts the landscape and lengthens commutes. It is often covered with graffiti, both domestic and foreign, in Arabic and English. To get back to Jerusalem, we had to go through two different checkpoints, just as we had to got through two on the way there. Without these checkpoints, the trip would only take about 30 minutes.

I went out last night in West Jerusalem with a couple from Europe who work in NGOs here in the West Bank and Jerusalem. On our way back to the old city, we ran into a couple of young and hip Israelis busily tearing down fliers for a protest against the war in Lebanon.

I'm increasingly worried about a probable escalation. Nasrallah said the night before last on television that if the center of Beirut was hit, then he would hit Tel Aviv. I beleive that this is a warning, not a bluff. Israel probably won't accept this as a deterrant and will probably hit Beirut, if only to assert its manliness and regain the IDF's "honor." Then since he said he would, Nasrallah will order an attack on Tel Aviv.

If only the belligerents in the Middle East were less worried about being "manly" and more interested in being humane, we'd all be a lot better off.

The Times has done a simple interactive graphic of the Southern suburb of Beirut, Haret Hreik, which is where Hizbollah has its offices and which has been the target of many of the Israeli attacks.

It's good that the Times has decided to put it next to a map of Manhatten (at the same scale). Maybe some people might better be able to imagine what it would be like if New York were being attacked instead of Beirut.

The London Review of Books has several pieces by people in Beirut now. This one reminds me the most of my Beirut, parfticularly the ambivalence about leaving Lebanon. It wouldn't surprise me if we went to the same café in Hamra:

I am a secular person and I?m democratically inclined. I have never supported Hizbullah, but I do not question its legitimacy as a political force in Lebanon. It would be folly to regard Hizbullah as just another radical Islamist terrorist organisation. It is a mature political organisation with an Islamist ideology. It has learned (very quickly) to coexist with other political agents in the country, as well as other sects. There have been exceptional moments when the country has united willingly and spontaneously (as during the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but other less spectacular moments have punctuated the lived postwar experience of every single Lebanese, in which sectarian prejudice was easily set aside. When Hariri was assassinated, the country seemed divided into two camps. There was, however, an overwhelming consensus that we would not go back to fighting one another. If Israel plans to annihilate Hizbullah, it will annihilate Lebanon. Hizbullah is an essential element of contemporary Lebanon.

Otherwise, I'm supposed to be going to Ramallah today, which should prove to be an interesting trip.

The death toll in Lebanon has topped 900 people now, with 3,000 people injured. Only about 100 of the dead were from Hizbollah. (Israel claims that 300 Hizbollah militants have been killed, but I believe the number is closer to the Lebanese security force's estimate, since Nasrallah is always forthright about Hizbollah deaths.)

Compare that to 37 dead Israeli soldiers and 19 civilians.

I spent all day in Bethlehem, exploring several refugee camps and the Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Camp in the Aida Camp. The children were bright-eyed and friendly, and everyone else was welcoming and helpful.

I got up close to the seperation wall, which often came about 10 meters from Palestinian houses, cutting the family off from the rest of their land.

On the way back, I took a bus back to Jerusalem with my friend. When we were stopped at the checkpoint, everyone in the bus got out and showed their bags and identity cards to the young Israeli soldier, who only spoke to us in Hebrew. He was kurt and methodical. Sometimes, apparently, they won't make you get out of the bus, but we saw that they were making women and children get out and show their ID, so we knew that we would have to also. When we got back into the bus, I asked my friend how often these searches happened. "All the time," he told me.

I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday. I set out in a taxi from Amman to the Allenby Bridge crossing. Once I was on the Israeli side of the border, everything slowed to a crawl. I was expecting a modern border crossing that was orderly and efficient. I was wrong.

There were practically no signs, and the Israeli soldiers on duty were usually not at all helpful: one girl refused to even talk to me when I asked her a question. I was held for about 3 hours and interrogated by a young Ethiopian girl, who I assume was doing her military service. She told me to sit down, because it was going to be a long time before I went anywhere. I asked why, and she responded, "Because you was in Lebanon." She asked why I was there, and I told her that I was on vacation. "Vacation in Beirut?" she asked with suprise. "Yes, it's a wonderful city, hopefully, one day you'll be able to visit." She said that "they" would kill her, and I suggested that she should just speak in Amahric, since there are many Ethiopians in Beirut.

When I finally made it into Jerusalem, I was met by a Palestinian friend of the family who has put me up in Amman. He took me out for a very late lunch, showed me around the neighborhood (East Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate), and we talked about mutual friends and politics. He introduced me to his friends and some of his family; everyone seems to know him in the neighborhood. After talking and eating with a group that got bigger and bigger, we went to a candle light vigil against the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. He told me about a protest in front of the American consulate in East Jerusalem (there's also one in West Jerusalem and an Embassy in Tel Aviv). Since they couldn't get a permit, the police came and broke it up with clubs and tear gas.

After the vigil, I went out with a Palestinian girl who is a citizen of Israel, who tried to explain to me why she refuses to be called an Israeli Arab, and an Israeli Jewish girl from Moldavia. They talked about the news here (the Palestinian girl speaks Hebrew as well as Arabic and English) and about how all but the most radical of the left supports the war in Lebanon.

The hotels are mostly full here, because many people have left the north because of Hizbollah's rocket attacks. Otherwise, my friends back in Lebanon tell me that the Israelis have gone farther and farther into southern Lebanon, and there is talk of going as far north as the Litani, which is eerily reminiscent of the 1982 invasion. I've been taking pictures, but I don't have my computer here, so I'll have to upload them when I get back to Amman in a few days.

Otherwise, Al Aqsa is closed to non-Muslim foreigners for "security reasons," but I am convinced to see al-Haram ah-Sherif before I leave. Tomorrow, my friend is going to take me to see Bethlehem and part of the separation wall.

The Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten has sattelite images of Beirut (I think this is in the Dahiye, the southern suburb of the capital) from 12 July and 31 July:

Beirut responds to the text of the proposed Security Council resolution:

Nouhad Mahmoud, a Lebanese foreign ministry official, said on Sunday that the government "would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text" of the draft resolution.

"Unfortunately, it lacked, for instance, a call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon. That is a recipe for more confrontation."

He said the government was also unhappy that the resolution does not call for the Shebaa Farms area to be put under UN control, as Lebanon has asked, while its future status is figured out.

I went to Tel Aviv last night for a protest againt the war in Lebanon. There was a group of Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners protesting the war and a group of Israelis protesting the protest. The first group was holding signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English calling for an end to the war and to the occuptation. The others were holding signs with slogans like "Let the Army win" and "All terrorists are Muslim." Yael Dayan, the daughter of Moshe Dayen also spoke at the protest. She was initially applauded when she said that the war should stop, but was then booed when she said that the war had started out as a "just war."

The police were sometimes violent and at one point beat up a Palestinian guy. There were five policemen against a single guy, whose head they repeatedly smashed onto a car hood. Israeli spectators were screaming that he was just a dirty Arab and deserved to be "sent to Gaza to be killed."

I spoke to a young Israeli woman whose parents were from Kazakhstan. She was against the war but stayed at the edges of the protest, because she felt a little hypocritical. AS it turns out, she'll be starting her military service in a couple of months. As a woman, she won't be sent to Lebanon or Gaza, but she still feels guilty. When I reminded her that it was compulsory for all Israelis, she told me that as a woman, it's fairly easy to get out of, but for reasons that she was unsure of, she didn't.

After the protest, we had dinner in the area and then came back to Jerusalem and took a stroll in the western part of the city. I was shocked to see young Israeli men out for a night on the town with their friends or girlfriends carrying automatic weapons and spare ammunition. They were not soldiers and were not in any sort of uniform. They brought their weapons into the bars and restaurants, sometimes when the streets were especially crowded, you might have the muzzle of an M-16 bump your leg as you wade through the scantily clad human masses. I am used to seeing civilians with guns and soldiers and policemen, but I was taken aback at the amount of young Israelis armed to the teeth in the West Jerusalem equivalent of Times Square or the Bastille.

I asked a policewoman about it this morning in the old city, and she told me that they were probably soldiers, but when she left, I was called back to the shopfront by some Palestinians. They asked me if the armed youth were wearing big watches or if they were wearing yarmukles.

From Human Rights Watch's press release about their report on Israeli war crimes.

Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

(Beirut, August 3, 2006) ? Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.

"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."

The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals, humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

Read the rest of the press release and the report itself for specific instances of indiscriminate killing.

The US says that it is involved in diplomacy, but it's hard to call only meeting with the people who agree with you diplomatic. It is obvious that peace in Lebanon and Israel will have to involve Syria, but the US refuses to talk to Damascus.

This piece in the LA Times by Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States (often called the lonliest diplomat in Washington) is interesting:

The underlying idea behind demanding Syrian withdrawal [from Lebanon] was simple: It would precipitate the fall of the Syrian regime, and the U.S. would end up with a new government in Damascus that is both Israel-friendly and an ally of the U.S. Does that have any resemblance to the neoconservative justification for the war on Iraq?

To the dismay of U.S. policymakers, this belligerent attitude only rallied Syrians behind their own government.

Ultimately, the Bush administration has to realize that by trying to isolate Syria politically and diplomatically, the U.S. continues to lose ability to influence a major player in the Middle East. In the wake of the ongoing instability in Iraq and violence in Palestine and Lebanon, it begs the larger question: Has isolating Syria made the region more secure?

Currently, the White House doesn't talk to the democratically elected government of Palestine. It does not talk to Hezbollah, which has democratically elected members in the Lebanese parliament and is a member of the Lebanese coalition government. It does not talk to Iran, and it certainly does not talk to Syria.

Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter.

When the United States realizes that it is high time to reconsider its policies toward Syria, Syria will be more than willing to engage. However, the rules of the game should be clear. As President Bashar Assad has said, Syria is not a charity. If the U.S. wants something from Syria, then Syria requires something in return from the U.S.: Let us address the root cause of instability in the Middle East.

The current crisis in Lebanon needs an urgent solution because of the disastrous human toll. Moreover, the whole Middle East deserves a comprehensive deal that would put an end to occupation and allow all countries to equally prosper and live in dignity and peace.

Of course, as an ambassador, his points toe the Syrian line (a line that I generally don't believe as regards Lebanon), but he does have some interesting and valid points. It might seem obvious that diplomacy is not the same as dictating orders, but many don't see it that way in Washington.

Ramallah was interesting. I met an American-Palestinian woman who works in one of the minstries there. She talked about a lot of things, but mostly about how she hasn't been paid for a while and how the financial squeeze has gotten so bad that employees who live outside Ramallah only come in three times a week, since they haven't been paid and cannot afford to pay for transportation to work and back every day.

Most business with foreign countries is being done through the office of the President, because no one wants to work with the new Hamas government. Interestingly enough though, in the ministries that Hamas controls now, only the ministers have been changed. Everyone, including the deputies, have stayed the same. So just liek most governments and large organizations, there is always a core of career bureaucrats that stays the same, regardless of who is in charge of the ministry.

The wall was again very present, impossible to miss. It cuts the landscape and lengthens commutes. It is often covered with graffiti, both domestic and foreign, in Arabic and English. To get back to Jerusalem, we had to go through two different checkpoints, just as we had to got through two on the way there. Without these checkpoints, the trip would only take about 30 minutes.

I went out last night in West Jerusalem with a couple from Europe who work in NGOs here in the West Bank and Jerusalem. On our way back to the old city, we ran into a couple of young and hip Israelis busily tearing down fliers for a protest against the war in Lebanon.

I'm increasingly worried about a probable escalation. Nasrallah said the night before last on television that if the center of Beirut was hit, then he would hit Tel Aviv. I beleive that this is a warning, not a bluff. Israel probably won't accept this as a deterrant and will probably hit Beirut, if only to assert its manliness and regain the IDF's "honor." Then since he said he would, Nasrallah will order an attack on Tel Aviv.

If only the belligerents in the Middle East were less worried about being "manly" and more interested in being humane, we'd all be a lot better off.

The Times has done a simple interactive graphic of the Southern suburb of Beirut, Haret Hreik, which is where Hizbollah has its offices and which has been the target of many of the Israeli attacks.

It's good that the Times has decided to put it next to a map of Manhatten (at the same scale). Maybe some people might better be able to imagine what it would be like if New York were being attacked instead of Beirut.

The London Review of Books has several pieces by people in Beirut now. This one reminds me the most of my Beirut, parfticularly the ambivalence about leaving Lebanon. It wouldn't surprise me if we went to the same café in Hamra:

I am a secular person and I?m democratically inclined. I have never supported Hizbullah, but I do not question its legitimacy as a political force in Lebanon. It would be folly to regard Hizbullah as just another radical Islamist terrorist organisation. It is a mature political organisation with an Islamist ideology. It has learned (very quickly) to coexist with other political agents in the country, as well as other sects. There have been exceptional moments when the country has united willingly and spontaneously (as during the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but other less spectacular moments have punctuated the lived postwar experience of every single Lebanese, in which sectarian prejudice was easily set aside. When Hariri was assassinated, the country seemed divided into two camps. There was, however, an overwhelming consensus that we would not go back to fighting one another. If Israel plans to annihilate Hizbullah, it will annihilate Lebanon. Hizbullah is an essential element of contemporary Lebanon.

Otherwise, I'm supposed to be going to Ramallah today, which should prove to be an interesting trip.

The death toll in Lebanon has topped 900 people now, with 3,000 people injured. Only about 100 of the dead were from Hizbollah. (Israel claims that 300 Hizbollah militants have been killed, but I believe the number is closer to the Lebanese security force's estimate, since Nasrallah is always forthright about Hizbollah deaths.)

Compare that to 37 dead Israeli soldiers and 19 civilians.

I spent all day in Bethlehem, exploring several refugee camps and the Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Camp in the Aida Camp. The children were bright-eyed and friendly, and everyone else was welcoming and helpful.

I got up close to the seperation wall, which often came about 10 meters from Palestinian houses, cutting the family off from the rest of their land.

On the way back, I took a bus back to Jerusalem with my friend. When we were stopped at the checkpoint, everyone in the bus got out and showed their bags and identity cards to the young Israeli soldier, who only spoke to us in Hebrew. He was kurt and methodical. Sometimes, apparently, they won't make you get out of the bus, but we saw that they were making women and children get out and show their ID, so we knew that we would have to also. When we got back into the bus, I asked my friend how often these searches happened. "All the time," he told me.

I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday. I set out in a taxi from Amman to the Allenby Bridge crossing. Once I was on the Israeli side of the border, everything slowed to a crawl. I was expecting a modern border crossing that was orderly and efficient. I was wrong.

There were practically no signs, and the Israeli soldiers on duty were usually not at all helpful: one girl refused to even talk to me when I asked her a question. I was held for about 3 hours and interrogated by a young Ethiopian girl, who I assume was doing her military service. She told me to sit down, because it was going to be a long time before I went anywhere. I asked why, and she responded, "Because you was in Lebanon." She asked why I was there, and I told her that I was on vacation. "Vacation in Beirut?" she asked with suprise. "Yes, it's a wonderful city, hopefully, one day you'll be able to visit." She said that "they" would kill her, and I suggested that she should just speak in Amahric, since there are many Ethiopians in Beirut.

When I finally made it into Jerusalem, I was met by a Palestinian friend of the family who has put me up in Amman. He took me out for a very late lunch, showed me around the neighborhood (East Jerusalem, near the Damascus Gate), and we talked about mutual friends and politics. He introduced me to his friends and some of his family; everyone seems to know him in the neighborhood. After talking and eating with a group that got bigger and bigger, we went to a candle light vigil against the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. He told me about a protest in front of the American consulate in East Jerusalem (there's also one in West Jerusalem and an Embassy in Tel Aviv). Since they couldn't get a permit, the police came and broke it up with clubs and tear gas.

After the vigil, I went out with a Palestinian girl who is a citizen of Israel, who tried to explain to me why she refuses to be called an Israeli Arab, and an Israeli Jewish girl from Moldavia. They talked about the news here (the Palestinian girl speaks Hebrew as well as Arabic and English) and about how all but the most radical of the left supports the war in Lebanon.

The hotels are mostly full here, because many people have left the north because of Hizbollah's rocket attacks. Otherwise, my friends back in Lebanon tell me that the Israelis have gone farther and farther into southern Lebanon, and there is talk of going as far north as the Litani, which is eerily reminiscent of the 1982 invasion. I've been taking pictures, but I don't have my computer here, so I'll have to upload them when I get back to Amman in a few days.

Otherwise, Al Aqsa is closed to non-Muslim foreigners for "security reasons," but I am convinced to see al-Haram ah-Sherif before I leave. Tomorrow, my friend is going to take me to see Bethlehem and part of the separation wall.