Another Israeli Warning. posted by Richard Seymour

Now they're dropping leaflets on Beirut. Naturally, Hezbollah are suggesting that if Lebanon's capital is bombed, Israel's capital might also be bombed. I doubt they have the capacity to do it: their weapons are the equivalent of creosote-coloured bell-bottoms. But they have the right to defend the country by whatever means necessary.

It now seems that Israel will drive out the civilian population anywhere in Lebanon, north, south, east, west - the attempt to win through air power, so far failed, is leading Israel to try any and every depth of depravity. But one also expects that they want to ensure that Lebanon has no 'sovereignty' to speak of once this is over. Hezbollah happens to be the primary, but not only, defender of the integrity of Lebanon at the moment. They expect the whole country, or what is left of it, to either be occupied by IDF soldiers or swarming with Israel's allies. Commentators sometimes, if they are especially radical, suggest that Israel misunderstands Hezbollah, mistakes it for a terrorist organisation when it is a political party with strong social welfare functions and real roots in the community. But it is because Israel recognises this that it is destroying those communities. It is because Israel recognises this that it is driving poor Shi'ites out of their homes, bombing them as they leave, shooting at their ambulances, etc. Israel wants Hezbollah's core supporters to be terrorised. This is why blowing up an apartment block can be called 'destroying the infrastructure of terror'. This is why Israel can commit flagrant war crimes, openly advertise them with hideous threats, and their sponsors simply pretend not to notice.