The Destruction of Lebanon posted by Richard Seymour

Via Socialist Worker, this video of destroyed villages in southern Lebanon:



Now, of course, Israel has attacked Lebanon again, this time targeting a village west of Baalbeck. According to the BBC: "The Israeli army said the raid was to prevent arms being delivered to Hezbollah by Iran and Syria."

Angry Arab thinks it is another of those "daring commando raids" from the Israelis:

Another fiasco...another Israeli "daring commando raid." I don't mean to ever give advise to Israel, but should they not give up on those "daring commando raids"? I mean, it has been one fiasco after the other. Just today, their commando raid near Ba`albak was foiled. Apparently, it was another failed at attempt to kidnap Shaykh Muhammad Yazbak. To cover the embarrassment, the Israeli military later claimed that this was an attempt to prevent a shipment of arms. And why this focus on Shaykh Muhammad Yazbak? I really think that this is due to Israeli Orientalist misunderstanding. You see, Muhammad Yazbak was quite influential in the party back in the 1980s, but his influence declined in the 1990s. He now is a member of the Shura Council of the party, but is known mostly as the [religiously] "legal representative" of Khamenei as marji` taqlid.

Hezbollah foiled the raid.

Incidentally, I can't help a chuckle at the fury with which the Americans and Israelis regard the fact that Hezbollah is reconstructing Lebanon and paying benefits to those who suffered. A story from the New York Times has Hezbollah giving $12,000 stacks to those whose houses have been destroyed by the Israeli attack. Evil bastards, eh? America is trying to undermine this flagrant attempt at reconstruction by offering their own package. The trouble is, while Nasrallah is now the most popular leader among Arabs (yes, a popular Shi'ite in an overwhelmingly Sunni area; a nightmare for orientalists), the US could be seen as having caused the destruction by, y'know, urging the Israels to go to war, helping to plan the war, providing them with the money to go to war, rushing cluster bombs to them to help kill as many as possible...