It Just Keeps Getting Worse!

      I've been unable to write from a peaceful center all week.  The bad news keeps bombarding us, every day.
      The week before, we heard on Democracy Now! about NY Senator Hillary Clinton's remarks at a rally in support of Israel on July 17, when she supported "send[ing] a message to Hamas, Hezbollah, to the Syrians, to the Iranians, to all who seek death and domination instead of life and freedom, that we will not permit this to happen, and we will take whatever steps are necessary."  (Emphasis added.)

Last Tuesday:

  As news broke that four U.N. military observers were killed by Israeli strikes, CNN's Paula Zahn interviewed Ambassador Arye Mekel, Israeli Consul General and former Israel ambassador to the U.N.  Questioning Mekel about the reports, Zahn said,
      "The charge goes on from a UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] spokesperson, saying that Israel continued to fire at close range at this observation post, even as a rescue mission was under way."
      To which Mekel replied, "I don't know what UNIFIL says.  I can tell you that, when I represented Israel at the U.N., not a week went by without me going over there to complain against UNIFIL being in cahoots with Hezbollah."

On Wednesday:

  As Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki addressed a joint session of Congress, leading Democrats denounced his criticism of Israel for attacking Lebanon.  According to Democracy Now! (scroll way down), Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean called Maliki “an anti-Semite,” adding, "We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah."
      [Let's hear it for the productiveness of name-calling.  This was, for me, the last straw, following on Hillary's pandering to the Jewish vote:  I now remain registered as a Democrat only so I can keep supporting compassionate candidates in the primaries.]

  INN World Report told us on Wednesday,
      "According to reporter Wayne Madsen, intelligence sources say that the Israeli Defense Force attack on Lebanon is being carried out as a joint Israeli-US military operation.  Moreover, there are joint Israeli and US war rooms coordinating the US-supported Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Madsen says the ultimate aim of Washington and Jerusalem is not only to eliminate Hezbollah as a political force in Lebanon, but also to remake Lebanon as an American and Israeli client state.  Israeli forces are pounding parts of Lebanon, especially in the north, where there are no Hezbollah units and primarily Christian populations.  In addition, Israeli forces are being aided by the Bush Administration with high-resolution overhead imagery from US spy satellites and signals intelligence intercepts from National Security Agency assets."

Then came Thursday:

      From Democracy Now! on Thursday, 27 July, came most of the week's news bombshells, including some you might have missed:

  UK Complains Over US Shipment of Bombs to Israel
      And this:

  Family of Captured Israeli Soldier Opposes Lebanon War.
      Malka Goldwasser, mother of captured soldier Ehud Goldwasser, appealed for peace:
      "I am a mother, and as a mother, I don't want war.  I have three sons, I want to have my three sons at home, I want to be able to raise them, I want to have grandchildren -- I simply want to have a normal life.  I say no to war, and I am certain that there are many Lebanese who think the same thing.  The question needs to be asked of someone else -- all I am, is a mother and I don't want war."
      Meanwhile, in Iraq (remember Iraq?):

  US Mulls Delaying Troops’ Return Home.  [Again.]
      Topping it all off:

  Ahead of New Confirmation Hearings, UN Ambassador Bolton Blocks Measure Condemning Lethal Israeli Attack on UN.
      [Surprised?]
      Bolton was heard to close his presentation by saying,
      "... there is no United Nations.  There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that's the United States, when it suits our interest and when we can get others to go along."
      To which Phyllis Bennis responded (on Democracy Now!),
      "... Madeleine Albright's ... statement, 'The UN is a tool of American foreign policy,' has been brought to new fruition in the Bush administration, and with John Bolton potentially becoming the ambassador for another two years, I think that we have a great deal to worry about.  The only saving grace is that with Bolton at the United Nations, it strips away any illusions in the rest of the world about what US foreign policy really does represent."
      [I think illusions -- delusions -- remain only on this side of "The Pond.']

---

      I am exhausted.  And tending to rage.  There was, however, finally some faint hope.  Distressing as Democracy Now!'s reports can be, it's also one of the few sources of Good News:
      On Wednesday, July 26th, 2006, Democracy Now! reported,

  Rep. Dennis Kucinich Introduces House Resolution Calling for Immediate Ceasefire in Lebanon.
      You can follow the progress of H. Con. Res. 450 here.  More cosponsors are signing on every day, 33 as of July 29, up from the original 23 when the concurrent resolution was filed.

      Hang in there!  We can -- we will -- we MUST do this.  Together.  Talk to your friends.  LISTEN to the people you disagree with.  (I'm still trying to learn to do that one!)
      All these news items we call "bombshells" are nothing to the live bomb shells that ordinary folks, like us, in Lebanon and Gaza (as well as in Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan -- remember Afghanistan?) are being hit with every moment, as I write this, as you read it, and as we all breathe in and out.  Or try to.  For as long as we can.
      Peace.  Namasté.  Shalom.  Salaam.