The Daily Background

Editor’s Note: We’re gonna try something a little bit different today and try to construct a time line of events of what has occurred over the last couple of days in order to try and make it make some sense, although it is the firm opinion of The Daily Background that war never makes sense.

After the recent tragic Israeli bombing of a building holding 60 Lebanese refugees (most of them children) which killed everyone, the situation changed dramatically.

AIRSTRIKES RESUME AFTER TRAGIC BOMBING
1. While the Israeli government expressed “sorrow” for the bombing which it called a mistake, the Israeli military maintained that Israel was only defending itself and that the small town it attacked was a legitimate target. After international outrage over the incident mounted, the Israeli government announced that it would suspend airstrikes for 48 hours to allow humanitarian aid to be let in the area, and for civilians to evacuate.

2. This non-ceasefire of 48 hours was substantially less than the United Nations said it needed after the Israeli military refused to promise that it would not bomb a UN World Food Program convoy which was trying to go into southern Lebanon to feed civilians.

3. The Israeli military actually resumed airstrikes yesterday, a full day ahead of the end of its self imposed stay on aerial bombings (according to them, Hezbollah militants which had been relatively quiet lately had attacked one of Israel’s tanks which was illegally occupying an area in southern Lebanon).

ISRAELI GROUND ACTIVITY ESCALATES
4. In addition, the Israeli military’s ground operations have and are slated to increased dramatically during the so-called halt to bombings. NYT reports in today’s paper: “As Israel poured soldiers and artillery shells into southern Lebanon, it vowed Monday to press ahead with its war on Hezbollah and made a number of airstrikes after promising a 48-hour pause in its air campaign.” According to Israel the stay in air operations became inconvenient so they began bombing only 12 hours after they promised not to.

RICE OPTIMISTIC
5. Secretary Rice says she thinks that a ceasefire may happen this week (see earlier NYT article), despite Israeli PM Olmert’s remarks to the contrary. Hezbollah has already said that they’re open to a ceasefire.

HUMAN TOLL
6. Lebanon, which has not involved its troops in the conflict (although 11 were, killed by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut) has pleaded for an immediate ceasefire to the crisis which it estimates has claimed the lives of 760+ of its civilians. 524 of these civilian deaths have been confirmed and the rest are suspected to be lying beneath rubble which the Lebanese government does not have enough proper equipment to extract considered missing and presumed dead. 18 Israeli civilians have died in Hezbollah’s illegal rocket attacks on civilian areas, as have 33 soldiers participating in the Israeli military’s illegal ground invasion and occupation of parts of southern Lebanon.

POSSIBLE CEASEFIRE?
7. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that sources tell them the Israeli military may be open to exchanging two Lebanese citizens it has in captivity (two, of at least several hundred), in exchange for the two soldiers Hezbollah captured in July. Sources also tell Haaretz that the UN Security Council may call for a ceasefire around Saturday (although it is hard to imagine under which circumstances the US- which has veto power- would agree to that). No confirmation on this from any other newspapers yet, but The Daily Background considers Haaretz a reliable news source.
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Filed under: Middle East Crisis, Z-TDB Blog