New Conflict

Hi all, below are my entries covering the last 24 hrs or so in Haifa, beginning Thursday afternoon and ending Friday around 3PM. As you might guess, in the last 24 hrs some crazy events have pervaded our daily routines... the bottom line is that I and everyone else here are OK, and presently the general feeling is more of concern than outright worry. I will keep you posted with updates. Also, sorry about some of the pictures in earlier entries. I will try to get them up and running when I have more time.

Incidentally, if you'd like to follow events closely, the local publications The Jerusalem Post and Ynetnews keep their websites updated to the minute.

Thursday Morning Headline: Israel Enters Lebanon After 2 Soldiers Are Kidnapped

…Hezbollah attacked northern Israel with rocket fire this morning, injuring several Israeli civilians in the northwestern town of Shlomi, the Israeli military said. Israel responded with artillery fire and air strikes that targeted Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon. Later, Israeli troops moved into southern Lebanon in the first such incursion since Israel pulled its troops out of the region in 2000.

The Israeli military did not immediately provide details on the border clashes.

Thursday, 6pm.

So it appears we have walked into the backyard of a new conflict. Though we didn’t know what was happening at first, the muted sounds of the artillery and air strikes were discernible Wednesday from our perch on Mt. Carmel. For better of worse, we were not able to see what was going on, as there was too much haze to see anything very far away.

It may sound anticlimactic, but the renewed fighting has been received rather quietly here in Haifa. My Hebrew teacher explained to us that she (and others) don’t like to get worked up about these kinds of things as they break out; what would be gained? So Israelis remain more or less quiet, at least in public, about the latest violence. Life moves on.

Thursday, 8:30pm, and afterwards

The Israelis’ calm display can only go so far. Hizbollah (“Party of God”) just launched two rockets into Haifa’s outskirts – no casualties, thankfully – and our House Mother has instructed us over the dormitory loudspeakers to go the bomb shelters located in our respective suites. People are doing everything from making plans to leave the city to drinking wine & jamming tunes in their shelters – I fall close the latter edge of the spectrum… what more can we do? We are all hoping that the excitement will end soon, but of course no one expects that. There is no knowing what will happen. We can only wait.

A bit of confusion has begun to set in. Rumor of a third Haifa-bound rocket has come in, and the House Mother has phoned again with further safety instructions, beseeching us “not to panic”. I don’t know how to feel. To be honest, while the whole episode certainly is frightening, there’s also something exciting in the air. In an ad-hoc lecture on current events, an Israeli professor prognosticated that Israel will use this opportunity to launch a large-scale offensive against Hizbollah in a grand push to dismantle the organization once and for all. Apparantly, Hizbollah does not enjoy widespread political support in Lebanon. The only reason they have continued to exist in the time following UN Resolution 1559 (which ordered Lebanon to dismantle the militant groups housed inside its borders) is because Hizbolla commands the most potent armed forces in the country and when they rejected disarmament there was nothing the government or army could do. It has been speculated that a substantial weakening of Hizbollah could prompt a long-awaited military response from Lebanon itself, though the Israelis certainly aren’t counting on that. As far as I have heard (UHaifa’s rooms have no internet), the Lebanese have not responded to the situation. They haven’t even acted symbolically, i.e., releasing an official statement, condemnation, etc. It is a weak government politically, and according to our professor they might like to see the Iranian-backed Hizbollah go as much as anyone excepting the Israelis. The dismantling of Hizbollah is indeed an exciting prospect here.

It is hard to know how to feel about all this. On the one hand, there are people just a few miles away pointing missiles in my direction who would take high delight in scoring a direct hit, while on the other hand I feel like I’m watching something really important unfold before my eyes, something I do not want to miss. What if Israel really does go in for the kill against Hizbollah?

I think that somehow I feel that right now this is where I need to be. Haifa lies about 30km from the northern border – almost exactly the maximum range of Hizbolla’s medium-range Katyusha rockets, which for better or worse cannot be aimed precisely. What a privilege it is to watch my people – the Jewish people – manage such a crisis. Is it pride I feel?

Israel’s government, you may know, is holding the shabby Lebanese government responsible for allowing the indiscretions along its border. I am not sure what options the Lebanese government has at its disposal considering their dearth of regional clout, their weak military and their recently incapacitated ports; bridges and airfields. Our guest lecturer, while elaborating on Lebanese impotence, ironically suggested that had the destitute yet domineering Syrians not been forced from Lebanon last year, “this never would have happened.” Perhaps he is right. Funny how these things can play out.

12:02am

A jet plane roars overhead in the darkness, its destination obvious.

12:15am

Another jet. The same one?

I want everyone to know the following things:

1. Contrary to what you may have seen or read, Haifa feels safe. Villagers from northern Israel are even moving here as a source of refuge until the situation cools.
2. The University, as you can imagine, is taking steps to ensure the safety of its overseas students and is providing us with updates periodically.
3. If I begin to feel seriously unsafe, I will move out of Haifa. Right now there appears no reason to do so.
4. I will post updates as often as I can.

Friday, 2:30PM.

Apologies that I have not been able to post my last 24 hrs of entries until now… as I wrote before, I have been stuck in non-internet areas for a while. First, a break from the crazy front-page topics for some mundane updates:

They re-placed all of the students in my Hebrew level, now that we’ve had a few days of classes to find our bearings. Fortunately, I wasn’t down-shifted to a lower level (though about half of my classmates apparently were), and the new group seems solid. I have this nice Orthodox lady named Efrat teaching me… she’s super-sweet and had us singing in class about how good it is to stop working on Shabbat. What's more, everyone joined in!

In other banal news, I think I will finally get to see Pirates of the Caribbean tonight. Yes! Unlike clothes, food and other commodities, movies in Israel cost around the same as they do in the US… for the price of a movie (30-40 shekels -- about two hrs of work on 17 shek/hr, the Israeli minimum wage) I could also purchase a decent shirt in Haifa’s downtown market. Maybe movies live in their own special sphere here.

As far as current events go, there is not much else to report since last night, except that things at the University have continued to calm. A recent article from the Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) confirms some of the predictions posited by our guest speaker/updater last night…

"We have a goal," [Israeli Foreign Minister] Livni said. "The goal is to move Hizbullah out of southern Lebanon." Livni, speaking to Channel 2 soon after a rocket hit Haifa, said that during a cabinet meeting Wednesday where the IDF operations in Lebanon were approved, the ministers took into consideration that Hizbullah would make good on threats to hit Israel cities in the North…

"We had no other choice," Livni said of the army's operations. "For a number of years, Israel waited, as Hizbullah was arming itself, for the Lebanese government to move it out of southern Lebanon."

Livni said Hizbullah was not only an issue on the Lebanese border. "Hizbullah is a proxy of Iran and Syria with an open front with Israel, and Nasrallah wants to become a regional leader and block any possibility for an agreement. He is a regional provocateur; it was impossible to continue with it anymore. We had to respond, and that is what we are doing today."

She said that the operation was not intended to avenge Wednesday's attacks, in which two soldiers were captured and eight were killed, but had larger strategic goals. "There will be a point of time where the Lebanese government will need to decide that Hizbullah does not promote Lebanon, is a burden on the Lebanese people and the Lebanese government, and that they will need to send the army south to areas that are now empty."

Livni said that as a result of the IDF's actions, the Lebanese government can no longer claim it doesn't have the ability to dislodge Hizbullah from the south, since to a large degree the IDF has already done that.

So while the IDF isn’t proclaiming a mission to totally demolish Hizbollah, they have placed some significant goals on the table. Of course, I will continue writing as new things come up.

Peace,

Ben