Kill, rinse, repeat

One of the more astounding defenses of Israeli attacks on Lebanon is that they are "targeted," not indiscriminate like the Hezbollah rocket launches. No doubt, Hezbollah's rockets are fired indiscriminately at civilian areas and that is not to be defended. But when 28 farmers, who were loading fruit and vegetables into a truck, are blown up by Israeli airstrikes, how can anyone claim that such attacks are not likewise indiscriminate?

Indeed, a current talking point tactic now is to blame the victims because they have not left the region after having been told to evacuate. But when civilians have tried to leave as the Israelis have advised, they, too, have been attacked by gunships. In some cases, the civilian vehicles evacuating the area have been flying white flags. Apparently, a white flag means something entirely different to the IDF than it does to most military establishments.

The IDF has now killed a band of labouring farmers, women and children hunkered in basements, UN peacekeepers, Canadian civilians, Lebanese army soldiers, Muslims and Catholics alike. One thousand people are now dead and one million civilians have been turned into refugees in their own country. The IDF have shot and attacked water drilling trucks, ambulances, convoys of medical supplies and vans filled with civilians trying to do what the Israelis had asked. Their daring-do commando raid at the hospital in Baalbek netted them several "tasty fish": a 60 year old grocer, a 14 year old boy, and a family they pulled from a house, though they did not "arrest" a few of the fish in the domain. Apparently, they were smaller than the legal limit.

Indeed, there appears to be no demographic, no group the IDF has not taken a shot at yet. One winces to wonder what things would be like in Lebanon should the Israelis start bombing "indiscrminately." Amongst the slaughter, admist the carnage, there is one group that has come out of all the Israeli shelling and airstrikes quite well: Hezbollah, which now see Shiites and some Sunnis united across the Middle East. It is probably unlikely that this was Israel's goal and it appears that things have worked out exactly the opposite as planned.

Sound familiar?