An Israeli air strike killed more than 60 Lebanese civilians, including at least 37 children, on Sunday, fuelling world pressure for an ceasefire in Israel’s war in Lebanon against Hizbollah guerrillas.
Rescue workers dug through the rubble with their hands for hours, lifting out the twisted, dust-caked corpses of children.
A Lebanese foreign ministry official told an urgent session of the U.N. Security Council that more than 60 people were killed, mostly women and children. Police earlier put the toll at 54, 37 of them children.
The raid on the southern village of Qana — the bloodiest single attack during Israel’s 19-day-old war on Hizbollah — prompted Lebanon to tell U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice she was unwelcome in Beirut for talks.
I know, I know, Israel “has the right to defend herself,” but count me among the growing legion of people who is profoundly dismayed by Israel’s behavior and I would like Israel to explain to the world how the murder of children is an act of national defense?
From the Left 
Careful Christopher, you’ve dared to critisize Israel and it won’t be long until a troll pops in to call you anti-semetic. If Israel fires missiles at Lebanon and kills women, children and the disabled, the world is expected to cheer. If the situation is reversed and Lebanon fires missiles at Israel, killing women, children and the disabled, the world is expected to cheer on Israel as it destroys its neighor to the north. This cultural doublestandard to starting to ring false with many people, but to express such a POV opens yourself up to terrible criticism. I agree: Israel is off the fucking hook and the Bush gang just looks the other way and smiles.
Let’s see how the jewsih state likes it when Hezbollah starts firing missles into Tel Aviv killing women and children. Hey baby, all if fair in love and war.
What’s clear now is the USA – more specifically, the Bush administration can’t be bothered playing a leadership role in ending the carnage underway in the region. So I ask, where are the Europeans? Let them step in and do what the USA can’t manage.
You guys are missing the point.
The braindead media can only do one thing at a time. To expect them cover more than one major story is too much to ask. As a result, as long as this bloodbath is underway in Lebanon and the attention of the braindead media is focused there, the disaster called the Iraq war goes ignored.
Bush couldn’t have orchestrated a better scheme to make Americans forget there’s a war on in Iraq where Americans are dying.
I agree feminazi. This is the chance for the EU to step up to the plate and shine. If they succeed, they will not only bring about a cease fire, but they will make Bush & Rice look like ineffective, neocon bots.
Israel has developed an elaborate system of racial discrimination, embedded in its legal system, rivaling Apartheid South Africa’s laws. These laws include the Law of Entry, the Law of Return, the Citizenship Law, the Military Service Law, and a host of legally sanctioned, discriminatory rabbinical rulings.
Palestinians are denied various welfare benefits, access to many jobs, and the leasing of homes and land controlled by government bodies. Electricity, sewerage, and roads are provided free to Israeli households, whereas many Palestinian communities in Israel, and especially in the Occupied Territories, have existed for decades without adequate services. Laws governing land ownership such as the Law of Acquisition of Absentee Property and the Law for Acquisition of Land blatantly discriminate against Palestinians. Land ownership in Palestine is more unjust than it ever wasin South Africa; at the height of apartheid, black people nominally `controlled’ 13 percent of the land, whereas in Israel the Palestinians control only 2 percent of the land.
Blockades which allow settlers free movement but restrict Palestinians have lost 100,000 workers their jobs. The Israeli government issues identification cards and car number-plates, color coded, which restrict travel for non-Jews. Palestinians in the West Bank are routinely prevented from travelling to the Gaza Strip because they have to travel through `Israeli’ territory. No significant industry has been permitted to develop in the West Bank or Gaza. Consequently, Palestinians are concentrated in the lowest paying jobs and form a super-exploited labour force for Israeli capital. The occupied territories import 93% of goods but export a mere 7% of what they produce. Palestinian exports to Western Europe are banned so as not to compete with Israeli exports. Ninety percent of Palestinian workers must travel to Jewish towns for employment.
Why does the United Stated condone this?
Ah, is this really a no-brainer or what?
The U.S. has no business in Middle East. Be it Iraq, Iran, Israel or Lebanon. The brutal fact is, this region has been at each other’s throat since before Jesus was nailed to the cross and these people will be duking it out — if there’s a planet left, in another 1,000 years.
Kick Israel’s ass. Kick it hard.
The situation has become so grave tha the United Nations Security Council is meeting today in a rare Sunday session to determine how to pressure the U.S. to use its influence on Israel to end the attacks.
My biggest fear is should Israel not end the assaults, the war will grow and expand to engulf the entire region including Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran.
Enough.
The End Timers are having a field day with this conflict. Just watched a campy piece on CNN that showcased various Holy Rollers from Dallas, TX churches who are preaching about how the conflict was predicted in the Bible. The whole world has gone insane since the 2000 election, that’s all I know!
Think of the hundreds of thousands who perished in Japan due to the USA dropping an A bomb on 2 Japanese cities. Americans conveniently rationalized it and told themselves “it ended the war.” History was written to reflect this view. I would like to think we’ve learned something (players on each side) since then, but maybe I’m just too damned hopeful? So, Israel rationalizes the missile attacks on Lebanon and they come to CNN and Fox News to say “we regret the loss of civilians life, but it’s necessary to make the region free of terrorists.” But is it really making the Middle East safer? Or is it, as many fear, creating a new generation of people committed in their contempt and hatred for the USA and Israel? I saw a poll last week that said 85% of Lebanese are now sympathetic to Hizbollah. Think about it, 85%.
The weekend was spent in prayer. I cooked for my family, helped my son with his summer school assignment and I prayed.
Families, Lebanese families did not have such a luxury, a luxury more valuable than all the riches in the world. No art, no gold, no diamonds and no property can replace my good fortune, my family, my husband, my son.
Lebanese families buried their children. And I pray. The killing must stop. This is the evil in the hearts of Israelis who believe themselves superior. They are not. I am not and no one is superior. We stand equal. We must step in and protect the Lebanese children from the bombs.
This is a genocide.
Aloys,
Your heart is in the right place, but sadly I think these people are beyond prayer.