Second Lebanese War

Lebanon angry that Homeland was filmed in Israel

Jennifer Lipman — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:40:58 +0100

When the producers of Homeland chose to return to the country where the series originated, Israeli fans were delighted, with former Hamas prisoner Gilad Shalit even making a visit to the set.

But the decision to use Israeli locations – including Jaffa and Tel Aviv – as stand - ins for areas in the Lebanese city of Beirut, has apparently angered Arab viewers.

At the start of the second series Claire Danes' character is sent to Beirut to track down a source, who has information about the fictional terrorist ringleader Abu Nazir.

But according to the Lebanese Tourism Minister, scenes showing her fleeing terrorists on the streets of Beirut or dodging gunmen in a private home on Hamra Street are misrepresentative of the city. Hizbollah is widely believed to operate out of Beirut and the southern Lebanon area.

"The Information Minister is studying media laws to see what can be done," said Fadi Abboud, the Tourism Minister. "[Homeland] showed Hamra Street with militia roaming in it. This does not reflect reality."

He told Associated Press: "It was not filmed in Beirut and does not portray the real image of Beirut."

Homeland also filmed scenes in Israel before the first series – inspired by Gideon Raff's Hebrew-language series about missing soldiers returning home - became an international hit. Then, it was used as a double for Iraq.

Speaking to the New York Times magazine recently, Ms Danes referred to the "extremely positive and generous spirit towards us," that she experienced during filming. "The tension was palpable… but I didn't ever feel particularly threatened," she added. "It has been a lot more fun and cosmopolitan than I had anticipated."

Is 2006 Lebanon war really over?

Diana Bletter — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:51:20 +0100

The land below our perch was green and fertile. Over the other side - in Lebanon - it was pale and sandy brown. I looked out at the village of Aita a-Sha'ab, where my oldest son, Shlomie, a medic and commander in an IDF paratroop unit, fought during the Second Lebanon War.

Shlomie's unit was caught by sniper fire. He didn't realise he'd been shot; all he knew was that his friend, Michael Levin, a volunteer soldier from Pennsylvania, had been mortally wounded. Shlomie tried to save Michael but he could not. On wounded legs, he carried Michael out of the combat zone.

Now, six years later, I recently found myself standing near the summit of Mount Adir, at the memorial site that was recently dedicated to the 119 Israeli soldiers killed during the war, their names engraved in metal. I stared at Michael's name for some time and then studied the scene before me. It was a brilliant, blue, scorched summer day, just like the 34 days during the war when Hizbollah fired Katyusha rockets all over the region.

I remembered the sleepless nights at my house in Shavei Zion, a small village in the Western Galilee, where I remained with my husband and children against all advice and logic, praying that my son - and that every son and daughter of every mother and father in Israel - would be safe, praying that the war would end and for some kind of miracle.

The miracle never came; only a ceasefire was put in place on August 14. Now the expanse seemed surprisingly beautiful. Quiet.

"Don't be fooled by the illusion," warned my friend Manny as we gazed across.

Standing next to us was Itzik, a man we'd just met, who was visiting the spot in memory of a friend's son who was also killed in the war. He pointed to his name. Rafanael Muskal. Too many names. Itzik's grandchildren peered out with binoculars. Of course, they could not see the underground bunkers and ammunition that Hizbollah has stockpiled over the past six years beneath the seemingly pastoral villages facing us.

"I fought in the First Lebanon War and my oldest son served in the Second," said Manny.

"What if there's a third Lebanon War, or a fourth or a fifth?" one of Itzik's grandchildren asked. Before we could answer, his seriousness turned to silliness. "Or a sixth, or a seventh… or a tenth?"

These days, that "what if" question still hangs in the air. I think about the "what if?" each time I go to my washing machine and pass our gas masks. They are lined up on the uppermost shelf, as innocent as shoeboxes, only appearing lethal when you read the label. "Forbidden to open." Until one day we are instructed to open them again.

"Let's dust the masks off," my husband, said to me the other day. "Just in case."

"I don't want to," I said. "I don't want to look at them. I don't want to think about them."

After the war ended, Shlomie recovered and his life has moved on. All our lives have gone on since that summer, while Israel seems to have lurched forward yet simultaneously slipped backwards into fatalistic indifference. In Israel, we bemoan the state of affairs but remain paralysed as to what to do. The country seems more fractionated and frazzled and frenzied; our politicians more corrupt, our rabbinical leaders more fanatic, our multicultural society more intolerant.

Whatever hope I had after the Oslo Accords has fizzled out. The threat of Islamic fundamentalism looms not only across the border - as far as I can see now from my perch - but around the globe. I'd like to pretend I'm on an ordinary hike gazing at the dazzling land without a care. But as Manny has warned me; don't be fooled by the illusion.

On this day: Goldwasser and Regev captured

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:49:45 +0100

As the Second Lebanon War went on, less and less appeared in the newspapers about the two men whose kidnapping led to the conflict.

Eldad Regev was 25 when he was captured during an attack on their patrol at the Israel-Lebanon border in 2006, Ehud Goldwasser, at 30, was older and married.

Long after the fighting was stopped, the fates of the two young soldiers remained unconfirmed. It took more than two years for Israel to discover they had died and to recover their bodies; a prisoner swap was agreed even before Israel knew whether they were alive or dead.

Their bodies were finally returned in July 2008 in return for 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters and four captured Hizbollah men as well as a convicted murderer Samir Kuntar, who killed three Israelis in 1979, including a four-year-old-girl. He was also responsible for the death of a two-year-old baby.

President Shimon Peres described the experience as "a nation in tears", while in Beirut jubilant crowds gathered to celebrate a victory for Hizbollah.

Regev and Goldwasser's bodies were taken over the border, where their grieving families marked their deaths at a military funeral.

Shlomo Goldwasser, Ehud's father, said: "It is important for us but also for the entire people of Israel who need to see that the Israeli government does everything to bring back those who risked their lives for it."

What the JC said: Karnit Goldwasser woke up on July 12 as just an ordinary MA student who planned to spend the day baking her new husband Ehud his favourite pastries. But Ehud never came home to eat the treats she had planned to serve that evening. Early that morning, on the last day of his IDF reserve service, he was kidnapped, together with fellow soldier, Eldad Regev, in a Hizbollah cross-border raid that left eight others dead. The kidnappings threw the region into war and launched Karnit on a tireless mission to plead, beg and lobby for the release of Ehud, who she calls by his nickname Udi.

See more from the JC archives here

Israeli David Grossman wins Wingate Prize for army story

Jennifer Lipman — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:27:51 +0100

An Israeli writer has won a £4,000 literary prize for his novel about a mother dealing with having a son in the IDF.

David Grossman was one of six writers of both fiction and non-fiction in the running for Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize, which was presented last night in London.

Mr Grossman, who triumphed over Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson and Anthony Julius, nominated for his comprehensive study of antisemitism, Trials of the Diaspora.

The prize, British Jewry's top literary award, has been described as the Jewish Booker and has been given out since 1977. Past winners include Mr Jacobson, Zadie Smith and neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks.

Lisa Appignanesi, who chaired the judging panel, said that all of the books shortlisted were outstanding. She added: "In a year which brings us David Grossman's To the End of the Land, the judges all concurred that this towering novel had to be the one."

In October, Mr Grossman was named the winner of a German peace prize. A high-profile figure on Israel's left, he wrote To the End of the Land in the wake of the loss of his own son, a soldier who was killed by a Hizbollah missile during the 2006 Lebanon War.

On this day: An anti-disengagement protest

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:31:23 +0000

It would be the first major rally in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister’s proposal to unilaterally withdraw from parts of the West Bank and Gaza – but by no means the last.

At the rally, held in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, one settler proclaimed: "It will bring hundreds of casualties to the Israeli side because everyone will understand that terrorism will win in this war.”

At this point, disengagement was merely a plan, a second option if the Bush administration’s Road Map to peace collapsed. In summer 2005, it became a reality, against a backdrop of a bitterly divided Israel. Ariel Sharon broke ranks with his party for the plan, staked his career on something much of Israel not only opposed, but were willing to fight with everything they had.

The largely right-wing anti-disengagement “side” chose orange as their colour, brandishing posters, placing banners on cars and scrawling furious graffiti across the country.

Whatever ones views, disengagement by no means offered a quick solution to the problems of the Middle East. If Ariel Sharon had not departed from office prematurely, following a dehabilitating stroke in January 2006, the impact of disengagement and the Israeli and Palestinian futures could have been very different.

As it was, a year after Israel left Gaza IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was captured at the border; he has remained a prisoner of Hamas ever since.

That same summer brought the tragedy of the Second Lebanon War and, after years of Kassam rockets fired by Hamas terrorists from Gaza into Southern Israeli towns and cities like Sderot, in December 2008 Israeli troops returned to the region.

Seven years after that first major rally, the debate over the future of settlements remains as important as it was then; this time as a new US administration under President Barack Obama attempts to make solving the conflict in the Middle East a part of his legacy.

For many, even a freeze to settlement construction is tantamount to the same betrayal as disengagement.

What the JC said: No one said the disengagement from Gaza would be easy. The sight of Israeli soldiers removing Israeli citizens from their homes, whatever one’s political outlook, is distressing. The very ethos of the Jewish state is based upon finding a permanent home for the Jewish people; using that same state’s army to eject Jews from houses and farms that they built from scratch, in an inhospitable area, is an ideological impossibility for a large number of Israeli citizens… The withdrawal from Gaza does not guarantee peace…No doubt, in the coming weeks, we will see Palestinian victory parades, celebrating the removal of Jews from the Gaza Strip. These scenes will be as hard to stomach as those that we are seeing now but it should be kept in mind that the short-term pain — and it is a very real pain for a large number of Israelis — is very much in the long-term interest of the Jewish state.

See more from the JC archives here

WikiLeaks set to turn on Israel

Anshel Pfeffer — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:31:45 +0000

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has promised that future documents to be published from the trove of leaked American diplomatic cables, will shed light on operations of the Mossad and Israel's Second Lebanon War in 2006.

According to Mr Assange, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, of the 3,700 cables - out of the 260,000 in WikiLeaks' possession - that deal with Israel, three quarters were sent by the American Embassy in Tel-Aviv.

Mr Assange promised that the cables still to be released over the next few months contain new details of Israel's war against Hizbollah in 2006 and the assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh earlier this year in Dubai. The authorities in Dubai accused the Mossad of being behind the hit and for using British and
other European passports as covers for
Israeli agents.

Another cable released last weekend was written by American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In it, Ms Clinton informed senior American diplomats that the attack in Northern Syria on September 6, 2007, was indeed carried out by the Israeli Air Force and was against a nuclear reactor built by the Syrian government with North Korean assistance. According to Ms Clinton, the attack was carried out weeks before the reactor became operational.

Israeli author wins German peace prize

Jennifer Lipman — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:17:17 +0100

An Israeli novelist has been awarded a German peace prize for giving a literary voice to coexistence.

David Grossman, whose books include The Smile of the Lamb and Someone to Run With, was announced as the recipient of the peace prize of the German book trade on Sunday.

Mr Grossman, 56, is a prominent figure of Israel’s left , and a campaigner for a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict. He is close friends with fellow Israeli writer Amos Oz.

The German Publishers and Booksellers Association said in a statement that he had been recognised for having a powerful voice heard “throughout the world.”

“In his novels, essays and stories, Mr Grossman has consistently sought to understand and describe not only his own position, but also the opinions of those who think differently.”

The prize, first given out in 1950, is worth almost £22,000. It is given to "individuals who have contributed to international tolerance through their exceptional activities, especially in the fields of literature, science and art."

In 2007 Israeli historian Saul Friedländer was given the prize. Other Israeli recipents have included the former mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, and the philosopher Martin Buber.

Mr Grossman’s latest book, To the End of the Land, follows an Israeli mother as she attempts to hide from the truth about her soldier son’s death.

He wrote it after the death of his own son Uri, who was killed during the Second Lebanon War of 2006 by a Hizbollah missile.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "I am particularly pleased that his efforts for peace and a peaceful future of his country in the region is now being honoured by Germany.

"I hold him in high regard and have great respect for his tireless work for understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Tony Blair: Lebanon war was fatal blow

Marcus Dysch — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:58:23 +0100

Tony Blair has described in detail how his support of Israel during the 2006 Lebanon war caused him substantial political damage and accelerated his departure as Prime Minister.

In his memoirs, A Journey, released this week, Mr Blair wrote that his reaction to the conflict "probably did me more damage than anything since Iraq. It showed how far I had swung from the mainstream of conventional Western media wisdom and from my own people".

Western leaders had initially "queued up to advise Israel to stand firm and hit hard", he wrote.

At the G8 summit in St Petersburg, which began as the conflict escalated, "there was a common belief that Hizbollah had it coming, and if Israel took them out, so much the better".

But when Israel stepped up its response, Mr Blair was pushed hard to encourage Israel to call a unilateral ceasefire.

He wrote: "There then came about a choice in politics which did me real and lasting damage. European opinion quickly solidified around the demand that the Israelis should stop.

"I felt it was wrong that there should be a unilateral cessation. It should be on both sides, and we couldn't expect Israel to stop unless the rockets stopped. But that was not how it seemed to most people."

Mr Blair recognised that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert was in a "really tricky position".

"The war went on longer than it should. The alienation of Israel from the international community became worse. As one of the few people ready to understand their point of view, I suffered accordingly."

Reflecting on whether he "should have just caved in and condemned Israel", Mr Blair acknowledged that the Israeli response was "at one level disproportionate" and he could appreciate the "manifest injustice suffered by the Palestinians".

But he concluded: "I was squeezed. But by then I felt truly uneasy compromising on it.

"If I had condemned Israel, it would have been more than dishonest; it would have undermined the world view I had come to hold passionately."

The failure to go against the Israelis meant Labour backbenchers moved "more or less en masse to a querulous position" and demanded he reveal his plans for leaving Downing Street.

The book also discusses the cash-for-honours row which saw Lord Levy arrested and questioned.

Mr Blair wrote that the donations system was a "murky business" and that from March 2006 until he left office it was "a running sore of the most poisonous and debilitating kind" and had been "18 months of hell for all concerned".

America: Lebanon attack on Israel 'unjustified'

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:15:40 +0100

America has laid the blame for the flare-up on Israel’s northern border with the Lebanese.

The US State department called the attack, which left an Israeli commander and three others dead, "totally unjustified and unwarranted".

Lebanon had initially accused Israeli forces of provoking the fighting by crossing the border as they carried out maintenance work on a tree.

But United Nations peacekeepers probing the incident said Israel had been doing “routine work south of the international borderline”.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are carrying out further investigations but said that they regularly face complaints over Lebanese provocations.

UNIFIL’s findings backed up an IDF statement that Israeli forces only opened fire in response to sniper shooting from Lebanon.

This was the worst breakdown in relations between Israel and Lebanon since the war with Hizbollah in summer 2006.

P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the State department, said that America “support the government of Lebanon" but added: "We don't want to see this happen again.”

Mr Crowley continued: “We're going to be working intensively to see that tensions along this border are eased."

UNIFIL: Israel did not cross Lebanon border

Jennifer Lipman — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:57:03 +0100

United Nations peacekeepers have contradicted Lebanese claims that Israeli forces were operating within Lebanese territory before a border flare-up which led to the deaths of four people.

The fighting has raised international concerns that Israel’s relationship with Lebanon could deteriorate, less than four years after a ceasefire was negotiated to end the Second Lebanon War with Hizbollah.

Lebanon claimed Israel had provoked the attack. But Israel said it was operating only inside its own borders, and noted that the fact there were Lebanese journalists at the scene suggested the skirmish had been premeditated.

And Milos Strugar, senior political adviser for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said that Israel had been carrying out routine maintenance work "south of the international borderline," although on "the northern side of the border fence.”

Lebanese officials had claimed they only fired “warning shots” at the Israeli troops, but the IDF said its soldiers came under sniper shooting from across the border, and in response an Israeli tank opened fire.

The fighting left an Israeli commander, Dov Harari, dead, alongside two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.

Another Israeli, Captain Ezra Lakiya, was seriously wounded in the attack and is being treated in hospital.

Mr Strugar said that UNIFIL had been informed of the work clearing clear woodland blocking the line of vision of Israeli soldiers stationed at the Galilee border.

He said details about the maintenance had been passed on to the Lebanese army.

Although UNIFIL had asked the IDF to postpone the maintenance work, Mr Strugar also said that UNIFIL deal with complaints of Lebanese provocations every day.

After the fighting an IDF spokesman warned of “consequences” if they were repeated and said “Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for the grave incident that disrupted the calm in the region.”

Kadima MK Shaul Mofaz, a former defence minister, called it a "planned terror attack."

But, escalating the tension, the Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said his militants would not "stand idle", despite the fighting being between the Lebanese army and Israel.

He told supporters: "The Israeli hand that targets the Lebanese army will be cut off." The militant group is believed to be building up missile stockpiles.

But Israel is not believed to have raised the northern Galilee region to high alert, suggesting security officials consider it unlikely to escalate further.

The UN Security Council met after the clash and called on both sides to strive to prevent any further escalation.

The clashes were the most serious at Israel’s northern border since the Second Lebanon War of summer 2006, which began after two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hizbollah.