The Israeli Left is small, and Palestinian citizens of Israel, though opposed to the Lebanon War*, have yet to rise up to shake up Tel Aviv (they, nearly 20% of the Israeli population, _can_ if they do).
Leftists in the USA are also very few in number and in worse shape than the Israeli Left.
Aside from a million-strong rally for Hizballah that Moktada al-Sadr led in Iraq**, protests of Arabs and Muslims worldwide have so far been much smaller and less militant than those during the really dumbass Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy***. That is because their governments, fearful of their own masses, keep them on a pretty tight leash at a time like this.
Hizballah and other Lebanese combatants and civil resisters, as well as Tehran and Damascus, can't do much more than what they have already been doing.
That leaves only Moscow to forestall the worst****.
It's really frustrating that there is nothing we can do immediately that will do much good to the Lebanese, Palestinians, Israeli leftists, Iranians, Syrians, and others in the Middle East.
* "Polls show as many as 90 per cent of the country's Jews back further attacks on Lebanon to crush the Shiite militia Hizbullah. There have been no equivalent surveys of Arab opinion inside Israel, but straw polls by Arab radio stations reveal that 70 per cent of listeners favour Hizbullah, or the very least believe Israel is waging a war of aggression" (Jonathan Cook, "Premeditated War," 3-9 August 2006, <http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/806/re91.htm>). See, also, Benjamin Harvey, "Nazareth Residents Blame Israel for Attack," Associated Press, 20 July 2006, <http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap/i/631/07-21-2006/a48c0020c85f460d.html>.
** Damian Cave, "Protesters in Baghdad Denounce U.S. and Israel," 4 August 2006, <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04cnd-iraq.html>
*** "A consumer boycott was organised in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other Middle East countries.[42] For weeks, numerous notable demonstrations and other protests against the cartoons took place worldwide. Rumours spread via SMS and word-of-mouth.[43]On February 4, 2006, the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria were set ablaze, though with no injuries. In Beirut, the Danish Embassy was set on fire,[44] leaving one protester dead.[45] Altogether, at least 139 people were killed in protests,[46] mainly in Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Afghanistan" (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy>).
**** <blockquote> <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aic19we5R1tE&refer=us> Russia, U.S. Disagree Over UN Resolution for Lebanon (Update3)
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Russia will ask the United Nations Security Council to demand a 72-hour cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid into Lebanon, a proposal the U.S. said will hamper efforts to get agreement on a resolution to permanently end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, said late yesterday there is no ``immediate prospect'' the U.S.-French resolution will be accepted. He said the Russian plan will call for an immediate halt to hostilities to allow the aid to be delivered.
The proposed Russian resolution is ``unhelpful'' because it diverts attention from the U.S.-French measure, which may be voted on as early as today, U.S. envoy John Bolton said. ``We have a realistic prospect of success,'' he said.
Israeli forces have advanced about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) inside southern Lebanon since the conflict began July 12 after Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross- border attack. Israel wants the soldiers returned and an end to the presence in southern Lebanon of Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel.
The U.S.-French draft would leave Israeli forces in place in southern Lebanon until the Lebanese, assisted by an international force, take control of the area. Arab leaders want the UN to demand an immediate withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.
Work Continues
``We have not reached agreement, but we will continue to work on it,'' Bolton said. He declined to give details of the remaining differences, saying only that they will have to be resolved by foreign ministers or heads of state.
The U.S. ambassador spoke in New York after meeting Russia's Churkin and their counterparts from China, France and the U.K. The five nations are the permanent members of the Security Council, each with veto power over any resolution.
UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland yesterday said Israeli and Lebanese civilians were the ``biggest losers'' in the conflict. He blamed both Hezbollah and Israel for preventing aid supplies from reaching Lebanese civilians, calling the situation a ``disgrace,'' the UN said on its Web site.
Civilians Killed
Eleven Lebanese civilians were killed today and 20 others were hurt in an Israeli air strike on a bridge in the northern town of Akkar, the state-run Lebanese National News Agency said. Two people were killed in an Israeli strike on a truck carrying watermelons north of the eastern town of Baalbek, while southern Beirut was targeted in at least 15 air raids, NNA said.
Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters clashed today near the Ramin Mountains in southeastern Lebanon and in Qantarah, where five soldiers were wounded in a bombing, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said. A soldier was killed late yesterday in fighting with Hezbollah gunmen in Bona, a western Lebanese village, the IDF said.
Fighting also continued in Marjayun, where Israeli soldiers occupied a Lebanese Army barracks that still held as many as 400 Lebanese soldiers who were waiting for a UN escort out of the area, the Israeli spokesman said. He declined to say whether the town was under Israeli control.
Israeli forces want Lebanon's soldiers out of Marjayun, a Lebanese army official who declined to be identified said today. Their evacuation depends on whether their security can be guaranteed on the route out of the town, probably through eastern Lebanon, he said.
Use of Force
The UN talks foundered over Lebanese objections to language in the U.S.-French draft that would give UN-backed international peacekeeping troops the authority to use force to disarm or expel Hezbollah, according to Ben Chang, deputy spokesman for the U.S. mission at the UN.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch arrived in Beirut today to hold talks with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on the draft resolution.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.K. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy will head to the UN today to try to secure an agreement on the U.S.-French measure, their departments said.
The Israeli government yesterday said it would hold off on a plan to advance deeper into Lebanon to give diplomats more time to try to reach an agreement. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Security Cabinet two days ago approved expanding operations to the Litani River, which stretches across southern Lebanon as far as 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel.
Death Toll
Some 861 Lebanese, 30 of them soldiers, and 125 Israelis, including 85 from the military, have died in the violence, according to the latest police and military tallies from both countries. Israel's military said it has killed at least 470 Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah spokesman Hussain Nabulsi said 53 of its members have died.
More than 3,400 rockets have hit Israel since the conflict began, causing 1 million Israelis to flee the northern part of the country or to remain in underground shelters. Israel's raids on Lebanon have displaced more than 1 million Lebanese.
The UN World Food Program said yesterday food, fresh water and fuel stocks are running ``dangerously low'' in Lebanon. The UN said no relief convoys have gone south of the Litani River in the past four days.
`Offensive' Operations
The U.S.-French draft resolution, given to Security Council envoys on Aug. 5, calls for a ``full cessation of hostilities'' and seeks to bar further Israeli ``offensive'' operations until a second resolution leads to the deployment of a multinational force in Lebanon.
The Lebanese government has objected to the reference to ``offensive'' operations, out of concern that Israel considers its military actions to be ``defensive'' acts against Hezbollah and wouldn't be restrained by that provision of the resolution.
Hezbollah, sponsored by Syria and Iran, has been linked to scores of attacks, including rocket assaults on Israeli towns, bombings in 1983 that killed 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French soldiers at their Beirut bases, and the 1994 attack that killed 85 people at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
The group has 14 seats in Lebanon's 128-member Parliament and two members in the Cabinet. While participating in politics, Hezbollah has defied UN resolution 1559, which calls for the disarming and disbanding of militias in Lebanon.
Israel's offensive is its first full-scale military attack on Lebanon since the army pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000, after controlling or occupying the area for 22 years.
To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner at bloomberg.net; Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger at bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 11, 2006 06:32 EDT</blockquote>
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>