The Flashlight, July 29 - August 4, 2006

THE FLASHLIGHT, July 29 - August 4, 2006. Special Edition.

URL: http://theflashlightnet.blogspot.com

Special Note on Sources

Two American liberal newspapers, The New York Times and the Washington Post, are indispensable sources of fact, opinion, and editorials. However, when the state of Israel is prominent in the news, they should be read with caution. Their slant is expressed mainly in their omission or downplay of certain facts. In order to compensate for this, I have resorted to citing in addition the Guardian Unlimited, published in London. That great British newspaper is more reliable in reporting news of Israel because it is not influenced by the Israel Lobby in America, and because its owners are not Jewish.

For those unfamiliar with the history of American journalism, it may be helpful to know that that The New York Times was bought by Adolph Ochs, a Jew, in 1896. His grandson, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger. has been publisher since 1992. The Washington Post was bought in 1933 by Eugene Meyer, a Jew. His grandson, Donald E. Graham, the current CEO, is the son of Jewish mother and gentile father.

The television news channel CNN has been doing a good job with covering the news on the ground in the Middle East and presenting balanced analysis. However, on the program Anderson Cooper 360, on Thursday around 7:45 p.m., a shameless piece of Zionist propaganda was aired without any balancing commentary (see below)

A liberal Israeli source, critical of recent Israeli actions, is Ha’aretz, or haaretz. com.
Comedy Central made no comment on Middle East news this week. Jon Stewart is a Jew, and even Steven Colbert was uncharacteristically timid.

A Note on Lebanon

This small state at the eastern end on the Mediterranean has a California climate and snow capped mountains visible from its capital, Beirut, on the coast. Arabic is its official language, but many Lebanese also speak English and French. In peacetime it has a flourishing commercial and tourist economy. Before the current disaster it had a population of about four million, including 25% Sunni Muslims, 35% Shia Muslims (mostly supporters of Hizbollah), 35% Christians, and 5% Druze.

It has fifteen universities, the most prominent of which is the American University of Beirut, founding by missionaries over a century ago. The American University Hospital is the most important in Lebanon.

Lebanon is the only truly democratic country in the Middle East. Israel also makes that claim, but Arabs in Israel are second class citizens. Lebanon has a tradition of free speech and open political discussion. Historically it has been a refuge for religious minorities who found safety in villages tucked away in the mountains.

The Israeli and Hizbollah Conflict

On Sunday, 7-31, CNN reported that a mistaken Israeli attack on an undefended apartment building in the village of Qana (called Cana in the Bible, where Jesus was said to have gone to a wedding and turned water into wine). 56 villagers were killed, many of them children, it was reported. The pictures of children’s bodies being removed from the rubble caused international dismay. According to CNN the Arab “Street” was outraged.

Fuad Siniora, the prime minister of Lebanon, refused to see Ms. Rice again until there was a cease fire. Senator Hagel called for a cease fire, saying that the Israelis were systematically destroying Lebanon, an American friend.

Israel agreed to cease most air strikes for 48 hours so that civilians could flee South Lebanon. During this period Hizbollah ceased almost all rocket firing over Israel.
The Lebanese government announced that at least 800,000 Lebanese were homeless.
Israel then announced it would not agree to a cease fire. Its Cabinet voted to widen the ground war and call up its reserves.

CNN reports that now about 80% of all Lebanese support Hizbollah. The Lebanese want to integrate Hizbollah forces in its army, but cannot do so. It now wants an international force to occupy south Lebanon and enable the withdrawal of all Israeli forces.
PBS reported that for the first time since 1948 the Arabs had been able to hit Haifa. They said that in spite of all the death and damage, Hizbollah remained undefeated.

August 1. Writing in the NY Times, Richard Cohen said that the war in Lebanon was a debacle both for Israel and its enabler, the United States. He said that “Bush babbles inanely about a ‘moment of opportunity’ but the rest of the world has had it with Israel.”

Writing in Ha’aretz on 7-30 Gideon Levy said that in Israel collective punishment was now seen as legitimate. He said that a strident nationalist atmosphere and darkness were beginning to cover everything.

Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch observing in Lebanon reported in the Guardian (London) said the deaths of Lebanese civilians appeared to be not accidental, not collateral damage. Israel pilots were killing civilians when there were no military objectives in sight. They even bombed convoys of fleeing people carrying white flags. He said that Human Rights Watch has no evidence that Hizbollah is intentionally endangering Lebanese civilians by fighting from civilian positions. The villagers are all saying that Hizbollah fighters are based in the hills. Bouckaert concluded that Israeli behavior toward Lebanese civilians appeared to be part of a deliberate policy. There is no evidence that Hizbollah is using civilians as “human shields”, as claimed by Israel.

TIME magazine, 8-7, appearing 8-1.
To its credit Time published a long article, pp. 27-30, explaining that Hizbollah and Hamas are not terrorist organization like al-Qaida. Al-Qaida is an international organization trying to unite all Muslims, and an enemy of powerful Western states, notably the US. Hizbollah and Hamas are guerrilla groups seeking to defend a home territory against Israel. They are anti-America only because it is an enabler of Israel. Hizbollah attacked American marine barracks in 1983 only because these were alien troops in their home country.
It also reported that Hizbollah has only one to four thousand fighters. Israel currently has an army of 10,000 in Lebanon.

August 2. The Guardian
In words that warm that heart of any peace lover, Richard Norton Taylor wrote, in an article on “The Futility of Force”, that you cannot bomb guerrillas into submission. Senior army officers have begun to accept that “military power might never win a war again.” In a leader, 8-2, the Guardian said that Hizbollah – at least in the eyes of the Arab public – has been transformed from a local Shia movement into a “more generalized symbol of resistance and hope.”

The Guardian reported that as a result of Israeli bombing of a Lebanese coastal power plant, 100,000 barrels of oil had been spilled into the sea off the coast of Lebanon, threatening serious environmental damage. The spill is moving north toward the Syrian coast. No cleanup is possible until hostilities stop.

CNN reported that Hizbollah had fired more than 200 rockets over Israel, a new record.

8-3. The New York Times reported on a meeting of representatives of all the religious communities in Lebanon, Muslim, Christian, et a., called by the Maronite Catholic Patriarch, which issued a joint statement condemning Israeli aggression, and hailing the resistance, mainly led by Hizbollah. This is one of the indications that most of the Lebanese are now anti-Israeli.

8-3, The Guardian

Fuad Siniora, the prime minister of Lebanon, announced that about 900 Lebanese had died and 3000 were wounded so far. One third of the casualties were children.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, previously friendly toward Israel, said he was “outraged” by the conflict in Lebanon and said it had weakened moderate Arabs in the Middle East (like himself).

CNN said that the Lebanese government claimed that two billion dollars worth of damage had been done to its infrastructure (bombed roads, bridges, airstrips, power plants et al.)

It also said that Hassan Nasrullah is alive and still in command of the Hizbollah fighters. Again, more than 200 rockets were sent over Israel.

8-3 An-Nahar, liberal Beirut newspaper [my translation from the Arabic]

According to its Washington correspondent, Hisham Melhem, a group of American Senators (unnamed) sent a letter to Lebanon’s prime minister, Fuad Siniora, criticizing the intensity of the Israeli attack on Lebanon and expressed deep concern for the vast losses, human and material, that have resulted. They supported the independence of Lebanon and promised economic aid. [No mention of this letter has appeared in American media so far.]

8-3, evening.. Hassan Nasralluh, head of Hizbollah threatened to bomb Tel Aviv “God willing.” if Israelis continue their obliteration of Beirut. Military commentators think he probably could do it.

In an article in the New Yorker, August 7 and 14, Emile Lahoud, President if Lebanon, said that brute force will not be decisive. Pointing to his head, he said, “In the end the battle is between the ears.”

CNN
President Bush, under intense pressure from abroad, is now pushing hard for a cease fire, probably early next week.

At about 7:45 p.m. on Anderson Cooper 360, Ambassador Gillerman of Israel, in a softball interview, blamed Hizbollah for all the damage done to Beirut and the infrastructure of Lebanon. He warned that this “terrorist” organization was a threat to US and European countries. This was followed by an interview with American General Grange who said that Hizbollah would like to get nuclear weapons and other WMD and that it should be crushed now before they did. Cooper said that there was no balancing comment because the broadcast was based in Israel. [What? Both Gillerman and Grange commented from inside the US: why no other commentator inside the US?]

8-4 NY Times
The Times said that freeing Arab prisoners in Israel was an important goal of Hizbollah. There are 9,700 of these prisoners, of which 100 are women, and 300 are younger than 18. They are in juvenile detention for acts against Israel (like rock throwing).

The Guardian reported that the Israelis have bombed four key bridges north of Beirut to prevent supplies from Syria from entering Lebanon. A later comment from CNN noted that it is summer and the rivers have run dry. Hence bridges are less important than in winter. [Supplies from Syria can also be brought into Lebanon at night over smuggler’s trails through the mountains. There may be a supply of donkeys and camels to help out.]

The Guardian commented, “Hizbollah has won by holding out for three weeks and inflicting serious disruption and pain on Israel.” The West has been damaged by the folly of supporting Israel’s Lebanese adventure.

Again, Hizbollah sent more than 200 rockets over Israel today. One rocket went farther than any other before, to Hadera, half way between Haifa and Tel-Aviv, and just 25 miles north of Tel Aviv.

Iraq

Violence continues unabated, with about a hundred people dying a day. It has four sources: tribal vendettas, criminal activity, sectarian violence, and insurgent acts. There is strong resistance to disarming militias.

7-31, NY Times. Congressional Democrats have united on an Iraq policy at last. The call is for the redeployment of US troops now in Iraq, beginning before the end of this year. [The thinking seems to be that civil war in Iraq now seems unstoppable and US troops should be removed from harm’s way. If the Republicans don’t do this they will be in harm’s way at the ballot box.]

8-4 Times. Tom Friedman, formerly a supporter of the Iraq War, now advocates a last ditch international conference [not likely] and says withdrawal is best, since leaving the troops there would make them vulnerable to an Iranian attack. The oil price would shoot up but that would stimulate America’s search for alternative fuels.

8-4 Times. Thousands of Iraqis in Baghdad demonstrated in support of Hizbollah and against Israel and its enabler, the United States.


US Politics

7-30 Washington Post. Senate Edward Kennedy charged that, after studying the voting records of Justices Roberts and Alito after their confirmation to the Supreme Court, he learned that they had concealed their views in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. They were consistently voting to expand presidential power, limit environmental protection, erode civil rights, et al. Kennedy said that henceforward no nominee for the Court would be allow to slip through the Senate Judiciary Committee by concealing his views. [There are now four conservatives on the Court. If another place is vacated when Bush is still in office, determined Democratic opposition may be expected against any of his future nominees.]

Ned Lamont now leads Joe Lieberman 54-41 for the Democratic nomination to the Senate in Connecticut. If this continues, Lamont could beat Lieberman in the final vote too.

Science, Religion, and Politics

Defenders of evolutionary theory defeated advocates of Intelligent Design in Kansas Board of Education primaries and are set to retake control.

Weekly World News July 22-28, 2006

War Between Israel and its Neighbors
To understand what is happpening it is important to know that American television news reporting on the Middle East is sanitized, said an American professor of journalism who appeared on PBS July 27. In contrast to European and Arab reporting, American reporting omits almost all pictures of injured or bleeding Arab children. It does not display dead bodies and most especially, human body parts scattered over the ground. Europeans and Arabs see those horrors. The Arabs see Hizbollah fighters not as terrorists but as brave Muslim defenders of their homeland. They see the Isrealis as brutal "state terrorists" who have repeatedly humiliated them and robbed them of their land.

On CNN 7-24 a Lebanese doctor showed the badly burned face of an Arab child and said the burns had been caused by phosphorus. When called for comment, the Israeli representative indignantly denied responsibility, saying Israel observed all international rules on weapons. This sounded like a denial. But phosphorus is not on the international list of banned substances -- it is a dangerous substance not yet placed on it. CNN never clarified the matter.

At the end of the week about 400 Lebanese had died and 100 Palestinians in Gaza as well. Israel lost only 51. Thousands of Lebanese were wounded. 750,000 Lebanese had fled their homes.
Meanwhile Hizbollah continued to rain rockets on Israel, reaching its third largest city, Haifa. Israelis apparently have a good system of bomb shelters. The Lebanese do not. The Israelis have a modern air force to bomb Lebanon. Lebanon has none. Nevertheless, Israeli life has been disrupted. by rockets shot by Hizbollah southward, up to 150 a day.

By 7-27, the Israelis stopped bombing south Beirut, a Shia quarter that was pretty well destroyed, and shifted their attention to the fighting on their north border with Lebanon. Here Hizbollah has dug caves and tunnels, created ambushes and tank traps, over a period of six years. It has been able to protect its supply lines with Iran through Syria. Using classic guerrilla techniques on its home territory it is giving the Israeli Army grief. Israel has called up 15,000 reserve troops.

In a meeting of European and Arab states in Rome, all representatives except Condoleeza Rice from the US, wanted to call for an immediate cease fire. Rice claimed that she stood for delay so as to negotiate a permanent settlement that providing that Hizbollah be disarmed. Her position was seen by Europeans and Arabs as a transparent excuse to give the Israelis more time to "degrade" the power of Hizbollah. This was a public relations disaster. Once again, the Bush Administration earned the title of The Reign of Error. Abroad Bush is more than unpopular: he is said to be "radioactive."

Now the Sunni Arab states, initially critical of Shia based Hizbollah for provoking the war, are joined in condemning the US and Israel and praising Hizbollah for its brave fight.The more successful Hizbollah is at humiliating Israel, the less likely it will disarm.

Chaos in Baghdad
The efforts of the new Iraqi government to establish security in Baghdad, an essential condition for its survival, have so far failed. Baghdad has a population of seven million, one third of the population of Iraq. The insurgents have new Sunni recruits as a result of the massacre of Sunnis by Shia death squads. The rising death toll persuaded the US to send 5,000 American troops to Baghdad for four more months to help Iraqi foces. These troops had been promised that they could go home, and now their delight can be imagined. It will probably be impossible for the Bush Administration to reduce troops in Iraq significantly before the November election.

US Politics
According to the NY Times 7-25 he American Bar Association has condemned President Bush for usurpation of power by issuing "signing statements" when he signed a bill. These statements say that he will not enforce certain provisions of the bill. The Constitution does not permit this: a President may only veto a bill and send it back to Congress, where it may or may not be overridden. But he is not permitted to "cancel" a part of a bill. The Constitution does not permit him to sign a bill with his fingers crossed behind his back.

Senator Spector said he was preparing legislation to stop this practice and that lawsuit was possible.

The Status of House Electoral Races
The latest National Public Radio poll, 7-27, found that in the fifty most competitive House of Representative races the Republican incumbents, who had won by 12 points in 2004, were losing to Democrat challengers by 6 points. On "values" issues (gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, and flag burning) the Republicans lagged 20 points behind the Democrats.

The Role of "Honor" in the Middle East
In a NY Times op ed piece 7-25 John Tierney drew attention to a new book by James Bowman, Honor; A History. This book may be more helpful in understanding Arab behavior than the Quran.

In pre-modern societies honor means imply "the respect of the local 'honor group' -- the family, the extended clan, the tribe, the religious sect." It means that to maintain a reputation for courage and loyalty is more important than telling the truth. Taking revenge against offenders against the honor of one's group is a duty. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. There is no universal concept of justice for all among pre-modeern people.

Consequently Hizbollah is fighting for its honor, to avenge humiliation by humiliating Israel, not for any particular objective. If it is still standing when the fighting stops, it wins. Further, the successes of Hizbollah win them pan-Arab support because Israel, with its well-armed army, has repeatedly humiliated the Arabs on the battlefield. This is the first time Israel has faced such a well-organized and well-armed guerrilla foe. It may be the wave of the future, making it much more risky to occupy another country.

The Flashlight, July 7-21, 2006

The New Middle East War
NY Times and CNN
Late in June the Palestinian Hamas captured an Israeli soldier. On July 12 the Lebanese Hisbollah (Party of God, Shia), captured two more Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon. The Israelis took their tanks into Gaza to punish the Palestinians, but their main thrust was to the north. Their bombers hit targets in southern Lebanon and south Beirut, destroying the Beirut airport, strategic bridges, roads, and buildings where they believed missiles and Hizbollah leaders were hidden.
Hizbollah rained rockets on northern Israel, reaching as far as Haifa, but the ratio of casualities (mostly civilians) was ten Lebanese to one Israeli. Over 330 Lebanese died and 1000 were wounded.

Now half a million Lebanese are homeless, having fled either to the Lebanese mountain villages, to Syria, or abroad. There are 130,000 Lebanese refugees in Syria. Thousand of Americans and European are being transported, mainly by sea, to Cyprus, where they can charter flights home.

The Israeli Army has called up all its reserves and is concentrating its power along its northern border with Lebanon. Since bombing is insufficient to destroy the well hidden rocket launching sites of Hizbollah, the Israelis evidentally plan to invade southern Lebanon (again). But in the last six years Hizbollah has had time to set up tank traps and ambushes all over the area.

While Kofi Annan, Sec.-Gen. of the UN called for an immediate cease fire, the US postponed supporting it, so that the Israeli will have more time to crush Hisbollah. On Friday, July 21, Sec. of State Condi Rice announced a planned meeting of European and Arab states in Rome to discuss the situation and find a way to dissolve and disband Hizbollah, which is financed and supported by Iran.

Iraq Grows Bloodier
Washington Post, 7-6. Shia militants have taken to murdering secular Sunni college professors. Students in danger of failing a course threaten to kill their professors. There is an exodus of professors from Iraq. Ninety have reportedly been killed.

Times of London, 7-14. There has been an orgy of ethnic cleansing in Baghdad.
NY Times 7-19. According to Iraqi government agencies, the death toll in June was over 100 civilians a day. According to the UN the total deaths so far this years is overe 15,000, mostly civilians. CNN 7-21. The past week has been the bloodiest in Iraq since the invasion ov 2003.

Russia. The Economist, 7-15-- 7-21.
High world oil prices have boosted the Russian economy, which is growing at the average rate of 6.5% a year. There is now a sizable middle class. The standard of living is rising. But corruption and inefficiency are rife. The army is a "cesspit of graft." All political opposition has been crushed. Conditions in Chechnia are improving, but violence is spreading elsewhere in the northern Causcasus.

US Politics. Straws in the Wind
NY Times 7-21. In the Democractic primary in Connecticut coming Aug. 8 Senator Lieberman currently lags behind his opponent with 47% support to 51% for millionaire businessman Ned Lamont. The issue is Lieberman's support of the war in Iraq. Lieberman announced that if he loses the Democratic nomination he will run as an Independent in November. [That is not kosher in the minds of many].

NY Times 7-19. Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition, who is now tainted by his relationship to lobbyist Jack Abramof, lost the Republic primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia.

The Economist, 7-15 -- 7-21. Cries for impeachment of the President continue. The cities of San Francisco, Chapel Hill (NC) and Marlboro Vt. have adopted resolutions supporting impeachment and the city of Berkeley, CA is expected to do so in November. A short film, How to Impeach a President, is circulating.

Science, Religion, and Politics
Washington Post, 7-26. A Medical Crisis of Conscience
[Quakers are used to defying the law in the name of higher morality. Now religious conservatives are doing the same for different reasons.]
Religious conservatives in medical occupations, in defiance of the law, have refused to sell a rape victime the Morning After Pill, to transport a patient to the hospital for an abortion, to permit the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research where it is legal, to assist in a suicide, and to remove ventilators from terminally ill persons. Some argue that people with such beliefs should seek another occupation.

CNN 7-19. Embryonic stem cell research. For the first time in five years, Pres. Bush vetoed a bill. It would have permitted increased federal support of embryonic stem cell research. He equated such research with murder.
Many Republic pr0-life leaders supported the bill, including Sen. John McCain and Majority Leader Bil Frist. According to the Pew Research Poll, two-thirds of Democrats and Independents and nearly one half of Republicans now support embryonic stem cell research.

American Religious Beliefs, compiled by Kevin Phillips, in his book, Ameerican Theocracy, p. 102.
Is the Bible literally accurate?
National, Yes, 55%. Evangelical Protestants, 83%
Do you believe in God? (Gallup Poll 2004)
Yes, 80%
Do you believe in the Devil?
Yes, 70%
Do you believe in God's creation in six days?
Yes, 61%
Will events in the Book of Revelation occur some time in the future?
All Christians, Yes, 59%; No, 33%

"The God Pill" -- The Economist, July 15-21
For the first time after a hiatus of forty years, scientists have made a controlled experiment using a hallucinogen with human volunteers. Roland Griffiths et al. of Johns Hopkins University wrote an article in Psychopharmacology (July or August, 2006) called, "Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial personal meaning and spiritual experience."
The volunteer participants were mostly middle aged college graduates who prayed and went to religious services. They described feeling peace, intense happiness, and a sense of the unity of all things. Two months after the trial 79% reported increased well being or satisfaction. Dr. Solomon Snyder suggested that investigation of such drugs could help scientists understand the molecular changes in the brain that underlie religious experiences.
This raises the question: Is there a spiritual world outside of the human brain which can be contacted by taking a drug or are religious experiences only a function of brain anatomy and biochemistry?

Announcement: the-flashlightnet opens

Monday, 7-17-06
Announcement THE FLASHLIGHT is about to turn on.

On Friday, July 21, the first posting of a Weekly World News Summary for Quakers and other peace lovers will make its first appearance.

The blogger is a retired History professor located in Palo Alto, California. This News Summary was originally commissioned by the Peace and Social Action Committee of Palo Alto Friends Meeting. It is usually one to three pages long and is a digest of at least: PBS and CNN News, the daily New York Times, the daily Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, and The Economist It has also digested some long documents: the Israel Lobby and the full text of the speech of Steven Colbert to the National Press Club.

Editorial comments in The Flashlight are sparse. The Quaker viewpoint is expressed by the selection of material to be digested. Humorous quotations are frequent.

Responses will be welcomed.
Mary K. Matossian