A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and art.
Monday, February 02, 2004
So last week, fighters for the Lebanese group Hizbullah shot at Israeli military vehicles (including a bulldozer) that they said have entered Lebanese territory. One Israeli soldier was killed. Israel vehemently denied that it entered Lebanese territory, and accused Hizbullah of provocation, and it insisted that the bulldozer was in Israeli territory. UN investigated and simply found that the bulldozer was indeed on Lebanese territory. This is how the US government reacted to this incidence (from New York Times January 29th): "Calling the attack a deliberate provocation, United States officials said the bulldozer had been forced by terrain to stray over the border to remove a bomb planted on the Israeli side of the so-called blue line that provisionally divides the two nations." What does that mean? How does the terrain cause the bulldozer to stray over the border? What kind of malarky is that? In fact, maybe I am being too harsh. Maybe those things do happen. In fact, now I remember. Once, I was walking in France, near the German border. And suddenly, without any warning, the French terrain caused me to stray over the border, and I found myself in Berlin. Amazing.