'I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna' take it anymore!'

Noah Pollak has a thoughtful take on what National Review Online is touting as Hezbollah's "chillingly effective media strategy."

First thing it made me think of was that classic of filmaking, "Network," with Peter Finch as slowly unhinging network anchorman Howard Beale going apoplectic on-air:

It’s not clear which of my experiences last week was more educational: Sitting on a hilltop on Israel's northern border, watching Bint Jbiel getting pummeled by artillery, bombs, and missiles — or meeting the Western television reporters who were covering the war, and seeing firsthand how they made theater out of bloodshed.

NBC’s Ann Curry was on the scene. She was taken to a meadow from which a half-dozen 155mm artillery pieces were pounding away at Hezbollah. Curry approached a resting crew of artillery reservists, put a camera and microphone in the face of one pony-tailed young man, and asked (I quote from memory): “How does it make you feel to be firing artillery into Lebanon that is killing innocent civilians?” Curry, in her other interviews for NBC, has been similarly incredulous at the existence of civilian casualties in war.

Read it all.

Israel: Faith under fire in Nahariya (VIDEO)

Rabbi Yisroel Butman, Nahariya, Israel taking about faith and springing back after a Katyusha rocket strike from Hizbullah in Lebanon on an apartment (background) next to his synagogue.

For more on Chabad activities helping out the homefront in Israel, go here.

Liveblogging a Katyusha attack (UPDATED - AUDIO, VIDEO)

Nahariya resident Nissim Samsoni, 56, in front of his
Katyusha-scarred apartment. (Photo: Dave Bender)

I filed this report from a bomb shelter in Israel's coastal town of Nahariya, near Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon.

After visiting the home of a couple whose apartment next door had been damaged in a previous Katyusha rocket strike, I then interviewed a local Chabad rabbi who is deeply involved in aiding all the community's beleagured residents with food, entertainment and spiritual relief.

Rabbi Yisroel Butman, Nahariya

Then the Katyusha air-raid siren began to wail...

Young Nahariya residents in neighborhood bomb
shelter for nearly four weeks. (Photo: Dave Bender)

(Greetings, lizardoids...)

Olmert's other speech

Ma'ariv's Ben Caspit writes the speech that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should have written:

Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of
Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.

Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims. And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are
ignoring them again now.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again.

Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.

Must reading.

(Hat tip: An Unsealed Room)

Greetings from the bombarded north!

Ma'alot: Residents and volunteers inspect home, demolished in
Katyusha attack, Wednesday, Aug. 3. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Sorry for being away a few days: I am posting this from Rosh Pina, near Tzfat along the northern border with Lebanon, as Katyusha and IDF artillery exchange fire nonstop - the sounds of both thudding nearby. I will post as many video and audio reports, and photos as possible.

I visited residents and rabbinic leaders in Nahariya, Ma'alot, Rosh Pina, and IDF forward artillery positions in the last two days - holding one interview under fire. Hizbullah lobbed close to 200 rockets into Israel in the last 48 hours, killing one Israeli-American immigrant and wounding dozens of others.


Remnants of Katyusha rocket which hit Ma'alot earlier in the week.
Orange sticker says, "Caution. Flammable material," written in Hebrew,
indicating that the propellant was either smuggled into Lebanon
from Israel or was taken from IDF stocks. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Rockets kept falling throughout the night and into this morning.

Editing these reports down now. Please check back here later today and tonight, (depending on Internet connectivity, and how long I hold out during the fast) to see and hear the results.

Kfar Kana: The Inner Circle (Editorial Cartoon)

Kfar Kana: The Inner Circle (Cox & Forkum)

The newest Israeli refugees: north & south come together

Israeli rescue workers at Haifa train depot after Katyusha rocket fired by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon killed 8 Israelis, July 16, 2006. (Photo: MaanImages)

There are refugees at the Nitzanim Park Beach between Ashdod and Ashkelon. Thousands of families have fled their homes in the north of Israel and are now living in cramped communal tents pitched on the beach close to our Nitzan `caravilla' camp. The beach is closely guarded. Outsiders are permitted in by invitation only. But stories of their lives are filtering through.

Portable toilets, showers and food dispensing stations have been erected to accommodate the refugees as they sit and wait on the hot sands along the Mediterranean. The refugees have been given this all-expenses-paid respite from the bombardments not by the Government
of Israel but reportedly by one wealthy Russian immigrant. One man ready to do the right thing for his people.

Rabbi Yigal Kaminetsky, Chief Rabbi of Gush Katif/Nitzan, visited their makeshift synagogue and spoke to the people, bringing words of Torah and of hope. Rabbi Meir Muller, another resident of our caravilla refugee camp, brought his wisdom and comfort to these
traumatized refugees.

Today it is estimated that over one million citizens of Israel have fled their homes to live in temporary quarters. Hotels are filled, school dormitories are packed, every form of housing has been snatched up. The lines to the tent city swell with each day's bombardment.
Those left behind are without funds and scarcely any food.

Prime Minister Olmert made a brief stopover in our refugee camp after visiting the tent city. He asserted that as soon as the war is over he will execute his "convergence plan", the dismantling of most Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and bring the guns and missiles of our enemies closer to the Israeli heartland. His plan will create a homeless class of 100,000 Jews. He warned us not to complain that we have not been compensated for our homes, businesses and farms.

"After all, soldiers are dying and you are still alive" he sneered.

We hear the government announcements that the people from the north, out of work and out of house, will be duly compensated. We know better. The trauma of this war and the vicious attacks on our civilian population is heartrending. We see the elderly, trapped in apartment
buildings, unable to make it down to the shelter. We watch those crammed into public shelters begging people from the interior to take them and their children into their homes. We also see the simple people holding on and refusing to budge.

Visitors from abroad have come to show solidarity with our beleaguered people. Rabbi Avi Weiss from Riverdale, New York visited wounded soldiers, families of the abducted soldiers and spent Shabbat in Safed bringing Shabbat cheer and love. Our young people of Gush Katif are in
Nahariya going from shelter to shelter bringing food to residents. We hear of overwhelming grief as one after another tell our youth "We didn't come to help you when you were bombed. We didn't come to help you when soldiers pulled you out of your homes. We didn't come to help
you when you were living in tents and hotels. How sorry we are and how ashamed we are. Today we understand you. Thank you for coming to help us."

As you read this, hundreds of thousands of Jews have become homeless refugees in our own land. Many have no funds to depend upon. We of Gush Katif, more than any other people, understand the anguish of our brothers and sisters.

To those of you who have been helping the people of Gush Katif, and those who are now helping the people of our northern cities, thank you! May the Almighty reward you for your kindness.

From: Rachel Saperstein, Neve Dekalim/Nitzan: e-mail,
ruchimo@netvision.net.il

Visiting northern communities with aid group today

Won't be posting most of the day, since I will be visiting communities and IDF positions across the northern border delivering food, assistance, etc. via an organization I am currently working with.

Talk about being in the "Hot Zone."

I promise lots of pics and interviews by tonight, though, so stop back in about 12 hours or so...

JerusalemOnline news update: 00:00, July 31th (Video - Channel 2 TV)

> Israel regrets Kfar Kana deaths, but says the fight against Hizbullah goes on
> One wounded as 140 Katyushas hit Kiryat Shmona
> Special commentary by Nachman Shai – click here

'Cry to those Using Babies as Shields'

Paramedics carry the body of Lebanese man from under a demolished building
that was struck by IAF missiles in the village of Qana. (Photo: AP)

From Israel Matzav:

The IAF targeted rocket launching sites in the Lebanese town of Qana this morning with deadly results. A three-story building hit by IAF missiles collapsed, several houses that were used to launch Katyusha rockets were destroyed, and depending upon which estimate you believe, as many as sixty people may have been killed.

Nearly half the victims were reported to be children whose parents decided to place them in the line of fire after they were warned to evacuate due to the impending strike on the Katyusha launchers.

...a Lebanese blog post... says that Hezbullah is not allowing people to be rescued from at least one of the collapsed buildings:

To Israelis: Before believing your IDF's bullshit about Hezbollah hiding in that building, try just for a minute to imagine yourself stuck under a ton of rubbles, alive, but not being able to move because the beasts next door refuse to allow cranes to come and remove the rubbles. I’m sure you’d rather die a much quicker death!

Novelist Naomi Ragen in an incandescent ripost to world condemnation of Israel over the civilian deaths:

My son is in the army. He is nt the type at all, believe me. Quiet, studious, a writer, a lover of Jewish history, Talmud, ethics. He spent two years in a pre-army program in the Galilee called Karmei Chayil. He made many good friends there from all over the country, and now he and all his friends are in the army.

One of them I know well. A bit chubby, with payot, and a great laugh. He and my son have become like brothers. While both of them tried out for the elite paratroopers unit, only he made it in. He and his unit are the ones in Lebanon. They were there over a week, fighting under horrific conditions, running out of food and water. Even though the Israeli airforce dropped tons of leaflets warning civilians to flee because they were in terrorist territory and likely to be injured, they still encountered civilians. My son spoke to his friend yesterday,and this is how he described it:

"The village looked empty, and then we heard noises coming
from one of the houses, so we opened fire. But when we
went inside, we found two women and a child huddled in the
corner of the room. We were so relieved we hadn't hurt
them.

We took up base in one of the empty houses. And then
all of a sudden, we came under intense fire. Three rockets
were fired at the house we were in. Only one managed to
destroy a wall, which fell on one of us, covering him in
white dust, but otherwise not hurting him. I spent the
whole time feeding bullets to my friend who was shooting
non-stop. We managed to killed 26 terrorists. Not one of
us was hurt. Our commanding officer kept walking around,
touching everybody on the shoulder, smiling and encouraging
us: "We're are better than they are. Don't worry." It
calmed us all down.

And really, we were much better then them. They are a lousy army. They only win when they hidebehind baby carriages."

Please remember this when you hear about the "atrocity" of
the Israeli bomb dropped on Kfar Cana, killing many
civilians, a place from which Hezbollah has fired hundreds
of rockets at Israel. Unlike previous administrations, Mr.
Olmert has my respect when he says: "They were warned to
leave. It is the responsibility of Hezbollah for firing
rockets amidst civilians."

Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to
complain about civilian casualties, since all they have done
this entire war is target civilians. Every single one of the
more than 2,500 rockets launched into Israel, is launched
into populated towns filled with women and children. Just
today, another suicide belt meant to kill civilians in
Israel was detonated harmlessly by our forces in Nablus. So
don't cry to me about civilian casualties. Cry to those
using your babies and wives and mothers; cry to those who
store weapons in mosques, ambulances, hospitals, and private
homes. Cry to those launching deadly rockets from the
backyards of your kindergartens and schools. Cry to the
heartless men who love death, and however many of their
troops or civilians die, consider themselves victorious as
long as they can keep on firing rockets at our women and
children.

Save your sympathy for the mothers and sisters and
girlfriends of our young soldiers who would rather be
sitting in study halls learning Torah, but have no choice
but to risk their precious lives full of hope, goodness and
endless potential, to wipe out the cancerous terrorist cells
that threaten their people and all mankind. Make your
choice, and save your tears.

That terrorists have been unsuccessful in killing more of
our women and children is due to our army, God and prayers,
not to any lack of motivation or intention on their part.
If you hide behind your baby to shoot at my baby, you are
responsible for getting children killed.

You and you alone.