I went to South Lebanon looking for Lebanese civilians who witnessed the July War between Israel and Hezbollah and who could, perhaps, clarify some controversial claims. Did Israel bomb indiscriminately? Did Hezbollah use human shields?
Some civilians did testify that Hezbollah used people in their village as human shields. And I found evidence that Israel at least sometimes struck with precision, if not at all times.
Lebanese civilians, though, weren't the only witnesses to the war. Hezbollah was there, too - although I'm officially blacklisted with the organization and am denied access to interviews.
The Israeli Defense Forces also were there. I found a soldier who spent the entire war in and out of South Lebanon. He was willing to talk to me by phone even though our interview was illegal - he's still in the army and is not supposed to talk to anyone in the media about what he did and what he saw. He did anyway, though, and he did not say what I thought he would say. The number of people killed in South Lebanon may be more heavily tilted toward Hezbollah fighters than most of us realized.
To preserve his anonymity I can only identify him as "an Israeli soldier in a long-range patrol unit." So I'll just call him Eli, which isn't his name. Our conversation by phone was recorded. Here is the transcript.
Very interesting.
Right now I'm taking night classes. Amazingly, in my class there is both a Lebanese refugee (Shia) and a Russian Jew who just left Shlomi (not too mention both Iranian and Iraqi nationals). Haven't broached the subject with the Lebanese yet, but the Israeli claims a lot more rockets fell on her town and that it was a lot worse than reported.
The startling thing for me is that they are, the Lebanese Shia and N. Israeli, very friendly- all smiles and laughter with one another. Go figure.
"The startling thing for me is that they are, the Lebanese Shia and N. Israeli, very friendly- all smiles and laughter with one another."
Well, of course they laugh. Imagine you lived where they have lived. Then, one morning you woke up in a place where all the forces that had made you enemies had vanished, and you and your neighbor were free to live in peace. Say, for example, you woke up in America.
I'd smile too.
About one-third of Lebanese Shia hate Hezbollah. A smaller minority of Shia even support Israel, or at least want peace with Israel.
Ask your classmate about it. He might surprise you.
He also might be politically crazy and yet is a nice person. Lots of Lebanese are like that, too.
Did anyone else note the similarity between the blown up house shown in Michael's post and the house in which the Israeli commander was wounded in the battle video referenced in the comments
on Michaels blog?
Don't miss the video, it shows an Israeli unit 15km into S. Leb. during the summer offensive in a night operation, filmed using a camera with (what I assume to be) an IR lens.