Earlier this week, my mom emailed me about Israel bombing Southern Lebanon and she urged me to be safe. I assured her that, for better or for worse, this sort of thing is fairly common and happens in the disputed Shebaa Farms region a few times year. However, upon further investigation, it appears this time around things are a little more serious than the periodic Israel vs. Hezbollah grudge matches. From the BBC account:
Israeli warplanes have bombed southern Lebanon, a day after Lebanese guerrillas attacked Israeli soldiers in a border area.
The planes fired rockets at a suspected outpost of the Hezbollah group.
Four Hezbollah fighters were killed in clashes on Monday, which came amid intense artillery fire from both sides.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz says Israel was conducting its most extensive response to Hezbollah attacks since its forces left Lebanon in 2000.
This morning it was rumored that Israel air-dropped leaflets over Beirut. This seems highly improbable to me, but even if it’s true, I doubt we’ll be able to take a look at one due to the fact that the Sukleen guys will have swept them up as soon as they touch the ground. For those of you that don’t know, all waste collection and street sweeping in Greater Beirut is performed by a private company in lieu of a municipal sanitation department. Green-suited agents patrol the streets 24 hours a day to keep them litter-free. This is a good thing, due to the “the world is my trashcan” attitude most Lebanese seem to have towards littering. If the leaflet thing is true, then it would seem that the Israeli propaganda campaign has been soundly defeated by our men in green.
In other news, Lebanese Independence Day was yesterday and almost everyone had the holiday off. There was a military parade downtown that was met with resounding indifference. I saw some of it on television and even the bleachers set up for govermental VIP seating were only about 2/3 full. I, of course, had to stay home and work.
UPDATE: Apparently the Israeli-warplanes-over-Shebaa stuff was all baloney. Both Israel and Hez’b later recanted. However, the leaflets-over-Beirut stuff is apparently all true.