Mideast crisis--Blog from Jerusalem
To create the buffer zone, the Israeli Army is moving in special forces to clear the area of mines before bringing in bulldozers, which will "flatten the area and remove any sign of a Hezbollah outpost and even trees so that Hezbollah can't enter again," said an official. On Wednesday, Israeli special forces with mine-sniffing German shepherds crossed into Lebanon to look for road mines before the bulldozers come in to destroy buildings and take down trees. Fighting broke out between the Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.
The security official said the operation "would only take a few days if no one gets in the way, but it won't take a few days because there are people there" who will resist, referring to Hezbollah fighters. He added that Israel has no intention of setting up permanent Israeli military infrastructure inside the zone, as Israel did in the 1980s. That infrastructure was dismantled when Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
July 19
JERUSALEM — I got a press release yesterday from AHAVA (a Hebrew acronym for 'People for Saving Animals in the Middle East'). The Kiryat Tivon-based organization knows no borders. Not only are its volunteers distributing dishes of water and food around the streets of the north of Israel for thirsty cats that were left behind by their families who did not expect to be gone so long. Now, they are trying to save dogs in Beirut and cows in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon.
"We got a call from someone in Germany who told us that the owner of a kennel in Beirut is abandoning the city and leaving the dogs behind," said Tamara More, the voluntary CEO of the organization. "We're trying to find a way to evacuate the animals."
Unfortunately, fear of Hezbollah is preventing the rescue operation from taking place. "We told him we'd send a boat to the coast of Beirut," More told me, sounding somewhat harried over the phone. "But the man said he was afraid Hezbollah would kill him if they saw him transferring them [to Israelis]."
While people across northern Israel, southern Lebanon, and Beirut leave their homes for other parts of their country to save their own lives, many are concerned about the animals they left behind during the sweltering heat of a Middle Eastern summer. In Safed, a town in northern Israel that has been hit by Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets, families who are now staying in underground bunkers called the local police station from their cellular phones to ask the policemen to go to their homes and feed their pets. The policemen agreed.
In Haifa, the streets are practically empty. Most of the city's residents are staying in their homes or bunkers. But the employees of the Haifa Educational Zoo continue to go to work to feed the animals, which are now being kept around the clock in their cement sleeping quarters in order to prevent possible injuries from falling rockets.
"We play with them and try to keep them calm," said Etty Ararat, the zoo's director. "But, the baboons are going stir-crazy. They look at us like they are asking 'What is going on?'"
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