Mideast crisis--Blog from Jerusalem
So, as the Hezbollah-Israel cease-fire began, the internal political cease-fire ended. Israeli politicians, who had kept their mouths closed and supported the government in the war, now began to open fire. Accusing shots coming from all directions called for an investigation into the war, which both left and right consider a failure. The political right accuses the leadership of waiting too long to attack on the ground and of failing to eliminate the Hezbollah threat. The political left condemns the government for getting involved in a war that it should have known it could not win and that would only cause more deaths than save lives.
The war, which at first brought both Olmert and Peretz higher public ratings, ended with calls for them to step down. An investigation into the failure to realize the war's two goals most likely will be made.
Across the north of the country, some Israelis in Haifa dared go out leisure shopping, while many others stayed indoors or underground, anxious that the cease-fire would not bring the peace they all hoped for.
Hanna Starkmann, the owner of Hotel Erna in Nahariya, remained in her empty hotel—where she lived throughout the war—many hours after the cease-fire began. "You can't know what they [Hezbollah] will do," she said. "Maybe they will breach the cease-fire. I waited 35 days to go outside: I can wait another half-day."
August 10
JERUSALEM--Even as the current war between Israel and Lebanon deepens the divide between Jews and Arabs, Israeli environmentalists are trying to save the Lebanese beaches.
Environmentalists tend to see the world without borders, knowing that polluted air in one country is likely to affect people across the border within a matter of time. They care for the whole environment and not the part only within their borders.
For that reason, Israeli environmentalists like Gideon Bromberg are deeply concerned about the oil slick off the Lebanon coast caused when Israeli jets bombed the Jiyyeh power station some 20 miles south of Beirut on July 13 and 15.
"There is a level of environmental solidarity for Lebanon also among environmentalists from Israel," Bromberg, the Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), a regional environmental organization, told U.S. News. "This is the largest oil spill ever in the eastern Mediterranean, and the implications are tremendous. We must act today in order to prevent long-term damage to the Mediterranean that will be felt for decades to come."
Bromberg has called on the Israeli defense and foreign ministries to guarantee the safety of volunteers who plan to clean the slick this weekend. FoEME has also called for an investigation into the bombing of the power plant.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Environment, the bombing caused some 30,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to spill into the sea and spread along the country's sandy beaches.
The oil is highly toxic and carcinogenic. It affects the hormone systems of all living beings and kills all marine life. Dead fish have already washed up along Lebanon's shores. Some fear the oil will kill off the endangered green turtles that bury their eggs on northern Lebanese beaches. The eggs start to hatch now and need to reach deep waters as fast as possible but have little hope of crossing the oil slick on the beach. Lebanese NGOs say that coastal fishery will be doomed for years to come, destroying the livelihood of fishermen. The blackened beaches will likely severely hurt the country's emerging tourism industry.
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