Mideast crisis--Blog from Jerusalem
The roughly 60-mile-long oil slick now stretches to the Syrian port city of Tartus and threatens to reach Turkey, which is on high alert to stop it before it damages heavily tourist-visited beaches.
Cleaning up the spill is a job too big for Lebanese environmentalists, who were at a loss dealing with a 50-ton oil spill in 2003. They called for help from outside professionals.
This weekend, Lebanese environmentalists are reportedly scheduling a major cleanup of the Lebanese coast with materials brought in from Europe, and hundreds of volunteers are planning to gather at the beaches of Lebanon to start the cleanup.
But they fear becoming casualties of the war themselves.
"The constant Israeli air raids will make the operation very difficult, and an immediate cease-fire is needed if we want to save Lebanon and its environment," said a group of Lebanese NGOs in a recent press release.
FoEME hopes it can achieve at least a cessation of airstrikes and naval shellings along the coast.
"We want the military to coordinate the cleanup and allow it to take place with some measure of guarantee that volunteers that offer to clean up will not get bombed," said Bromberg, adding, "They never guarantee anything, but they are willing to coordinate."
A recent satellite photo of the disaster can be found here.
August 4
JERUSALEM-Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah promised Israelison Thursday that "if you bomb Beirut, we'll hit Tel- Aviv." Israelis don't like being threatened. It makes their blood boil. Especially coming from an enemy they consider inferior--militarily, morally, and culturally.
Nasrallah's words were followed within minutes by Israeli warplanes hitting targets in and around Beirut. The Israeli message was clear: You will not threaten us. But Israelis--citizens, military leaders, and government officials-- do take Nasrallah very seriously. They now listen closely to his speeches, which are translated into Hebrew on Israeli television. No wonder this morning Tel Aviv residents found a surprise in their mailboxes:a seven-page pamphlet titled "For every question an answer" published by the Army. It directs civilians on how to act if a long-range missile falls in the city, how to prepare the underground bomb shelter, and whom to speak with when feeling psychological stress, among other things.
One irony of this war is that Nasrallah is killing the very people he claims to support. He would like the Israeli state to cease to exist to enable Palestinians to rule the territory of Israel. But of the Israeli civilians killed by Hezbollah's Katyushas rockets, at least nine were Arab Israelis, also referred to as Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Besides being unfamiliar with the Lebanese terrain and under prepared for the guerrilla--warfare tactics of Hezbollah, young Israeli soldiers are facing another major challenge: getting by without their cell phones. After learning that Hezbollah has high-tech equipment for intercepting such conversations, Israeli soldiers were prohibited from bringing their personal phones into the battle zone. "This is very unusual and not easy for Israelis." said Maj. Gen. Miki Adelstein, commander of the Nahal Brigade.
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