Mideast crisis--Blog from Jerusalem
August 2
HAIFA, ISRAEL--Israel, asserts Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has "changed the face of the Middle East." In a speech Tuesday, Olmert went on to imply that Israel had defeated Hezbollah and that the organization was no longer a threat to Israel--even as thousands of Israeli soldiers pressed their fight deeper into Lebanon.
A number of Arab leaders are hoping Olmert is right. Indeed, they think that the Israelis did not do the job fast enough. The leaders of so-called moderate Arab states--notably Sunni Muslim Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia--barely hid their disdain for Shiite Hezbollah, even as the Arab "street" instinctively rallied behind whomever would dare to take on the Jewish state. The Israelis, one Arab diplomat told me,"should have finished off Hezbollah in one or two days...Instead, this has dragged on for weeks, and our citizens are very angry. It's causing a lot of tension in the region."
For my part, I thought it would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about Katyusha rockets hitting me when I headed back up to northern Israel today to do interviews for a story for the magazine.
Lo and behold, I had just parked my car on a Haifa street when suddenly nearby sirens began wailing hysterically--sending their all-too-familiar message that a Katyusha might be on its way to this neighborhood.
I looked around somewhat frantically for a place to take cover, but the residential street was lined with homes and devoid of people. The sirens' wails rose as did my sense of helplessness until I saw a covered parking lot. I ran inside, trying not to trip in my high-heeled black-leather sandals and black below-the-knee skirt. A woman and her three children were rushing down stairs that led into a bomb shelter. (Fortunately for Israelis, most buildings have them.) I followed.
Within moments, the thumps began. The children counted. One, two. That was three. Four, five. Was that six? No, that was a door slamming. Their mother looked ready to burst into tears. With each thump, she pounded her chest.
I wondered, had Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah and the manager of the Lebanese side of this conflict, not heard that Israel had won the war?
Indeed, I believe he did. And that's why he sent a record number of Katyushas Israel's way today. More than 225, each one carrying a message back to Olmert saying,'You did not win this war.'
Each side stakes its reputation on coming out of this conflict as a winner, not a loser. Neither can climb down the tall tree (although Olmert's statement was his first sign that he wanted the war to wind down), nor can they defeat each other.
For Arab leaders, this spells trouble. Countries like Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia originally criticized Hezbollah for sparking the war with the capture of the Israeli soldiers on July 12. But as their outraged peoples take to the streets demonstrating against the deaths of hundreds of Lebanese civilians by the Israeli military, those countries' governmentsnot exactly democratically elected--are forced to take a tougher stance against the United States for its support of Israel in order not to cause a regional earthquake.
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