1115.org

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon on July 27:

He added that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to quit the area and therefore anyone still remaining there can be considered Hezbollah supporters.

“All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,” Mr Ramon said.

The Israeli position on July 30, after announcing they will suspend bombings in southern Lebanon for the next two days:

The two-day pause… will include a 24-hour window for relief organizations to deliver supplies and allow residents to leave southern Lebanon

Generous of them to allow all those residents who have already left an opportunity to leave again.

This could so easily gather momentum and become the basis for a permanent and lasting peace. Next, Hezbollah should promise not to launch precision-guided bombs at selected neighborhoods in Tel Aviv for the next three days. All Israel needs to do then is find some meaningful way to reciprocate (maybe a pledge not to bomb again the rubble of any apartment buildings that have already been pulverized?), and you can see how quickly this will swell into an irresistible force.

*** Update at 6:25 am ***

The empty gesture was even more meaningless that I thought. Israel has already resumed the bombings just “hours after agreeing to temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed nearly 60 Lebanese civilians, mostly women and children seeking shelter.” The deal was that they reserved the option to “hit targets to stop imminent attacks”. And now it turns out their definition of imminent attacks is unexpectedly elastic:

(The new) airstrikes near the village of Taibe were meant to protect ground forces operating in the area and were not targeting anyone or anything specific, the army said.

So I guess they meant, we hereby suspend the airstrikes for two days, except that we may conduct airstrikes from time to time as and when we feel like doing so.