Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 27, 2024
Israel Halts Assault on Lebanon as Ceasefire Takes Effect
Nov 27, 2024
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has begun. Under the deal, Israel will withdraw troops from south Lebanon over a 60-day period, while Hezbollah will move its fighters and weapons to north of the Litani River. Lebanese troops plan to deploy to the south, which has been largely destroyed by 14 months of Israeli attacks.
In a joint statement, the U.S. and France said, “This announcement will create the conditions to restore lasting calm and allow residents in both countries to return safely to their homes.” Thousands of displaced residents of south Lebanon are returning home to find scenes of destruction. On Tuesday, Israel kept bombing the region, as well as Beirut, until just before the ceasefire took effect. Over the past 14 months, Israel has killed over 3,800 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million. Israel has not yet urged residents displaced in northern Israel to return to their homes. Many question how long the cessation of hostilities will last. On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to keep attacking Lebanon if Hezbollah violates the deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “The length of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon. In full cooperation with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action. Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike.”
2024 Becomes Deadliest Year for Humanitarian Aid Workers Due to Israel’s Assault on Gaza
Nov 27, 2024
In Gaza, Israel struck a school in Gaza City, killing at least 13 displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter in the Zeitoun neighborhood. Dozens were wounded in the attack. An Israeli airstrike on a home in the same neighborhood killed another seven people. Meanwhile, the United Nations reports this year is already the deadliest on record for aid workers, largely due to Israel’s war on Gaza. This is Lisa Doughten of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Lisa Doughten: “Since 7 October, more than 330 humanitarian workers have lost their lives. Most of them were UNRWA staff. Some were with their families in their homes. Others were at work in UNRWA offices and shelters. These numbers signal a disturbing lack of regard for the lives of civilians and humanitarian and U.N. workers. There’s no situation in recent history that compares.”
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“Fragile” Ceasefire Begins in Lebanon After Israel Launched More Devastating Attacks
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 27, 2024
Nearly two months after Israel invaded Lebanon, a “fragile” ceasefire has been reached between Israel and Lebanon. Under the deal, Israel says it will withdraw troops from Lebanon’s south over a 60-day period, though Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer says “this is already being contradicted by the behavior and the directives of the Israeli army,” which continued to bomb Lebanese civilian areas through the waning hours of official hostilities. Thousands of displaced Lebanese are now returning to southern Lebanon, hoping that their homes are still standing. Many are mourning the nearly 3,800 Lebanese killed by U.S. weapons and Israeli warfare. While there is “relief” in the country, “people are finding it very difficult to celebrate,” says Mounzer. “The grieving process begins now.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of displaced residents of southern Lebanon are returning home to find scenes of devastation after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect earlier today. In the hours before the cessation of hostilities, Israel repeatedly struck areas of Beirut and southern Lebanon. Under the deal, Israel will withdraw troops from Lebanon’s south over a 60-day period, while Hezbollah will move its fighters and weapons to north of the Litani River. Lebanese troops will redeploy to the south.
In a joint statement, the U.S. and France said, quote, “This announcement will create the conditions to restore lasting calm and allow residents in both countries to return safely to their homes,” unquote.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati spoke earlier today.
PRIME MINISTER NAJIB MIKATI: [translated] Truly, it is a new day, concluding one of the most difficult stages of suffering that the Lebanese have experienced in their modern history. It actually was the most harsh, as well as hopeful. …
On this day, the 1,000-mile journey begins to rebuild what was destroyed and to complete strengthening the role of legitimate institutions, at the forefront of which is the army, on which we place great hopes to extend the state’s authority over the whole nation and strengthen its presence in the wounded south.
AMY GOODMAN: Over the past 14 months, Israel has killed over 3,800 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million. Israel also killed the entire leadership of Hezbollah, including Hassan Nasrallah and two of his successors. Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes.
We’re joined now by two guests. In Tel Aviv, in Israel, we’re joined by Gideon Levy, award-winning Israeli journalist, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, where he’s a member of its editorial board. His latest book, The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe. And in Montreal, Canada, Lina Mounzer is with us, Lebanese writer, senior editor of the arts and literature magazine The Markaz Review.
You know, I remember just after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Lina, you were in our studio here, and you wrote about what it was like to see an attack on your country from afar, what it meant. Talk about the significance of the ceasefire now.
LINA MOUNZER: I mean, of course, you know, it’s a welcome relief for the entire country to have this ceasefire. At the same time, it leaves so much devastation behind, you know. And you spoke about in the last hours the Israelis’ continued bombing up until. I’m not sure that that conveys the level of barbarism. I mean, they were essentially carpet-bombing the south and Beirut and hitting all kinds of targets, and, you know, absolutely indiscriminately.
You know, Israelis always talk about targeted attacks, and people buy this. And it’s reported even that, you know, when innocent civilians die, it’s usually as a collateral damage to these targeted attacks. And, of course, there have been targeted assassinations. We’ve seen them. Already the idea that civilians are acceptable collateral damage to this kind of targeted assassination is already just a completely outrageous idea.
But, you know, yesterday, in the final hours of the ceasefire, I had a dear friend who lost his elderly parents. There was absolutely no warning. And they were targeted directly in their apartment, and based on, essentially, I suppose, erroneous AI information. And this is something that has happened to countless families over the course of these last 14 months. It was especially difficult. You know, I am in Montreal, but I was speaking to friends throughout the day. I was hearing the airstrikes. People were terrified. People were running on foot. There was absolutely no safe place to hide. It was truly like, you know, 24 hours that were just condensed horror. And it is absolute terrorism. It is barbarism. I don’t have any other words to describe it.
And so, there’s a lot of relief now as we go into the ceasefire. At the same time, there’s a lot of apprehension, because we’re not sure how long it’s going to last. It feels like a very fragile truce, essentially. And also, you know, people are coming back not just to devastated homes and devastated lands in the south, but they’re picking up the pieces of their lost families. There are a lot of people now who are going to be able to have funerals that they weren’t able to have, memorials that they weren’t able to have. You know, the grieving process begins now, not just for the country at large, but specifically for so many families who have lost their loved ones, including up until these final 24 hours. So, yes, there is relief, but there’s also a lot of apprehension and just an incredible amount of grief. Incredible amount of grief, you know? People are finding it very difficult to celebrate. A lot of people that I spoke to just said, “I have no energy to do anything today but just sit and cry,” you know? So, it is, again, very, very mixed feelings around this, but, of course, a lot of relief just at least that the killing is over, because it was just — it was just barbaric.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Lina, what do we know about the terms of this ceasefire or truce? And we’ve heard from Netanyahu and Biden, but Hezbollah has been silent until now. What do we know about their perspective?
LINA MOUNZER: I think Hezbollah spoke about it earlier. They did not release statements after the U.S. and Israel released their statements. They had kind of — they had spoken earlier just in agreeing, essentially, to this truce already, so I think that that was the statement that they gave, you know? That spoke on their behalf, essentially.
And what we know about — you know, I’ve heard so many different things about the terms of this truce, and I’ve read many different things. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure, because there’s so many contradictory things. But from what I read, yes, there is this idea that the Israelis are now going to withdraw, over 60 days, their troops. I mean, already they’ve been — people are going, flocking to the south to just see the destruction. And the Israelis have been threatening, you know, since yesterday that it’s not safe to return to the south: “You’re not allowed to return until we tell you to return.” So, already, you know, this idea that there’s going to be a restoration of some kind of Lebanese sovereignty over the land, this is already being contradicted by the behavior and the directives of the Israeli army.
And, you know, essentially, also what I’ve read and what I’ve seen is that Israel has the right to violate Lebanese sovereignty at any moment, should they decide that there is excuse enough. And, you know, when Israel acts with the impunity that we’ve seen it act with, and we know that it has the absolute, full backing of the United States, it’s also very difficult to feel safe as a Lebanese person or to feel that the terms of this truce are in any way safe, you know, or in any way provide some sense of security, because you know that at any point they can use any excuse that they like, and it will be accepted. You know, it will be accepted. There’s nothing that we can say on the world stage that is going to prevent violation, further violation, further carpet bombing.
So, there really is a sense of being completely exposed before the world and having no political recourse, essentially, being at the mercy of these larger powers, which, you know, they have demonstrated again and again their brutality over the last 14 months, not just in Lebanon, but much more largely in Gaza.
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“Israel Wants Wars”: Gideon Levy on Lebanon Ceasefire, Gaza & Gov’t Sanctions Against Haaretz
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 27, 2024
We’re joined by Israeli journalist Gideon Levy as we continue our conversation on the Israeli-Lebanon ceasefire. We take a look at the mood within Israel, where Levy characterizes the Israeli public as “sour” about what is seen as a premature deal. “They would like to see more blood, more destruction in Lebanon,” says Levy. “Israel wants wars.” This retributive stance is still being felt in Lebanon, adds writer Lina Mounzer, who says Lebanese people are “very terrified of the day after” and do not feel that they have been awarded peace, despite the terms of the ceasefire. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has unanimously voted to sanction the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, claiming that its editorials “have hurt the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its right to self defense.” Haaretz has criticized the move, which comes just months after Israel banned the international media outlet Al Jazeera, as anti-democratic. Levy, a columnist for Haaretz, says the sanction makes it clear that Israelis cannot take the freedom of speech “for granted anymore.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Gideon Levy into this conversation in Tel Aviv. Gideon, if you could start off by responding to — there was a latest text from the Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin, who wrote, “The ceasefire agreement which went into effect today is good news. The agreement is between Israel and the Government of Lebanon, not between Israel and Hezbollah. It seems that Hezbollah has been weakened enough,” it says — it seems that it’s been weakened enough that — let’s see if I can find this — that it’s “been weakened enough to end the war in Lebanon before the war in Gaza has ended.” Your response to this? And also, the response in Israel right now to — I think was about 4 a.m. that the ceasefire or the cessation of hostilities went into effect.
GIDEON LEVY: Yes, I wish I could tell you that Israel is happy about the ceasefire. I wish I could tell you that there is even a relief in Israel. But, unfortunately, in Israel, everyone — almost everyone is critical about this agreement. I guess many Israelis did not have enough — for sure, the right-wingers, for sure, most of the inhabitants of the north. They would like to see more blood and more destruction in Lebanon. And therefore, they are so sour today. And the other camp, as usual, is saying nothing. And even one of the opposition leaders, Benny Gantz, even criticized the ceasefire. He thought the war should go on. In other words, Israel wants wars. That’s the inevitable conclusion when you see reactions to a ceasefire which puts an end, at least partial end, to suffer in both sides, suffer which didn’t lead to anywhere. Israel didn’t achieve anything in this war. It will not achieve anything in the war in Gaza, 10 times or 1,000 times worse.
And here I must emphasize that nobody should have any illusions. Netanyahu has no intention to put an end to the war in Gaza. What happened in Lebanon will not happen soon in Gaza, because if he goes for an agreement in Gaza, he loses his government, and that’s his top priority. And Israel, at least part of Israel, has very serious intentions to resettle Gaza. Don’t underestimate those seculars. The sky is the limit for them. They just wait for Donald Trump to get into the office. And I will not be surprised if we’ll very soon, later, see settlements in Gaza.
In other words, nothing was solved yesterday except of the punishment of Lebanon, which came to its end, but also this is for a very limited time. I mean, when the prime minister speaks about the agreement, and all he has to say are threats about Lebanon and Hezbollah, that if any violation will take place, immediately Israel will attack again, so we are going from one war to the other and from one violent confrontation to the other, without even suggesting any other alternative. Nothing. Nobody speaks about diplomacy. Nobody speaks about touching the core issues, both in the north and in the south. Our friend from Lebanon, our Lebanese friend, just mentioned violations of the sovereignty of Lebanon. Anyone speaks about the fact that Israel, I’m sure, will continue to fly over Lebanon for intelligence, this will be kosher. This will be legitimate. And only the violation of Israeli sovereignty is never forgiven.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Gideon Levy, I wanted to ask you — in terms of the toll on the IDF now, over 800 soldiers have been killed in Gaza, about — the estimates are about 73 or 74 in Lebanon. And those are the only ones — the ones publicly acknowledged. What is the impact on Israel of continuing this war, on the economy of Israel, on migration, on tourism and the other aspects of economic life in Israel?
GIDEON LEVY: The price is enormous, but somehow Israelis accept it. This is this unbelievable phenomena in which people are ready to sacrifice their dearest ones — I mean, who is more than your son? — without seeing a real purpose. I mean, they all tell themselves that they were killed, sacrificed for the defense of Israel. But what kind of defense is it if you bomb a refugee camp in Gaza? What does Israel benefit out of it?
The economical crisis is one thing. I mean, you mentioned tourism. There is no tourism whatsoever. There are hardly any international airlines who fly in here. But there is a much heavier price: namely, turning Israel into a pariah state. [inaudible] very well from the United States, but everywhere else. It’s not only that Netanyahu and Gallant are now wanted all over the world. Every Israeli will feel it when he will go abroad now. Every Israelis everywhere will feel at least discomfort in the presenting himself, identifying himself as an Israeli. And still Israelis are ready to take this, only because they were told that we have to live from war to war, to live on our sword, and there is no other option, which is a total lie, because Israel never tried an alternative. But brainwash like brainwash.
AMY GOODMAN: Gideon, I don’t know if you can respond to this, but the Israeli Cabinet has unanimously voted to sanction your paper, Haaretz, saying its editorials, quote, “have hurt the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its right to self defense,” unquote. Under the move, the Israeli government will stop advertising in the paper, cut off all communications with Haaretz. Haaretz has slammed the decision, saying it, quote, “[is] another step in Netanyahu’s journey to dismantle Israeli democracy. Like his friends Putin, Erdoğan, and Orbán, Netanyahu is trying to silence a critical, independent newspaper. Haaretz will not balk and will not morph into a government pamphlet that publishes messages approved by the government and its leader,” unquote. This all comes six months after Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating in Israel and as the president-elect here in the United States, Donald Trump, threatens to go after major U.S. broadcasters and publications, calling the media the enemy of the people. Gideon, you serve on the editorial board of Haaretz. I know you can’t speak specifically about the sanctions against your paper, but can you talk broader about these threats to the press?
GIDEON LEVY: Sure. It’s not that I can’t, but we decided that this message that you just read now is our reaction as a newspaper. But I think that those sanctions tell much more about Israel and Israel’s government than about Haaretz.
And here, I think especially in the United States, who always speaks about the shared values, about the only democracy in the Middle East — so, first of all, it’s questionable if a state which rules in such a brutal way, in 5 million people, can it all be defined as a democracy? But let’s put the occupation and the apartheid aside. Even for us Jews in Israel, who used to live in a quite liberal democracy, things are changing right now, from day to day, from week to week. Legislations against freedom of speech, against the legal system, against any kind of human rights, against any minority are being ruled, and nobody says a word, and nobody can stop it, at least as long as this government is there.
So, what I would like to stress here, Amy, is that you have to also look at what’s going on within the Jewish Israel. It is changing while we are speaking. And the war in Gaza and Lebanon has a lot to do with it, because those two wars, with all the lack of legitimacy and brutality, also influence the domestic structure and the domestic system of Israel. And you see the outcome. I don’t take my freedom of speech — and I have freedom of speech, total freedom of speech, but I can’t take it for granted anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you both for being with us. And I want to give Lina Mounzer — just we have 30 seconds — but the last word on what you expect to happen from here, as you watch what has happened to your country, at least for this moment, from afar.
LINA MOUNZER: Look, we’re very terrified of the day after. Mr. Levy talked about the effect on internal Israeli politics. We’re also very afraid. Lebanon is a very fragile, you know, pluralist state. But at the same time, the Israelis also have known very much how to work on that, so they’ve been specifically bombing where the refugees have gathered. We’ve seen over the last few months that people have been turning away refugees. These refugees are largely Shia from south Lebanon and from the southern suburbs of Beirut. So, there’s been a lot of hostility that has incurred. So we’re really, really afraid of the day after in terms of, you know, the internal stability of the country and what’s going to happen to it.
And I just want to say, you know, to go back to this idea of collateral damage, this is something that the United States normalized in our region, in Iraq, the way to punish an entire country in order to change some sort of internal mechanism, which then devastates the country, because, of course, they have no idea what they’re doing, and this is not how you bring about change. So, we’re all also very afraid of now what’s going to happen to Lebanon internally as we go on and as the pieces are picked up, and a lot of anger and recrimination is going to start coming to the surface among the population. So, you know, as we say in Arabic, Allah yostor. Like, we have no idea what’s going to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: Lina Mounzer, we want to thank you for being with us, Lebanese writer and senior editor of the arts and literature magazine The Markaz, and Gideon Levy, award-winning Israeli journalist at Haaretz, author of the new book The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe. We thank you so much both for joining us, from Montreal and from Tel Aviv.