“Exchange rate”

Journalist Robert Fisk has lived in Beirut for the last 30 years. He had this to say when interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!:

The exchange rate for neutral slaughter between Israel and here at the moment is now 1 to 10. 24 Israelis – I think 25 now — to 242 Lebanese, many of whom, as I say, most of whom, but a far larger proportion of civilians.

Note: CNN currently reports 300 estimated dead in Lebanon, compared to 29 Israeli dead. So I guess that exchange rate still holds.

It’s a tragedy of immense proportions, because it’s also tearing apart a country. In the last 24 hours we found the Israelis have turned to attacking a milk factory, Liban Lait — it’s actually the producers of milk I drink every morning in my tea — a paper box factory, for heaven’s sakes, hardly a terrorist target. We’ve already seen them smash up the runways of Beirut Airport and destroy part of the — most of the lighthouse, the new Manara lighthouse, in Beirut. The Israelis today even attacked the factory which imports Procter & Gamble goods here. We’ve had an ambulance convoy, a convoy of new ambulances from the United Emirates, cross from Syria into Lebanon, got attacked from the air. It’s an all-out war against the economy infrastructure of a country that was at last beginning to look modern again, after the 15 years of civil war, which cost 150,000 lives. And it’s very sad to see.

I think the massacre of the innocents must obviously apply to both sides. The Israeli dead have an equal right to that claim. But the scale — I mean, “disproportionate” is not the word for it — the scale of the response is obscene.

Much more, sobering and worth reading, at the Democracy Now! site.

Technorati Tags: Lebanon, Israel