Following the capture of Israeli soldiers by Palestinian and Lebanese militants, Israel has launched a full scale assault on civilian infrastructure in both Gaza and Lebanon.

 

Good Morning Beirut by Bilal El-Amine

As most of you know, Hizbullah carried out a bold operation a few days ago and managed to capture two Israeli soldiers. The resistance has been saying for quite some time now that it intends to free the remaining Lebanese prisoners in Israel, most prominently Samir Qantar. Dubbed the "dean of the prisoners," Qantar is the longest serving Arab prisoner in Israel. He was to be released along with other Lebanese prisoners in a swap between Hizbullah and Israel. The Israeli government voted not to release him and two others and stupidly kept the prisoner file open. more...

 

Final Battles?: Interview with Saseen Kawzally by Jerome Klassen

In this interview from Beirut, Saseen Kawzally describes the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the background to the crisis, and its possible trajectories. Saseen Kawzally is active in left activism in Lebanon more...

 

MEDIA ALERT: Stop Israel's Attacks on Gaza & Lebanon

Israel is using weapons supplied by the United States to target Palestinian & Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act and the Geneva Conventions. more...

 

Lebanese Civillians Massacred - Take Action from Angry Arab New Service

You will all have to excuse me for sending this. It's pictures of the bodies of babies killed by the israelis in South lebanon. They are all burnt. I need your help. I am almost certain these pictures won't be published in the West, although they are associated press pictures. I need your help exposing them if you can. The problem is these are people who were asked to leave their village, Ter Hafra, this morning, within two hours, or else. ... "

I [As'ad AbuKhalil] have just received these pictures from Hanady Salman, an editor at [Beirut newspaper] As-Safir, with this message: For the full set of photographs, Click Here

 

Lebanon’s Shia: In the Eye of the Storm by Bilal El-Amine

God has always had little mercy to spare the poor Shia Muslims of Lebanon. They suffered centuries of seamless persecution often accompanied by extreme poverty, cast away far from the religious centers of Shi’ism in Iraq and Iran. With the exception of the 10th Century when sympathetic dynasties ruled the region, Lebanon’s Shia existed on the margins of history, making an appearance only as victims. So much so that Shi’ism itself became in practice a religion of the dispossessed and disinherited, of the denial and longing for justice. A small and vulnerable minority living in a sea of Sunnis, their religious leaders long advocated a politics of “quietism,” a state best described as either outright submission to authority however unjust or complete withdrawal from the political sphere. A politics of keep your head low, don’t rock the boat, and one day the long-awaited mahdi will return to make things right. more...