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We watch them and they watch us

I took this photo just a few minutes ago, of Israel Channel 10's news coverage of our little war. It shows Zvi Yehezkeli, who covers Arab affairs and has been giving excellent summaries of the Arab media (Noorster and I have a huge crush on him). Al Manar TV, Hezbollah television, is showing Zvi live while he is in the Tel Aviv studio. They are broadcasting our broadcast in real time, from Beirut, translating from Hebrew into Arabic what Zvi is saying, and responding in real time. “We can see you!” said the Al Manar moderator, mockingly, as he smiled into the camera.

Zvi is listening to the whole thing via his earphone, and he even posed a question in Arabic.

This is just one example of how mad and complex this conflict is: We watch each other's television broadcasts, we talk to one another, and then…we bomb each other.

This morning a friend of mine called from Gaza. He's not a journalist, not a politician – just an ordinary Palestinian guy in his twenties. He lives down the street from the offices of Hamas's Ministry of the Interior in Gaza, which was bombed a few days ago by an Israeli fighter plane. He has about two hours of electricity a day in his house and about as much running water. But he called me to ask if I was okay, after he saw on Al Jazeera television that Nasrallah was threatening to bomb Tel Aviv. “I'm worried about you,” he said.

And late, late last night I chatted via Instant Message with this Lebanese blogger, while he sat on the roof of his apartment building and watched Israeli fighter planes bomb Beirut.

More soon.

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This entry was written by Lisa Goldman and posted on July 16, 2006 at 3:38 pm and filed under Main Page. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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14 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. Is the IDF trying to sympathize with Hizbullah and understand their point of view? If so, they are heading towards success.
    They are warning people to flea the villages, but during the first 2 days, they have bombed everybridge and intersection. How is this against Hizbullah?:
    Breaking news: Israeli fighter jets have bombed a residential neighborhood in Tyre near a highscool. LBC's correspondent in the city described a state of chaos, and bodies lying everywhere. He estimated tens may have been killed.
    “A catastrophy befell Tyre. These are defenseless civilians. There are no fighters here. People are asking for the bombing to stop,” Haidar Haweela is reporting as I type this. He added that “a 12-story building has been hit and rescue workers cannot reach people in high floors. The building hosues a civil defense office. People are trapped under the rubble. There are people waving from the 8th floor wanting to be rescued.

    1. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  2. “A catastrophy befell Tyre. These are defenseless civilians. There are no fighters here. People are asking for the bombing to stop,” Haidar Haweela is reporting as I type this. He added that “a 12-story building has been hit and rescue workers cannot reach people in high floors. The building hosues a civil defense office.

    Wouldn't it be safe to assume that a “civil defense office” is a Hizbollah building?

    2. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  3. Thank you for keeping us updated. It really is an unusual situation being able to see each other's television programing. You will be in our prayers.

    3. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  4. Reading your post, I could not help but be reminded of the immortal words of Lieutenant Kilgore in Apocalypse Now: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

    4. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  5. Thanks for the on-the-spot bloggage. That's a creepy reality inversion you described there, about the TV! Stay safe, from Atlanta, GA USA

    5. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  6. Thanks, a very real, very interesting post.
    I'm learning more from blogs like yours than from many news sites.
    I'll keep following your blogging, stay safe

    6. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  7. Zvi…. *sigh*
    I was watching the coverage at Yael's place, and I saw the exact same segment but at that point I was too preoccupied with the hotness to remember to take a picture.

    7. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  8. Hey, this post took my breath away–dialogasm felt by me as well.
    In case you might have missed it/not seen yet: a beautiful article, in my opinion, from Ha'aretz.. For lack of own blog (as of yet), I surmised it would be appropriate to post here.. Thanks for your singularly sensational insights, Lisa :)
    Noam
    Allentown, PA, USA, Terra, Systema Solare
    Without further ado..
    [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/738726.html]
    “Now the fruit will wait till it rots”
    By Yossi Sarid
    Moshav Margaliot in the north could be called a remote place. I wonder when remote places are most neglected – in war time, or in peace? My impression is that in quiet times they move farther away. No one remembers them, no one is interested in them.
    Just look at the ministers scurrying frantically after the booms, as though only Katyushas can raise problems and needs. The ministers' sudden urge to do good is described, for some reason, as “solidarity.”
    Margaliot sits right on the fence , the closest place to the Lebanese border. It is a beautiful place, with breathtaking, little-known beauty. Nothing can equal the magic of the valley below as seen from the mountain.
    Moshav Margaliot doesn't complain much, but that doesn't mean it's not deprived. I have to apologize in its name that it doesn't appear on the list of Katyusha-targeted communities. The other side ignores Margaliot too, and won't waste a rocket on it. Not even a dud.
    On Friday afternoon it seemed for a moment that the gates of heaven had opened and at last signs of Katyusha were found. We were sitting – Eitan and Liran and Kobi and I – on the balcony overlooking Kiryat Shmona, and without warning Eitan shouted “Katyusha!” and pushed me into the reinforced room. And indeed we heard a rocket landing below us. I immediately called the mayor of Kiryat Shmona and Haim Barbibai confirmed that rockets had landed, but in an open field, thank God.
    This is the closest to the lengthening list of targeted communities we've managed to come so far.
    On Friday and Saturday nights more Katyusha rockets fell to our right and left, almost all the valley and mountain communities were hit as choppers and planes plowed the sky, but Margaliot was left out. When you listen to the radio and television, remember us: “the Galilee Panhandle” that's us. Don't forget Margaliot.
    Margaliot farmers grow chickens and fruit – peaches, pears, apples, nectarines. The peaches and pears have a life of their own, regardless of the security circumstances. They are rounding out, blushing mildly and awaiting the picking. A delay could cause a whole year's labor and investment to be lost.
    So we went out to our orchards near Kibbutz Yiftah to check out the pears. We took an inside hidden path, via Kibbutz Manara, because the main entrances to the North Road are blocked. Thus we evaded the watchful eye of the army, which would have frowned on our visit to the orchard on the border.
    I lay under a tree, thinking of the fruit that was ripening on the other side of the border as well. I thought of the Lebanese farmers watching their fruit from their window, longing to pick it. I remember them from the time I lived here. On Saturday morning I'd make myself coffee and look out of the open window. They used to stand there on the mountain opposite, looking at me. They'd wave to me and I'd wave back.
    They knew who I was; I knew who they were – they were Hezbollah people. In southern Lebanon most people are Hezbollah, whether they want to or not, and let our prime minister, defense minister and chief of staff make no mistake: They too have families and homes, fields and orchards, apples and pears and chickens. When they used to stand on the mountain on quiet days, looking, waving, shouting – they looked and sounded like human beings look and sound.
    Until someone there goes crazy and infects them with his madness; until someone here goes crazy. Now the fruit will wait till it rots.

    8. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  9. Please be safe. When I heard about this conflict, I immediately thought of you and rushed over to your blog to read your thoughts on the matter. Take care.

    9. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  10. what is lost between ppl in the world is Dialogue ( Bohmian Dialogue)!
    U know problem between Arabs and Israel is not a problem ,but a Paradox ! U cant solve a paradox ,u just have to search for the reasons that make this paradox.

    10. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  11. Here is a great interview with Zvi Yehezkeli, where he talks about how he got into his line of work and his perspective on being an Israeli reporter on Arab affairs. Fascinating stuff. Until he was 25 he knew virtually no Arabic. Then he started hanging out among Palestinians in the territories to get to know the other side. Read the whole thing.

    11. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  12. Intresting post! Thanx!…

    12. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  13. I saw the media exchange of words on TV as well. Found it awfully amusing too.

    13. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

  14. thanks for the insight. Our prayers with all of you. I posted your comment
    above in our blog as well.
    http://truckandbarter.com/mt/archives/2006/07/lets_bomb_each.html
    -paul

    14. Anonymous
    on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm

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