Peace now ?

So the few questions going around me are : is this peace now? and who did win that war ?
To the first one, it is a cease fire, not peace. Countries like Lebanon consider themselves at war with Israel despite an armistice in 1949 and various cease fires since. Now the question is how long will this cease fire last ? The previous one lasted around 6 years with monthly violations mostly located arount the Sheba farms. I can only hope that this one will last longer but the first days of cease fire are not very promising.

France which is supposed to lead the UN interposition force in south Lebanon already said it would not participate to the implementation of some parts of the cease fire, by not working on disarming Hezbollah. The Lebanese government agreed with Hezbollah that they would keep their weapons, just not show them in public (which itself is a violation of the cease fire conditions which say that the only weaponry in south Lebanon has to be the army's). On the other side Israeli army is still in south Lebanon, with less soldiers but still there.
Annan is supposed to start a taskforce to figure out according UN who do belong the Sheba farms to (currently it's supposed to be Syrian territory occupied by Israel, but Lebanese say it's theirs). This is a very good initiative, but there has already been words by the US that whatever the decision would be, Israel would not have to remove their troops from there. So we can assume that whatever the answer is Hezbollah will also stand on their positions. My personal opinion on this issue is that neither Hezbollah nor Israel really care who it does belong to, it is just a convenient excuse.

So is it all that bad ? Well, the only change compared to last month is that now the Lebanese army is in south Lebanon, and will assume responsability over the border with Israel. In the long term this could lead to more responsible behaviour in the area.

Now the question who did win ? Each time there is a war there has to be a winner right ? Reading the medias it seems to be the case... I find it sad that this is even a matter of discussion but well it is. Modern wars seem to have mostly loosers and no winners. Some say that Israel by weakening Hezbollah, destroying all Lebanese infrastructure, killing a larger number of ennemies than their loss won (US claim it 's a victory in the "war over terror"). Some say Israel lost because a small organisation caused it more harm than anyone ever did before, negated their high tech weaponry, sent rockets farther in Israel than anyone ever did in the past 50 years. I am leaning towards the second option.

Now does that make Hezbollah a winner like they and Iran have been claiming everywhere ? Definitely not, they resisted well, but killing 2 dozen of civillians by sending over 3000 rockets towards them looks pretty sad to me. A good exemple of katyusha accuracy:


Their role is to protect Lebanon, have I heard. What did they protect that is still standing undamaged ? If it wasn't for the international community pressure, what would be the state of Lebanon 1 month from now ?

Finaly everybody is in such a hurry to claim victory that it really is obvious that everybody did loose.

Cease fire

Sirens woke me up this morning minutes before the cease fire took place. There were no alerts since, and activities are resuming. Let's hope it lasts and the conditions for a lasting peace with Lebanon settle.

Rockets season not over

So I am back in Israel, Haggai gets me at the airport, I drop him at home and make my way to Haifa on the highway. 10Km before Haifa the police is diverting all traffic to smaller roads, I guess that some rocket hit the highway and am not very far. The rocket hit near one of my company buildings and shattered a few windows without casualties.

The building I usually work is the closest one on the left, a closer look to the glass building (the one along the highway), some collegue windows got hit but hopefully noone was working during the weekend:

The damages are light, let's hope it stays this way.
In the past 24h I heard a few serious hits to the Matam side of Haifa. It seems they are targetting the high-tech industrial zone now. I am going to keep working from home and hope things calm down soon.

Back

I am back from a week spent in southern France with my parents, fifille, the little monkey and his parents. It was nice to get back home, and be in quieter and cooler areas.
Here is a picture of the Barcelonette Area where I spent a few days hiking and enjoying the sun with fifille and the parents:

Here is the picture of Ste Lucie Island near Narbonne where we relaxed an afternoon and the little monkey tracked all the trains he could hear:

Mail

Some of you have been complaining that mail takes a while to reach me, so here is a visual explaination (that was a seasons greatings card):

Note the stapples on the top.