Pictures from Northern Israel, part I

I refuse to write blog posts about the Middle East for a variety of reasons. No matter what I say, there will be a flame war in the comments – if you think that flame-wars in comments are bad when dealing with creationists, animal rightists or Wingnuts, just try tackling Israel! I’ll be acused of being a self-hating Jew and anti-semite and Zionist and anti-Zionist, perhaps simultaneously all of those by the same person in a single sentence.
I do not know enough history of the region and the conflict.
I do not know the specialized terminology – a minefield of seemingly normal English language that is actually full of “code-words” that do not mean what one might think they mean.
If I am biased, it may be because I have heard more Israeli propaganda than the other side.
If I am biased, it is because I have lots of family in Haifa and a kibbutz on Lebanese border and I am nervous every day untiul I get their “We are alive” e-mail.
Some of those relatives may be reading my blog. As it is a huge family, individual members are all over the political spectrum and at least some will not agree with whatever I say.
Not to mention that criticizing actions of the Israeli government does not mean criticizing Israeli people, many of whom criticize their own government a lot, just like many Americans criticize Bush administration and would not like to be equaled with “America”. Those nuances get lost.
One of the relatives from Haifa sent me three PowerPoint slideshows showing some of the damage incurred by Haifa and northern towns. As a blogger, I feel like I should make such documents available. If I had friends in Beirut and they sent me pictures, I’d post them as well, but all my Lebanese friends are here in the States. And, the pictures are excellent and not available on CNN….
So, under the fold is the first of the three slideshows. The other two are in the next two posts. You can use the slider on the right margin or the arrow in the right-top corner to go through the slideshow. E-mail me if you want full size.
Comments closed – this is not a blog-post designed to foster conversation, I treat it as a website where I posted some documents. Israel-related comments posted on other posts will be deleted as irrelevant to the topics of those posts.