I'm hesitant to add yet another diary to the recent flood on what is happening in Lebanon, but I feel I have some facts that will help in terms of understanding and perspective.
There are 24,000 Australians in Lebanon; most of them are dual citizens. Several hundred of those families are trapped in the extremely dangerous southern part which Israel is currently focussing its bombing on. Australia holds grave fears for its people.
The Australian Government is making (highly criticised) efforts to bring Australians to safety. I have a small shred of patience for their efforts in terms of the sheer size of the problem, and the non-cooperation of Israel (see below). Given we have an extremely right wing government that sees Muslims as fair game (never mind that many Lebanese are Christian) and Arabs in general as sub-human, I cannot help but remain cynical of their efforts, even acknowledging the serious logistical difficulties.
The fact is that there is an extremely strong chance that Australians will comprise a significant percentage of the casualities by the time this horrific situation is in some way resolved.
Australia has a large Lebanese population. Many thousands have family still in Lebanon; many thousands of Australian Lebanese make the journey home for the Northern Hemisphere summer to see family, participate in cross-cultural events etc. etc. These are the people trapped there now. There are hundreds of Australian school kids on vacation trapped in Lebanon; thousands of fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Not only do they fear for their own lives, they must grapple with the fact that at least their dual citizenship grants them some sort of access to a greater level of humanity, and thus are deemed worth assisting. If you are just a "Lebanese -Lebanese" like many of their loved ones, no such luck.
We are getting dozens of eye-witness accounts and communications from families trapped in Lebanon, faced with no electricity, rapidly running out food and water. If they move, they risk being bombed in Israel's 'targeted' campaign that just happens to be hitting every major road, bridge or civilian building with a radio antenna. Or they risk passing, unknowing, a place where some fanatical Hezbollah shot off rockets and thus risk being 'collateral damage'. If they stay, they face serious dehydration, hunger, and possible death or injury anyway.
I'm seeing here at Kos constant argument about Israel's right to target Hezbollah in Lebanon, the legitimacy or otherwise of Israel's 'targeted' bombing of civilian infrastructure and targets that at best, are highly possible of including civilians.
Does this fact - that 24,000 Australian citizens (of which what? Maybe less than 1% are active Hezbollah members/supporters? Can we perhaps agree on a cap of say 5%?) - face the very real prospect of death or injury - change your understanding of this military assault?
Are you willing to parse their potential loss of life because most of them are dual citizens, not sole Australian citizens? Does that fact that if a Lebanese-Australian child dies we can be 99% certain his/her family had no contacts or involvement with Hezbollah make that death more tragic than the death of "Lebanese-Lebanese" children for whom we perhaps don't have 99% certainty pertaning to familial Hezbollah involvement?
If realising the sheer scope of the number of undeniably non-combatant civilians trapped in Lebanon helps some see this conflict in a different light, that is probably a good thing.
But for me, human beings are human beings and I really don't care about citizenship; the fact that the Australian community is braced to mourn lost members because of Israel's current actions just brings it that much closer to home. A dead child is a dead child.
Australia is a long-standing supporter of Israel, and while it has levelled some criticism over the years given Israel's long and consistent record of breaching human rights and international law, it remains a steadfast and vocal supporter of Israel's right to exist and defend itself. There is a smaller by comparison, but nevertheless important Jewish community in Australia, part of our younger (than the USA), but growing melting pot of cultures and peoples that I adore. Please be clear I'm not trying to conflate 'Jewish' with 'Israel', but simply to make a point that just as the Lebanese have and continue to enrich modern Australia with their presence, so do many Jewish people. Both cultures enrich my country, and in turn I embrace and welcome them, hope we never see that darkest possible day, when we drive either away.
Despite 24,000 of our citizens in clear and present danger, and despite our long-standing support for Israel, Israel has refused an Australian request (combined with other nations) for a cease-fire to allow our government to get thousands of Australians, and other foreign nationals out. Something has gone horribly wrong when a nation is so hell-bent on collective punishment of a country, that it refuses to help a friendly nation by guaranteeing safe passage for over 20,000 people who aren't even part of that country. In idealistic terms, the denial regardless of country of origin of those 20,000+ is heading down the slippery slope of breaches to international law and treaties. In real-politik terms, the refusal to help arguably the USA's most loyal ally in the war on terror, is gobsmacking.
On the home front, one wonders yet again if this blatant and complete failure for Australia's dangerous, illegal and reckless support for the "war on terror" to 'buy' our citizens or our nation any kind of respect, let alone diplomatic currency, will sink in to the apathetic Australian populous. I doubt it. After all, it will only be 'Lebs' dying. They're not real Australians anyway, right?