I am not surprised that many have decided to stay. Abusive employers are a huge problem, but the Sri Lankan embassy was seen by the women I met as self-important, corrupt and useless in caring for their needs. These women and men would never have expected to be evacuated by the embassy.

As Doug saunders explores in today’s G&M for all you Canadians – Israel terrorizes a new democracy because –> Hezbollah uses Lebanese ground to wage war on Israel because –> Israel destroyed civic society in Lebanon in the war in 1982 because –> The PLO was using Lebanon as its base because –> Israel had displaced 300,000 Palestinians who were exiled to Lebanon because –> there was the Israeli-Arab war in 1967 because –> Arab states were poised to attack because –> Israel was created by carving out separate states for the jews and the arabs because –> in the debate of cleaving the middle east versus having a federal but secular state, the separationists won. Leaders on opposite sides of the debate – drumroll – Ivan Rand a Canadian supreme court justice for the separationists, and Sir Abdul Rahman from India for the federal solution.

Mr Rahman seems to have seen this coming in this expression of skepticism.

Neither the General Assembly nor the United Nations is going to solve the question which can be settled only by Arabs and Jews with the help of the United Nations

A little bit about Mr Rahman

The strongest reinforcement against partition was the Indian appointee, Sir Abdul Rahman, a judge, but one of Muslim background with a history of political opposition to partition in India and the forces of Mahammed Ali Jinnah, the leader of the partition forces and the founder of Pakistan.

I know what you’se thinking. I’d write about it on my blog, but that’s already taken with matters more technical. So … leave it to y’all to read or distil as you see fit.

angry muslim-american person shoots six at seattle jewish center. One dead. shooter in custody. same center had organized a ‘united with israel’ march earlier this week.

yea i know – “they started it”.

I don’t think anyone in their right mind would push the “Israel as innocent victim” mantra.

However, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention that no one–not the UN, not Lebanon, not the European Union–was going to do anything to disarm and disband Hezbollah in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559.

If there was a way of resolving the problem of Hezbollah that didn’t involve Israel invading Lebanon, I haven’t heard it.

(Note that this is a separate argument from whether the MANNER in which Israel has gone about this is defensible.)

When I entered the building to see if there were other casualties, I was greeted with the anger and frustration that has been growing during this two-week offensive that has killed hundreds, destroyed millions of dollars of infrastructure and unraveled Lebanon’s hard-won economic progress. Those inside screamed at me in Arabic to get out and tried to push my camera away.

The missile strike seemed to clearly illustrate two aspects of the conflict so far: first, Israel’s willingness to use overwhelming force against Hezbollah targets regardless of where they are located, and second, because of the mounting civilian casualties, a gradual closing of ranks by many Lebanese behind Hezbollah.

The SL international airport is full of painfully skinny, clearly village-bred women waiting for their flights abroad. Most are on the payphones, sobbing to the children they’re leaving behind about how they’ll be back soon. It’s heartbreaking.

It can’t come too soon for Yusuf Baydoun, 78, who spent 2Å“ hours walking here over the hills in socks and plastic bath sandals. “They were bombing all the time,” he said. “It was very bad. I thought my heart was going to stop.” Mr Baydoun managed to bring out his wife and two daughters. But he too left people behind. In the ruins of his home, hit by the Israeli forces on Monday night, lay the bodies of his two maids: one Ethiopian, one Sri Lankan. The women were asleep when Mr Baydoun’s home was attacked. “It is very sad,” he said. “It was not their war.”