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The Beautiful North

[Ynet News] Marcus Sheff - Serving as a reserve spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces in the north of Israel, when I told a European radio station that Haifa has a mixed Jewish/Arab population and that, as we speak, many of them were sitting in bomb shelters together, hiding from Nasrallah's rockets, the interviewer snarled at me. I was surprised this information could be so irritating. I didn't dare tell him about the guy who came up to me in downtown Haifa, showed me his bombed shop front, and told me he was an Arab who wants the IDF to destroy Hizballah. On the road from Rosh Pina to Kiryat Shmona, it's "Apocalypse Now" without the really good soundtrack. Hizballah rockets explode at regular intervals on either side of the road. Plumes of thick black smoke spiral up and the smell of explosive is in the air. As we get to Zarit, an IDF officer tells us we have to get the press out immediately - a sniper is shooting at the village from the Lebanese side of the border. Driving back down to Haifa, we watch as, in the distance, Nahariya takes two direct Hizballah rocket hits. Back at the hotel, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy cowers in a doorway and British Foreign Office minister Kim Howells is rushed off by security as the sirens go off again. As the wailing continues, I can barely hear an editor from the German Bild, who phones me to demand why the IDF is acting aggressively.
2006-07-28 01:00:00
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