One can find a lot of beauty in destruction. Just as long as you're not the one being destroyed.

World War III better not start over a couple of kidnappings.

I don't understand the mideast, never have and I really don't care much about it. I do care about beauty though and it's possible to find beauty even in photos of corpses of dead children. Thanks for the lovely photo and a reminder there's more than one way to look at war.

World War I better not start over the assassination of one archduke.

World War II better not start over the greedy aspirations of one man.

See, one person CAN make a difference in the world.

Holy fucking shit.

That's exactly why I worry, Him. World Wars have started in the past over some relatively trivial shit.

Thanks for posting this beautiful photo. Israel defending herself is beautiful to many people. It's about time Syria and Lebanon pay a price for supporting terrorists. Iran should be next. With America's weapons and economic backing and Israel's savy things will work out for the best. Having American bases in Iraq makes today's Lebanon actions possible. The Stranger was right in supporting the Iraq war. It's not all bad news, there are many ways of looking at every situation. The Stranger is the best pro-Jewish newspaper in town. Shalom.

Watch the brilliant War Photographer

Is Josh kidding?

The war in Iraq has been a disaster for Israel. Now you have all these popularly elected extremist governments, united across their borders in their hatred for Israel and their well reinforced belief that the USA wants to destroy Islam.

Death and destruction raining down on innocent people and "things will work out for the best?" Josh is either joking or sick.

Israel was supportive of U.S. intervention in Iraq from Gulf War One. As bad as things are in Iraq, imagine Israel at war with Lebanon without U.S. airbases in Iraq, it would be worse.

Quit being so negative. There is much good if you'll only look for it. We needed American airbases in Iraq so Israel could go to war with Syria, Lebanon and Iran with supportive U.S. military nearby. In the long run having the Unites States in Iraq is making Israel safer.

Beautiful photo. Hope those fires are terrorists burning to a crisp. Shalom.

People in that part of the world have been having pissing contests now for, um, lets see... about 5000+ years. There is bad faith activity by all the players. I think the only way to resolve all of it is to make it into one huge UN/international zone (including all of Israel, all of the territories), spend money on secular schools and other infrastructure so people can live at least some kind of life (and keep the religious schools at bay) and not support either terrorist groups or governments. That includes both Iran and Israel. I will say this- jew, christian or muslim- that part of the world has been ruined by religion. In my opinion, the best thing our government can do is to stop the spread of religious bullshit and increase the secularization of government around the world. Of course, on St. Bush's watch that ain't gonna happen.

for beauty in destruction, watch herzog's gorgeous "lessons from darkness." it has sweeping shots of burning kuwait oil fields following bush i's iraq war. there's only one scene with dialogue--it's heartwrenching. else it's a sparse orchestral score coupled with sounds like the spraying of water from giant firefighting hoses, somehow reminiscent of the piece in kurosawa's
"dreams" with the mountain climbers sleeping in a blizzard.

I do like the photo however... its quite sparkly.

GD - Josh is a Psycho zionist nut job who never misses a chance to puke his pro-Israel blood lust crapola all over the SLOG comments.

Getting rid of the Jewish religion, or Jewish schools is not the answer. The Jewish schools in Seattle are strongly pro-Israel. Are you going to close those too? Christians cause far more violence. Israel is the only democracy in the area, and has always been a force for good.

I say keep the religions, but get them out of governments. People should believe whatever they want to believe, but in almost every case I see, religion intertwined with government leads to disaster for ordinary people. Doesn't matter whether its Israel, Iran, or even our own country. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia support terrorist activity in part because for a lot of the kids that are poor, the only place they can get an education is from someone that indoctrinates them. A lot of kids in Christian fundy schools dislike others because of their indoctrination. Its time all side quit preaching hate based upon one book or another they find special due to religious reasons.

It really feels like this time things could escalate to World War proportions - like it's all part of the Master Plan. Now Bush League can Spin like never before...
Unfortunately, there's no hope for containment short of total regional dominance

israel is the new third reich. it never learned to stop the cycle of violence.

So this is all happening in the Middle East? Does that mean Mercer Island? I'm all for bombing Mercer Island. Burn baby burn.

It's insulting to all Jews to connect Israel and the Third Reich. All Jews believe Israel should defend herself. Israel has a right to attack Syria and Iran if they attack Israel.

The Stranger is the only local paper that supported the Israeli military when Rachel Corrie was killed. We all need to stand behind Israel today. Shalom.

What's happening in Lebanon right now is not defense. Two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped so they're bombing civilians, office buildings and the airport. You don't believe in no 'Shalom' you hypocrite.

But Israel's actions have nothing to do with Seattle's huge Jewish community on Mercer Island. Please stop associating being Jewish with Israel. The two are completely separate. It doesn't help the local Jewish community for people to think of Israel as being Jewish.

Have any of you folks actually looked at the US veto history at the UN security council? Its almost funny

In December 2002, the US blocked a draft resolution criticising the killing by Israeli forces of several United Nations employees and the destruction of the World Food Programme warehouse in the West Bank.
In total, the US has blocked 36 draft resolutions on Israel.
Source: BBC Article:The veto and how to use it

Let me remind everyone here: The Israeli military, while conducting excercises in the Meditteranean, lobbed a few shells onto a beach in Gaza, killing several people. They denied it, in spite of the direct evidence to the contrary. Israel has still denied their terrorist actions, just as they have denied every bit of terror they have unleashed in their 50 year history. That is the act of escalation, not the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.

You see, to the Israelis, non-Jews aren't even real people. It's not considered murder or 'wrong' to kill them, especially Arabs. Nazism didn't die in 1945, it was reborn three years later in Israel. The names were changed, the attitude did a 180, but the essential doctrine is the same: We're right, we're always right, we're the only source of Good, the rest of the world can be a bloody ruin, but for one of us to die is a Tragedy of All Mankind.

The Stranger's support of Israel is so incredibly hypocritical, it's almost laughable. What was the original anti-gay, anti-female religion? Who were murdering adulterous women & gay men long before Jesus or Mohammed ever showed up? Do I really need to spell it out for you?

What Nathan and others said. Israel is not Judaism and vice versa, just like al Qaeda is not Islam. This is not to infer that Israel is a bunch of terrorists. This is to make a point that a country is not its religion and vice versa (unless it's an openly stated theocracy, which Israel has made a point to state it's not).

Salon has a great article on the current punishment on Lebanon by Israel. Reminds one of the 80's when Sharon rolled in and helped his christian falangne brothers massacre thousands and thousands of women and children in a refugee camp. But of course he was never tried. Lebanon does not want Hezbollah in their country and they have stated they dont have the capacity to kick them out. They are barely getting on their feet after years of horror caused in part by the first Israeli invasion. Lebanon wants help from the west. Israel responds by blowing up their bridges and airports and killing hundreds of civilians. But they say they are being careful in choosing targets. Really? Hezbollah does not control the airport, last time I checked.

Imagine, you Israel apologists if the Michigan Militia killed a few Canadian Mounties and then hauled ass back in here and then Canada would bomb the crap out of Seattle and blowing up the 520 bridge the 1 90 bridge and Sea Tac airport.

This will not lead to world war 3, Israel will eventually retreat, The whole world, except the US will condemn Israel and then they will do it again in 5 years and claim to be victims while they ask us to keep supporting their adventures in Empire. And oh yeah, they still get to spy on us and the Mossad gets forgiven for training all the fascist dictatorships in Latin America and South Africa. Hey but with all that said, yes they have a right to defend themselves, they dont have the right to kill thousands of women and children in retaliation.

Lebanon is also a democracy. One of only three in the region.

Israelis hardly act in lockstep with their government. Blaming all of Israel on the actions of their shitty government is like blaming all Americans for the actions of our president.

Unfortunately, many Israelis have bought into their right wing's fear mongering. The Israeli right wing has also engaged in massive election fraud in the past. Remind you of another country?

Sontag's right of course. There's even beauty left in the ruins of freedom in neo-Conned America. There's even beauty in Auschwitz today, unless you know any history.

All those ancient statues with the noses missing, there's beauty there; there's beauty in deceit and lies too, if you have eyes to see it; the beauty of guile, the beauty of putrefaction.

Not that beauty justifies the ravaging of the mind and the deadening of the soul. But from a safe distance ... like the distance between a pilot's finger and the laser's target ... like the distance between civil war screams and the quiet cannon resting in Arlington ... like the distance between the Truth and the justifying Lies ... there's beauty.

Israel has nothing to do with the Jews. Israel is a country. You can be Jewish and never go to Israel. It's not like Judaism is the official religion of Israel or something.

What an obscene observation. So are flayed corpses "beautiful"? Mutilated bodies? Blackened babies?
This is a product of a warped sensibility, one that sits on its fat ass in comfort somewhere, drinking chilled alcoholic beverages and moaning about style.
Someone who has never suffered. Fuck this false elitist shit.

Educated people have always been able to locate beauty in unforseen situations. I look forward to more photos of the war. War has been with us always, but we have so few great photographers than can deliver images of stunning beauty from a war zone.