Skipper

The Indie's practice of turning it's front page, tabloid style, into an editorial is not always effective. But today it pulls off something quite dramatic. Asking 'Who Backs Immediate Ceasefire?' it shows the massed flags of those in the UN who are on the lefthand side of the page while the righthand side contains the flags only of Israel, UK and USA. Meanwhile inside the implacable Robert Fisk tells us that 'This is not Dunkirk. This is Munich'. His argument, of course, is that Margaret Beckett's disingenuous refusal to urge restraint on Israel, is effectively to appease Ehud Olmert, a man whom we hoped- naive fools that we are- would be less prone to extravagant retaliation than his predecessor.

That Hezbollah provoked this episode is beyond dispute; their killing of 8 Israeli soldiers was possibly prompted by Syria and/or Iran but it was bound to provoke an Israeli onslaught. But the aerial bombardment which has followed has killed nearly 400 civilians and destroyed hundreds of homes as well as much of Lebanon's infrastructure. The terrorist organization has responded to the dispute it started by drawing on its substantial supplies of rockets but the disproportion of Israeli reaction is palpable for the world to see and the victims are mostly innocent bystanders- hence the massive call for the cease-fire. Bush,in thrall to the powerful US pro Zionist lobby- seems to be standing aside while Israel looks for the killer punch- something which will almost certainly never be found- while Blair performs his usual shameful contortions as the Organ grinder's monkey and Beckett does the same in relation to him.