International efforts in Lebanon. Photos.

[partylessinOhio]

The media seems to have forgotten to report what has happened to Lebanon and it's people after the bombing they endured and the oil that was released as a result. I did a search and found these photos about the International efforts to help the Lebanese. The first bridge has been rebuilt and was opened today.

Food is carried away as France's Transport Minister Dominique Perben, center, and Lebanon's Public Works and Transportation Minister Mohammed al-Safadi, right, hold drinks after they both took part in a ceremony to open the first bridge in Lebanon to be built by soldiers from France's Foreign Legion on a highway near the town of Damour just over 15km (9 miles) south of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006. Some 245 French bridge building soldiers are in Lebanon to help with construction work, after the recent 34-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, as part of a bilateral agreement between France and Lebanon and will not be operating as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL, to which France has pledged to commit 2,000 separate troops.



The first car to be driven over the first bridge in Lebanon to be built by soldiers from France's Foreign Legion passes over the bridge on a highway near the town of Damour just over 15Km south of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006.



A Lebanese woman throws rice as she celebrates the deployment of Lebanese troops, sitting atop their personnel armored vehicles, to the southern village of Teir Harfa, Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006. On Friday, hundreds of Lebanese troops moved into a corner of southwest Lebanon, the latest area from which Israeli forces withdrew.



Italian sailors board a UN helicopter in Beirut. Israel has lifted its crippling eight-week embargo on Lebanon after foreign envoys stepped up efforts to shore up a UN-brokered ceasefire and revive stalled Middle East peace talks.



U.N. peacekeepers from Ghana man a checkpoint as Lebanese troops, in their military vehicles, arrive to the southern village of Bayada, Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006. On Friday, hundreds of Lebanese troops moved into a corner of southwest Lebanon, the latest area from which Israeli forces withdrew.



French United Nations peacekeeper Warrant Officer David Leveque, left, of the Dog Handler Squad unit trains Set, a Malinois shepherd dog, to bite Staff Sgt. Sebastien Moity, right, during a training session in Naqura, headquarters of United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon, or UNIFIL, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006. The dogs are trained to attack but have been used during the recent 34-day long Hezbollah-Israel war to search for people in the rubble of Tyre.



Qatar's Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah (R) walks with Lebanese Energy Minister Mohammed Fneish (C) during a tour in southern Beirut suburbs September 8, 2006.



An Air France Boeing 777 plane taxis on the runway after landing at Rafik Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006. Air France resumed flights to Lebanon on Friday with a Boeing 777 flying to Beirut after it canceled its service in mid-July after Israeli aircraft bombed Beirut International Airport.



A Lebanese woman salvages her belongings from an apartment, destroyed during the recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah, in a southern Beirut suburb September 8, 2006.





A Lebanese ship arrives from Italy in Beirut port September 8, 2006. A U.N. naval force assumed control of Lebanon's coast on Friday, lifting an eight-week Israeli blockade, a Lebanese government source said.



Volunteers remove formerly white absorbent booms used to soak up oil during a training course on how to clean up oil spills, on Ramlet al-Baida beach in Beirut, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006. French Marines who are experts in dealing with oil spills, on Friday gave a training course to volunteers and people from Green Line and Greenpeace and from Lebanon's civil defence department.







Lebanese firemen try to extinguish blazing relief supplies in a U.N. warehouse at Beirut's seaport, Lebanon, Thursday Sept. 7, 2006. Firemen struggled to put out the blaze and prevent it from reaching one of the docks where relief aid shipments sent to help Lebanese after a 34-day fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas were stored. But a warehouse run by the U.N. refugee agency caught fire, and a large number of blankets, tents and mattresses inside were burned, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid Van Stort said.



Italian soldiers and engineers of the peacekeeper UNIFIL in southern Lebanon conduct their first patrol to check for unexploded devices, chemicals, and biologicals weapons near their new base outside the village of Maraka, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006.

[tocqueville]

1. thank you for posting this

I didn't dare to do it, afraid to be sent to the Israel/Palestine dungeon...

[partylessinOhio]

2. Well, this is news and it is not being reported. You're welcome!

[lumpy]

8. Indeed, thanks so much.

Thanks heavens for the UN.

[AlamoDemoc]

3. This current international force in Lebanon is protecting Isreal....

and not for peace. The buffer-zone is inside the Lebanese territory and not on Israeli territory. Once again Israel fooled the international community and created a buffer-zone between Lebanon and Israel....protection and defense provided by the United Nations.

[tocqueville]

4. this is not going to be a permanent mission

but even if there is some truth in your post, Lebanon was in need of help. This time the UN will provide help because they have the means of doing it. In a way it reminds of the Bosnia mission, when it could really be enforced. Lebanon wins more right now than Israel, I see the people's reaction on TV here, the UN is really welcomed with flowers, because they feel protected from Israel.

If the mission is a success, Palestinians could be smart enough (including Hamas) to demand that Gaza and the whole left bank would be turned into UN hands, under premises that all Israeli leave the occupied territories. So the UN would be a nation builder. This would be a nightmare for the Israeli, who will probably never accept.

[AlamoDemoc]

5. your thinking on the matter is rather joke, therefore I have nothing

to add.

[tocqueville]

7. a joke ? "then I'am not the only one... "

Let us not conceal the truth: Olmert's weakness has a positive side as well. Among the military forces taking up positions in South Lebanon are some from countries that just yesterday, when the whole world was against us, were considered hostile to Israel. There are troops from Muslim countries, not all of which have relations with Israel. Who would have thought that an Israeli government would agree to have them protect us in the North? That is what happens when our great friend and ally, the United States of America, is getting burned in Iraq, and is already burned in the region as a whole.

The primary importance of the upgraded and expanded United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) lies not in what happens, but in what could happen. If the force functions satisfactorily it will not stop on our northern border, and it will be deployed on the border between us and the Palestinian state. There is a good chance that sooner or later, it will take up positions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank - and its good chance is also our only chance. Thus the program envisioned by Shlomo Ben-Ami and myself for an international mandate in the occupied territories for an interim period will at last be realized. The international force will replace the Israel Defense Forces and its "Civil Administration," and reaffirm the crumbling and recalcitrant Palestinian Authority in preparation for full independence. In the current situation, there is no substitute for our program.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/760586.html

[mom cat]

6. K&R and thanks for the news.

[partylessinOhio]

9. What have we done for Lebanon? The French are surely in the lead.

September 10, 2006
200 French Engineers Arrive as Beirut Port Starts Receiving Ships
By REUTERS

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 9 (Reuters) - More than 200 French military engineers arrived in Beirut’s port on Saturday, the advance group of a battalion that is to bolster a United Nations force set up to keep the peace between Israel and Hezbollah.

Their arrival brought the total United Nations force to around 3,350, said Alexander Ivanko, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force in Lebanon. Between 200 and 300 French logistics specialists and engineers disembarked with six armored carriers and 100 trucks.

The United Nations force could reach 5,000 once the rest of the 700-member French battalion arrives next week and an expected Spanish contingent of around 900 troops reaches Lebanon, Mr. Ivanko added. ...The French contingent arrived a day after Israel’s two-month naval embargo, and two days after the air embargo.

The director of Beirut’s port, Hassan Kraytem, said four ships had arrived since the blockade was lifted: two container ships and others with shipments of wheat and cars. "Today the situation was very good, work is back to normal," Mr. Kraytem said in an interview. "Tomorrow we’re expecting three container vessels plus another wheat ship plus another one with livestock." ...

Lebanese officials have estimated that the five weeks of Israeli airstrikes caused $3.6 billion in damage to infrastructure. Beirut has won pledges of billions of dollars in aid, mainly from oil-rich Arab states. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora met Saturday the finance ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to discuss spending the aid and to prepare for an Arab aid conference.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/world/middleeast/10lebanon.html?ex=1158552000&en=bc9cd7ed6f99112e&ei=5053&partner=NYTHEADLINES_INTL