in the middle east

Just last month we were able to take a day trip to Ramallah, one of the largest and economically prosperous cities in the West Bank. A friend I met at school lives there with her family. She took us downtown where we walked about and saw the sights. It was bustling with people, markets, cars. We had a great time there and people were super friendly.
It was especially disturbing then, to hear that two days ago the Israeli Defense Force launched a full-scale military raid to salvage an undercover mission to arrest what they say were "top level" officials. The original mission was conducted by IDF personnel in plain clothes. When they were found out a gun battle ensued, and reinforcements were called in: at least 12 military Hummers, armored personnel carriers, 2 gigantic military bulldozers and helicopter gunships blazed right into downtown. The bulldozers went ahead, literally scooping up cars and store fronts and tossing them aside to clear a path for the brigade. The helicopters were strafing fire along the path of the procession, and all of this in middle of downtown. 4 civilians were killed, more than a dozen wounded. And for me personally, what was perhaps the most disturbing, was to watch the CNN video footage (click here to see it) and see the very place where we stood, downtown Manara square, desolated and overrun by military vehicles. The fact that we were recently there, when the streets were full of people, brought the reality of the situation to bear in a personal way. I can't imagine what it would feel like to know that your neighborhood could be overrun by military vehicles wreaking havoc and literally destroying the downtown of your city.
Now, because I don't have all the facts, I should say that the real causes for the debacle are likely very complex. But this pattern of the Israeli military is very typical: responding with way more military power than is really necessary (recall the 1,000,000 people who had to flee from Beruit last Summer). Regardless of one's view of the conflict here, these kinds of situations are tragic, and unfortunately, all too familiar here. Note: the Israeli military today (1/7/06) that the Ramallah raid was a "mistake" (click here); a pretty costly mistake.