The hell of war has been captured like never before in the past few weeks thanks to the the tourists, armchair videographers and video-bloggers who have simply turned cameras to the skies as the bombs rained down in Israel and Lebanon. These rough reports from everyday people makes the war real in a way that TV news, with its swirling graphics, special war music and airbrushed anchors, usually can't.
Below are some of the best posts we've seen out of both Lebanon and Israel. There are no perfectly framed shots and the images aren't always clear, but they convey the visceral sense of being under siege - a scream of "holy fuck!"; ominous impacts of bombs breaking across a gloomily static landscape. We're not saying we agree with any of the opinions expressed In these clips, but we find their existence important, and their footage compelling, and think you will, too.
We'll continue to post these in the coming days, and ask you to alert us to any that you think we should check out.
This recording, from a city in Northern Israel, captures the alert of an air raid signal, and the impact of nearby bombs. The videographer is listed only as a 16-year-old Israeli.
On July 19, 24-year-old Bassem Mazloum began posting some startling posts from his terrace in the Bekaa Valley. His blog alerts readers to his most recent videos, and offers ongoing coverage of what he sees. (Sadly, he hasn't posted as much video lately.) Mazloum's coverage has the authentic voice of a global 20-something; as the Israelis planned to invade Lebanon by land, Mazloum wrote: "On a sidenote. Playlist just loaded: Nada Surf - Always Love (from the "One Tree Hill" Soundtrack, don't ask). haha...pretty good song to listen to while watching people prepare for an invasion. "always love...hate will get you everytime...always love even when you wanna fight." These lyrics are so ironic right now..."
Here, Mazloum offers his most biting commentary, directed as much at Americans as anyone else: "This is your liberation of Lebanon."
Later that day, Mazloum posts this, what he describes as an "attack on a glass factory and an empty gas station (cleared prior) in the town of Al-Marj near Taalabaya."
On Saturday, we get this from our 16-year-old Israeli, who simply pans a lonely landscape, and counts the sound of the bombs exploding nearby.
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