September 2024

EDITOR—Scott analyses the real meaning of Israel’s savage air attack on Lebanon, with Netanyahu promising more punishment through a ground invasion unless the Lebanese people abandon Hezbollah, which is simply impossible as Hezbollah is a legitimate party in Lebanon, represents the aspirations of most Arabs via a vis Israel, and is deeply integrated with Lebanese society. Furthermore, Israel lacks the capacity to push Hezbollah anywhere, above or below the Litani river, while Hezbollah has the ability to demolish any IDF ground invasion while striking deep into Israel.

GODFREE ROBERTS—During his years in Beijing the young man had forgotten Tibet’s political realities, where the nobles and abbots had murdered the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Dalai Lamas for reformist tendencies. Drepung Monastery, the seat of fierce resistance to the Chinese, owned one-hundred-eighty-five manors and twenty-five-thousand serfs, and employed sixteen-thousand herdsmen. Its lamas forced boys into monastic slavery, pilfered the country’s wealth, and sold serfs along with the land. American journalist Anna Louise Strong10 found handcuffs of all sizes at Drepung, including small ones for children, and instruments for cutting off noses and ears, gouging out eyes, breaking off hands, and hamstringing legs, hot brands, whips, and disembowelling implements.