International impotence. The speeches before the UN take place while bombs fall on Beirut, more destruction on the country that was once the Switzerland of the Middle East. Netanyahu has struck down the leaders of Hezbollah but this end could be the beginning of something more terrible –Iran lurks–. At the other end of the Mediterranean, in the waters of El Hierro, only the bodies of the travelers from the shipwrecked canoe are now being searched for. Meanwhile, international institutions are weakened by the rise of fanatical leaders and elected despots.
