Some Answers

Attempting to answer some of the tough moral questions the Lebanese are facing.


Just because the questions come from Israel and the US doesn’t mean that they are not legitimate. Some questions are very valid, but some are downright ridiculous. Still, I will try answering the important ones.

Q: This one is from Brett, New Jersey, In the US:
Is there anything Israel could do short of completely pulling out of the Middle East that would soothe tensions between it and Lebanon?

A: The reason we are skeptical of Israel here, is because many people are threatened by a chest-thumping power-mongering neighbor. People here very much believe that Hezbollah is the product of Israeli aggression and not vice versa.
Israel has never tried any long-term trust building measures, (like for instance the unilateral hand of peace India handed Pakistan a few years ago.) It always gave us reasons to be skeptical of its intentions (continuous air raids even in peace times). Israel believes that its security lies in military superiority. This advantage is now dead. So it urgently needs to find long-term solutions, by keeping its “anti-terror” operations gradual and long term, and adding a “soft power” component (think IRA)

Q. This question keeps showing up in the comments section of this blog:
Hezbollah started this. Doesn’t Israel have the right to defend itself?

A: Think Zidane.
The world cup hero fell from grace because he head-butted his Italian opponent. There is no doubt that the Italian player “started” this, but zidane’s reaction, like Israel’s, is simply outrageous and repelled even his most ardent of supporters.
Because of this, most Lebanese now believe that the Israeli plans to bomb our country, our Army, our infrastructure and our innocent children were just waiting for an excuse, like the kidnapping of two soldiers.

Q: Another common question:
What if this was the other way around. What if Hezbollah rockets killed Israeli babies?

A: I don’t get it, babies are babies and children are children. Israelis are human after all and we, and the international community, mourn the loss of all innocent human life equally. But you’re right, there’s a catch: Many Hezbollah supporters don’t see you as humans and propagate this message aggressively. If the random bombing continues, other Lebanese will start thinking the same way too.

Q: Israel doesn’t target civilians, Hezbollah does. Doesn’t that make Israel morally superior?

A: People here look at results. For every bit of shattered glass in Haifa, there’s a dead Lebanese civilian. Besides, a lot of Lebanese doubt that you are too blind to see clearly marked civilian targets, like ambulances and UN-posts. We honestly believe that you pretend these to be mistakes, while secretely intending to terrorize us into submission. One word: It won’t happen

Q: Lebanese believe that the Jews want to control the world and the media.

A: the 10% who believe this and swear by Aljazeera are not a threat. Unless your actions make their believes more mainstream.

Moment Of Silence

(Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)

The Curse of Qana..

Moral Clarity: Israel is the enemy

Whenever Israel loses militarily, it likes to take it on powerless babies. It couldn't defeat a bunch of guerrillas in a couple of small towns with its "mighty" army, so it decided to take the cowardly route.

They want to "teach us a lesson" by bombing a clear civilian target with women and handicapped babies in Qana. So far, 30 babies are dead in this all-too-familiar massacre, and some are stuck in the rubbles because Israelis refused to allow humanitarian assistance to reach Southern towns.

To Israelis: Before believing your IDF's bullshit about Hezbollah hiding in that building, try just for a minute to imagine yourself stuck under a ton of rubbles, alive, but not being able to move because the beasts next door refuse to allow cranes to come and remove the rubbles. I’m sure you’d rather die a much quicker death!

You lack all sense of human and moral decency. You teach your children to write love letters on bombs and missiles that are eventually sent to kill other children. You are and you'll always be my enemy.

A word to Condoleezza Rice: I would rather die before I see the day we shake hands with those monsters.

A New Security Concern

Can this man: (Lebanese Interior Minister)


Take on this man? (International Terrorist)


Let's hope so, because this can seriously mess things up.

A Public Divorce

There are signs that the Lebanese Government and Hezbollah are beginning to disengage.


When Aljazeera’s website covered the Rome conference yesterday, it ignored the presence of the Lebanese Prime Minister and headlined: “The Rome Conference began without the representation of either Hezbollah or Israel”. In other words, Hezbollah and the Lebanese Government are becoming publicly independent bodies.

The Prime Minister asked in Rome for the world to help Lebanon take control of its borders (code language for disarming Hezbollah); that public position was unheard of before this war began. A coy Mohammad Raad (a Hezbollah MP) retorted on TV this morning that Mr. Seniora was speaking his “personal opinion”. It is unclear what will become of the “bargaining chip” (the two Israeli soldiers) that Hezbollah had supposedly handed the Government.

Hezbollah’s supporters are waging an aggressive campaign to discredit other Lebanese as Zionist and American stooges.

Why? Because while the Lebanese are not “rising against Hezbollah,” they are clearly engaged in a conspiracy of silence. Politicians are denouncing Israeli aggression against innocent civilians, against the Army, and against our infrastructure. But no mainstream politician or writer has so far publicly denounced the bombing of Hezbollah’s weaponry.

There is even talk of Nassrallah feeling stabbed in the back. Some are saying, sarcastically, that the Sunnis are as angry with Israel over the bombing of Hezbollah, as the Shiaas were angry at Syria over Hariri’s killing.

It is unclear how events will unfold in the coming days, but the divorce between Hezbollah and the rest of the Lebanese means that depending on the outcome of this war, Hezbollah will either become much stronger and bully the Lebanese government, or much weaker as an unarmed political party.

Gathering in Washington DC

I was asked to relay this message:

A Gathering For Unity & Support

You are Cordially invited to attend an open house to show unity and solidarity and to support the humanitarian relief efforts for Lebanon in this national crisis.

Date & Time:Monday July 31,2006 from 5:00 until 8:00 p.m.
Place Residence of the Embassy of Lebanon 2841 McGill Terrace N.W. Washington, DC 20008

This is the event's official website

Condolences

Found on the streets of Tripoli (North Lebanon):


For non Arabic Speakers: This paper has the format of a typical funeral announcement. It mourns the loss of "The Conscience of Arab Leaders". A funeral announcement usually includes the names of the deceased's family members. In this case, the father is George W. Bush. The brothers of course are Sharon, Barak, Netanyehu and Olmert...

Litani Dreams

Lebanon’s water is to Israel what Iraqi oil is to America


The Mask has fallen. Israel has decided to occupy an area of Lebanon “as a security zone”. I had a fishy pre-sentiment about that. I knew it since the day the Israelis asked the southerners to evacuate their towns to the north of the Litani River.

Ahh, the Litani River...

For those of you who don’t know, a big part of Lebanon’s war with Israel has always been over water. They seem to believe that we have more than we need.

Whenever the Lebanese confronted Hezbollah about their no-longer-necessary weapons, Hezbollah answered that their weapons are an important deterrent from Israel’s aggressive expansionism. They always warned us that the Litany River is the northern border the Zionists have always dreamed of.

We always scoffed at what we thought were Hezbollah’s “conspiracy theories”. But something about the way Olmert says “litani” makes me wonder if Nassrallah was right.

Perhaps before we know it, the Jews will start building colonies in a “holy land” in our south. Before we know it, they’ll start making wine from our grapes. Before we know it, they will establish “fact on the grounds”. Before we realize it, the “Greater Israel” will take a chunk of our Lebanon.

Over our dead bodies.

Sunday Read..

To understand the complexity of the Lebanese social fabric, read Jad Mouawwad's excellent piece in the New York Times on the Lebanese youth.

It provides a great insight into the minds of the Lebanese. It is also a good read for the Lebanese who can't understand why a 23 year old woman with a masters degree supports Hezbollah.

Aito Tower Targeted

The Israelis have just bombed a very picturesque place.


I usually spend summer in Ehden, where the above picture is taken. The picture also shows the latest target of Israeli bombing: The Aito tower. We thought Ehden was safe and we were thinking of moving there.

Now we're thinking again

Up North

The Israeli actions now have a real impact on Northern Lebanon.

I'm writing this article from an internet cafe. I don't have a spell checker here, so excuse myEnglish. I'm writing from here because my satelite internet connection is no longer working. My connection suddenly died after I heard a very loud noise outside.

In my sitting room, LBC (a popular Lebanese TV station) was turned on. The KABOOM shut it off. I switched the dial. Aljazeera is still on. The Israelis have bombed strategic locations with large broadcasting Antennas for various local TV stations. They also bombed mobile phone stations. I no longer have reception. Neither does anyone else in Tripoli.

The Landlines are still working. My fiance called. Is launch still on? she asks. Yes, we'll just go instead to a nearby restaurant. She calls again. "My friends are not comming anymore. They're afraid". We had arranged for this get-together a week ago. She wanted to introduce me to her friends. Now they can't come. They're scared to leave home. The streets in Tripoli are empty.

Still, we went to the restaurant tete-a-tete. we sat inside, away from the large glass walls. We were afraid they might break and splinter in the event another bombing happened. It wasn't difficult to chose a seat. We were the only people in the restaurant.

Things are very sketchy around here. Uncertainty is ripe. The only words of encouragement came from the smiley waiter:

"Don't worry," he said, "we, the Lebanese, we're like that. We get scared for a few hours, then we adapt. The restaurant will be full again in no time"

I hope he's right.

Crazy Elias

The Lebanese Defense Minister has invented a new concept: the suicide army...

There's a general consensus here that the Minister of Defense's statement that the Lebanese Army will fight alongside Hezbollah in the case of a ground invation, is at best a mistake and at worst an insanity.

Dispatching the Lebanese army to fight will transform this war into a conventional war where Israelis have an upper (way upper) hand. It will convert our armed forces (who will eventually hold the peace) into sitting ducks. It will also give an excuse for the Israelis to bomb all of Lebanon, since this would become a country-vs-country war.

Your Excellency, please keep your opinions to yourself!

Israeli E-leaflets

The latest in Israeli snitch-hunting techniques..


First they dropped the leaflets. Now they're dropping the E-flets.

A website has been making the rounds in Lebanese bloggers' comments section. The URL and the content at first seem lebanese, with the red, green and white Lebanese flag taking center stage accompanied by bombastic patriotic statements.

Even their message, which is available in Arabic, French and English, at first seems like an authentic "let's rise against Hezbullah" message. But then it gets tricky when you find a +881 Satellite number hotline instead of a Lebanese number. And of course, a "guarantee of anonimity" and a "cash reward" to seal the deal.

Of course, the whois lookup that I later did on the site was redundant. I was not surprised that the name server was: NS.BARAK.NET.IL

Donations (Updated)

More donation info and updates.

I have updated my donation board to include two excellent relief websites, this one and this one. I also Added the Account of the Lebanese Ministry For Disaster Relief.

If you have the button(below), you don't need to do anything, it is already linked to the updated info. If not, you can get it by pasting the code on the sidebar of your website/blog.


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Democracy For Peace

Do all roads lead to Damascus?

In an interview with Haaretz, Uri Sagi, an Ex Israeli Army chief, makes the case for including Syria in solving Lebanon’s situation:

If you talk to [Syria] and convince the Americans to provide them with economic aid and perhaps to gently back off on Assad regarding the Hariri assassination, Syria, with all its weakness, can be a stabilizing force in the region."

The New York Times agrees:

Western powers and responsible Arab leaders […] should begin a major diplomatic push in the region. Everyone’s first stop needs to be Damascus, to tell President Bashar al-Assad of Syria that he will be persona nongrata if he keeps meddling in Lebanon.

Thomas Friedman is even clearer:

The big strategic chess move is to try to split Syria off from Iran, and bring Damascus back into the Sunni Arab fold. That is the game-changer. What would be the Syrian price? I don’t know, but I sure think it would be worth finding out.

Syria is getting a lot of attention, next comes the cajoling and the schmoozing, and before we know it, Walid Almuallem, Syria's Foreign Minister, will be in the White House.

Are we, the democratic forces in Lebanon, being sold out? Is stability once again paramount to American policy makers? Only Condi Rice can answer this question, when she comes to the region to solve, as George Bush puts it, this shit.

This question is for Uri Sagi and the rest of the Israelis:
Why the hell do you still regard Syria as a “stabilizing force” in the region? Last time I checked, they were funding and supporting what you label “terrorist organizations” while smothering a democratic government. Do you have some kind of Schizophrenia?

The Rendezvous That Wasn’t

This war has taken a serious toll on young Lebanese couples.


My cousin fled the country with her parents. She was engaged to a Beiruti who refused to leave his parents under the shelling. Now they’re living in separate countries. Their engagement was just 2 weeks ago. My friend works in Paris. Her fiancé is stuck in Lebanon; they had plans to get married this summer, now they're postponed until further notice. My brother's wife came to Lebanon to visit her parents. Now she's stuck and she can't go back to Africa where they live.

This war is taking a particularly strong toll on Lebanese couples. My cousin, my friend and my brother are just a few cases. In Lebanon, unless you’re married to someone, you flee wherever your parents flee, to the mountains, to neighboring countries or to faraway lands.

It is the very fabric of our society that accentuates this forced separation. A lot of people who come from different parts of Lebanon, meet in cosmopolitan Beirut and fall in love, only to be “recalled” by their parents in times of war. Most of them either have foreign passports or live in the other end of the country.

Also, summer in Lebanon is marriage season. Most Lebanese work outside of Lebanon, and most prospective couples look forward to summer to tie the knot. To marry in Lebanon in summer, you had to book a place months in advance. Wedding halls are usually booked every single day between July and September. Needless to say. Not anymore. 5 weddings to which I was invited were cancelled.

When my friend heard that I got engaged while Lebanon was being bombed, she thought our story would make a good Hollywood movie. Perhaps, but I’d rather have real fireworks, not ones dropped by Israeli Jet planes.

Two fellow bloggers (whose names I wont mention but who can come out if they want :) ) had romantic designs for this summer. That too will sadly have to wait. To them and to other Lebanese couples separated by this war, I offer them these words from Gebran Kahlil Gebran, another great Lebanese who tasted bitter separation from Lebanon and from his loved one:
“And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

Wear Your Support

I received an email from someone who was asking where I got my Lebanon T-shirt from (The one you see me wearing in the profile picture up to the right). Unfortunately, that T-shirt doesn't exist, I Just photoshoped the Lebanese flag on my real T-shirt. But for those of you who still want to support Lebanon with a T-shirt, I have designed three that you can find here.

This is how they look like:



This is the Artwork:


PS: I am not making money out of this. I set my profit to $0.00 per shirt (so it will be cheaper for you). But this doesn't mean i'm a saint, my website's URL (beirutspring.com) is printed on them.

Voices Of America

Two opinions, one from my inbox and the other from the comments section about what the American man-on-the-street thinks of the situation in Lebanon:

First, from Paula Meyer, "a 50-year-old female, mother of two, grandmother of 3", who also has a few questions for the Lebanese:

I want you to know that I strongly believe the majority of Americans feel the way I do regarding this situation in the Middle East:

1) I firmly believe that a country, all countries, have an inherent right, nay...RESPONSIBILITY TO THEIR CITIZENS...to defend their country. I can tell you that if Canada started launching missiles into the US, we would certainly retaliate.

2) I have GREAT empathy for the Lebanese people. I know that the majority of Lebanese people would like to live in freedom and peace and that they have been striving for that for years.

3) I cannot, however, see the Lebanese as totally blameless here. Lebanon has had six years to implement the UN resolution to disarm Hezbollah. Not only does it appear that they made no progress on that front, but further legitimized Hezbollah by voting them into several seats in Parliament. If I were Lebanese, I would be furious with my government, and my fellow Lebanese, for allowing the atmosphere that would surely lead to the current outcome. And maybe even myself. I'm sure you've heard of the "American Revolutionary War". Trust me when I tell you that the residents of this country were not all in agreement when that conflict started. It took the "minority" to convince the rest of the country that sometimes it is worthing dying for what you believe in. History shows that we won. And I see it every day when I go to dinner and movies with my Muslim, Jewish and Christian friends. And none of us has a desire to kill each other over the practice of our religions or some "past transgression" by "our" people or "their" people.

4) Having stated item #3, I also feel the international community, and perhaps the Arab countries more particularly, have failed Lebanon because they knew what was going on there and did nothing to assist the Lebanese government and its' people in ridding themselves of these extremists. If aid to Lebanon had been more forthcoming, perhaps the Lebanese government could have provided better core services to its' people and they wouldn't have had to depend upon "good neighbor" Hezbollah to provide them. I'm sure this is a good part of why they have any support at all.

5) Having said all that, as a constituent of Senators and Congressional representatives and even the President, what is it you would have "America" do NOW to assist in bringing peace back to the area? What is it you would have us say to our government to assist the Lebanese people, not just now, but to promote an ongoing strong, peaceful, prosperous Lebanon?

I'm just curious.

Second, from Papa Ray, in west Texas, who thinks we're on our own:

I have a lot of friends and relatives that don't blog, don't read much of the newspaper except the funnies and the sports pages. Likewise they watch very little network or cable tv except for the movie channels.

I have spoken to most of them over the last week and asked them what they thought about the Lebanese and the Isralies and Hezbollah.

Most of them didn't know what I was talking about, except that "everybody hates the Jews". Those that had heard about it or saw something on the news about it, all said something to the effect "the U.S. should just stay out of it completely, including any diplomatic actions."

In other words, in my informal poll of a bunch of middle class Texans, you guys are on your own.

Which I know, means really nothing, except that I would be willing to bet that over fifty percent of America feels the same way.

Now, turn it around, lets say that America was attacking Mexico because they were killing our citizens and law enforcement people (which they have) would you give a rats ass if Mexico was getting blown all to hell?

I doubt it, except for those of you who hate America in the first place.

Empty Streets..

Fellow blogger Moussa took some photographs and lamented Beirut's missing soul:

"I miss the crowds...I miss the noise pollution, the traffic jams, the crazy Lebanese way of driving and the insults of the cab drivers. These were characteristics of the Beirut we grew used to"

Walid Jumblatt Nugget

Just quoted from TV show "Kalam el Nass:"

"The day the Lebanese lose hope in the future is the day Bashar El Assad and Ahmadinajad win"

On Hezbollah's Supporters..

We don't want your food! said the refugees...


A story making the rounds here in Tripoli is that when the Future Movement activists brought food and aid to southern refugees, they were booed and heckled, and M.P. Hariri was called an American and Israeli stooge.

This of course is shock material to predominantly Sunni Tripoli. “Oh my, those people actually like Hezbollah,” Tripolitans seemed to wonder.

The mostly Shiaa refugees were upset because of the comments Hariri made when he was in Saudi Arabia. A clearly deranged Hariri had echoed the Saudi king by placing the blame on Hezbollah’s “uncalculated adventure”, and asking for accountability.

The point of this post is not that Tripoli Sunnis are from Mars and Nabatieh Shiaas are from Venus. The point is to question the conventional wisdom that Hezbollah has many sympathizers because of its clinics and the social services it provides to poor people.

We have to wake up to the fact that public support for Hezbollah is ideological and well entrenched. As anyone who’s met a Hezbollah supporter outside of Lebanon knows, there are many rich southern Lebanese who send remittances to “the resistance”. Some even say that half of Hezbollah’s money comes from Diaspora.

That is food for thought, and it shouldn’t be refused.

Bombing Myopia

Can you tell the difference between this:

And this:?

Good, because the Israelis apparently can't.

They have described two water drillers parked safely in Ashrafieh (you'll have to take my word for this, i saw them on LBCI burning, and they're clearly water drillers) as "trucks laden with weapons". So they had to bomb them.

Tells you a lot about how careful their bombing is, and tells the Israeli people about where their taxpayer money bombs are going.

Hauled To Death..

If you own a truck, make sure it doesn't move, or we'll bomb it. Say the Israelis.



Israelis are reportedly distributing leaflets that warn Lebanese trucks from moving around because they would be considered military targets (if you get hold of one of these leaflets, please email it to me). The Israelis seem to want to make sure that Hezbollah doesn't smuggle its large missiles away from their initial locations.

This explains why a truck was just bombed on the outskirts of Ashrafieh (apparently to send the message that the warning applies everywhere). It also explains why a concrete-mixing truck was bombed a few days ago, and why a truck carrying Ambulances from the UAE was targeted.

Imagine a country where trucks are not allowed to move. Rising risk will send transportation costs to stratospheric levels and goods will become forbiddingly expensive in remote areas. Not to mention aid and medicine transportation

What Would You Have Said?

Here's an intellectual conundrum for the Lebanese: how should we deal with a “window of opportunity?”

I just had an interview with Dave Ross in his Seattle show. After asking me a few questions about the situation in Lebanon, he caught me off guard by asking my opinion about a proposal that was made by Haaretz (if you find the article please point it out to me).

The Israeli Newspaper had listened to people who argued: “We are all against Hezbollah, but we will never confront them while we’re under Israeli attack” and took them up on it.

It suggested that Israel offers a 3-day unilateral ceasfire, for the Lebanese to get a chance to rise peacefully against Hezbollah.

So I told Dave: But things are more complicated than that.

And then he said (I’m paraphrasing): Are you accepting then, that the only way to disarm Hezbollah is by doing what Israel is doing right now?

I said, unconvincingly: there must be other ways...

Can you think of one?

Applause..

Armand Homsi from Annahar gets it right:


(Cheering Arabs, from a safe distance, give an embattled Lebanon a certificate entitled "Champion of Arabism")

How You Can Help

Here are a few ways how you can contribute to help the Lebanese refugees and displaced :


Bloggers and website owners, you can make a difference by adding the button below to your blog/website (you can do so by copy/pasting the code in the box to your website's source). The button will link straight to this post, so that anytime new donation channels are added, the post will be updated.


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