The human psyche never seizes to amaze me. After 6 days of following every update religiously, somehow all the news of shelling and counter-shelling, of the number of dead and wounded becomes a detail, a painful detail, but a detail. We cope with pain by skipping on the details and creating notions larger than the details which drive us towards achieving our goals.
Today I went to the rally in front of the White House to call for an end to war on Lebanon. However, it did not end to be a rally just for Lebanon; a lot of demonstrators were also calling for end of attacks on Gaza in the Palestinian territories.
Despite that the common denominator between Gaza and Lebanon for now is Israeli attacks, I believe that Lebanon is a different situation. Lumping the Lebanese dilemma right now within an Arabist context is not correct. But whom am I to decide what is correct?
A Lebanese woman was holding a banner that read, "Nasrallah shut up and listen to Seniora!" Many people passing by her gave her weird looks, until one person had the audacity to snatch the banner from her and rip it up! It's saddening, but it did happen.
I chatted with Lebanese friends on the side of the protest. We were talking about how many of those who support the disarmament of Hizbullah have been put in a difficult situation. If Hizbullah is criticized, then automatically it's assumed that you're supportive of Israeli aggression, which is not true. The death toll in 7 days has reached close to 250, most of whom are civilians. Who can excuse such a painful reality?
However, there is this question on our minds, the big elephant in the middle of the room: How were the Lebanese amongst themselves going to disarm Hizbullah. If we bring the subject now, we'll definitely appear as "traitors". Even if we endorse the government's position of calling for a ceasefire and for the reassertion of the state's sovereignty by sending the Army to the southern borders, we'll still be branded as weak.
More than anything, I'm just thinking about the next step. When the gunshots die, will the national dialogue table resume? I mean is there trust anymore amongst the political leaders of the country? What will happen?...It's our own (the Lebanese) question to answer.
"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."
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There is a meeting in support of the Lebanese in Paris on Wednesday 19 July at Métro Invalides.
RASSEMBLEMENT MERCREDI 19 JUILLET A 18H30 DEVANT LE MINISTERE FRANCAIS DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES Métro Invalides
Thanks.
Exactly who are the traitors, Doha? It's Nasrallah and his gang who are the business end of a foreign power. And this is what they may have in store for Lebanon if they keep receiving the support of the population and the government.
We have so many questions to answer, so so so many questions, most of which are elephants in the middle of the room that we have chosen to ignore from the very foundation of the Lebanese state. Unfortunately, every question we ignore comes back to bite us in the ass and causes a disaster. Yet we choose to ignore them...
same thing happened here in new york doha. i'll write about it tomorrow. i'm too depressed to do so now.
I can understand the Lebanese reaction to want to separate themselves from what's going on in Palestine and with other Arabs and Muslims around the world.
Sadly, your enemies do not make the distinction. They are fighting you all together as if you were one group: diplomatically, militarily, intellectually, blogophonically. What will you do?
It seems that surely, alomst imperceptibly, the world is splitting into two. Everyone is a part of it and it seems God is taking down the fence.
doha,
be strong.
have you heard from raja? is he fine?
Some important facts are being omitted here:
Hizballah has to give up its weapons asap. This was the main issue of the national dialogue, and it is now the centrepiece of Israeli demands for a cease-fire.
Hizballah attacked Israel repeatedly, so they fought back. I am well aware of the history of the two countries and Israels occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000, the shellings, the minefields, the prisoners having been disappeared. Nevertheless, Israel is fully right in defending itself against attacks. And speaking from a p.o.v. of international law, it is in the right in having started the current offensive.
The proportionality of its means is a different matter, however, and Israel has to be heavily criticised and pressured to stop destroying Lebanese infrastructure on this scale, and also later be compelled to help rebuild what it has wreaked.
But no one should forget that this conflict is an international conflict through the entanglement of Hizballah with Syria and Iran, and also with Hamas, and not to mention the ever-international character of Israel through its support in the West, above all in the US. The world will therefore also judge the events in the light of this international background, and here Hizballah and to a certain degree with that Lebanon is responsible for the outbreak of the CURRENT crisis...or war.
I know of the difficult internal situation in Lebanon, about the sectarian conflicts seeming impossible to solve as the National Dialogue (as the tip of the iceberg) has shown in recent months, but nevertheless there will be no long-term solution for either Lebanon or Israel without adressing these fundamental problems.
Israel is incredibly naive in thinking that it might push Hizballah out of Lebanon, or at least weaken it enough to render it impotent through its current offensive. A true solution can only spring from Lebanon itself.
Maybe this is too naive, maybe no Lebanese society truely exists which can face a foe in its midst, maybe this is but a prelude to another civil war. But last year, after Hariri was assassinated, a lot of Lebanese got together as Lebanese, regardless of their religion or community, and they managed to kick one occupier out after 30 years. Maybe this spirit will finally be reawakened to first face Hizballah, then the Israelis...
And maybe I am just way to naive in wishing this, but I still would like to think that this is possible.
Hezbollah should make a vow never to attack Israel again. That way those evil zionist b*st*rds would be forced to live in peace next to Lebanon. Man I bet they'd hate that! Shut it down Nasrallah! Teach the jews a lesson in peace!
"I am well aware of the history of the two countries and Israels occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000, the shellings, the minefields, the prisoners having been disappeared."
kachumbali, and how do you get over that let alone the current disaster?
Hezbollah should make a vow never to attack Israel again. That way those evil zionist b*st*rds would be forced to live in peace next to Lebanon. Man I bet they'd hate that! Shut it down Nasrallah! Teach the jews a lesson in peace!
what about Israel's great relations with Jordan and Egypt? Those "evil zionists" live at peace with them, why not Lebanon?
stateroom
does that count Israeli Druze as arabs?
i looked, it does.
i figured.
oh and thanks for the URL...I've never seen that site before, but i like it
stateroom -- oh, what a relief!!! they're only SHIA... not real americans but TERRORISTS who used underhanded terrorist methods to obtain citizenship. which, undoubtedly, they only wanted to start up their US-based terror cells of course!
no need for americans to lose any sleep over those 25,000+ of their countrymen in lebanon after all!
ps. just fyi -- bad news: the majority of lebanese-americans are christians.
does that mean you have to emphathize with them again??
and in any case: the 25,000+ to be evacuated include many american holidaymakers, students, and businesspeople trapped in this war.
it doesn't matter if they're christians or muslims: the issue is their support for hizb.
although i'm not sure how accurate the article is in the first place.
Is it true though that the IDF has agreed to help (not sure what that means) with the american evacuation? I think I read something like that today...trying to find it agian...
if its true, Kol haKavod L'Tzahal!
if it's not, hopefully will be soon....
although you'd think with so much time in Lebanon they'd have something like that to show for it...I think i believe it, but ill check
fgaled
in Lebanon's defense, their government has lacked the strngth to do much of anyhting about hizb'allah
Unlike King Abdullah of Jordan (may he rest in peace) who declared war on the PLO and thus saved his country from this exact problem
what about Israel's great relations with Jordan and Egypt? Those "evil zionists" live at peace with them, why not Lebanon?
That was my point :) I was just putting it in the language terrorists understand.
Written by a 15 yr old(TAKE UR TIME TO READ THIS)
Everytime anyone from the Islamic World raises a voice against the west or israel, why is it that, that person becomes our National Hero or an Islamic leader? Soon if we dont have a voice in this war, these opposing parties will grow, with no one to tell them to side by these are wrong.
Whats going to happen now is...Since Nasrallah has apparently become the face of ISlam(like how Bin Laden was at one time) and to support Islam and the Gulf COuntries, Iran will plunge in to help Lebanon. This may not benefit us because the US will soon side Israel(not htt they dont, but they will literally in war)and even though the Gulf with all its money splendour and power will be scared to match up to the US( the supposed world power). Thus leaving us no option instead to turn our heads down in shame...if this can be stopped now, there wud be nothing better than it.
Doha,
I thought you would be interested in the following links. Pics of demonstrations
in Berlin and DC.
Doha,
be strong!
what your country is going through is very hard, and true, the more it goes the more there is innocent citizens whom are being heart and killed, this is devastating
and this should stop, but how can it stop when there are inside of Lebanon terrorists, who in a cynical way are using civilians and hides in their houses- risking them while bombarding Israel?
Dan Rather, and American journalist, said yesterday, that he sees no solution to this aggression by the terrorists, they only change names and faces, once it was PLO, now it is hamas, Hezbollah, El-Kaida, etc
no matter how much Israel will hit them, once she will withdrawn back to her international border, the terrorists will gather forces again and will hit back, and there this never ending story will continue, while Lebanon in the middle, hopeless, with answer to it all.
maybe, just maybe we will all pay in the end the price of aggression, we all know, that if things go very wrong and very bed, Nuclear weapon would be the un wanted answer, but obligatory
I mean Iran is making it, not just for It's leaders ego, and we all know how cruel and full of hate Iran is not only towards Israel but towords the western world.
so, the clock is ticking against the civilized world
and there is doubt, that if things will turn to a catastrophe -the history of men kind, should we stay upon this planet, the history of men kind will show, who started the horror
I have just posted the ...well... numbers of the Israeli side on my blog. It saddens me i couldn't find the official "numbers" of the other side.
I really hope it will be over soon, and I send my condolences to the Lebanese people.
Ilan from Israel.
OK, here goes again:
Pics of demonstrations in Berlin and DC.
This is no time for Lebanese to point fingers at each. Regardless of you how feel about Hizbollah, Israel has launched its barbaric war on the Lebanese people, not Hizbollah. Are you going to let Israel take advantage of your internal divisions, a.ka. France 1940? Or are you going to stand together, unite and demand the world stop Israel's aggression?
Duha
The exact thing happened here in London yesterday. I went to what was supposed to be a candlelit vigil to save Lebanon and what I found there was much more Palistinian flags than Lebanese. I immediately felt that it was a mistake for me to attend the event, however I decided to stay for hope that maybe in the next hour the Lebanese flags would gain momentum. This is what happened next. They started chanting loudly infront of the parliament "Save Lebanon, save Palestine". Then "Ya Allah ya Allah ihmi lana nasrallah". I immediately withdrew to a safe distance away from them as not to be associated with them. Then the worse was yet to come. " Ya nasrallah ya habib 2ouksof haifa wou tal abib!!!!" Shit, was it a dmostration for peace after all!!!! Then i overheard some people who were withdrwing talking on their mobiles telling those who haven't arrived yet not to come beause "its not our demostration". With thier Lebanese flags they left Parliament square". I sat far away now, and was also making a phone call to my friends telling them not come. I was also overheard by a Lebanese girl sitting there as well. She had the same view as me. This was not a demonstration for Lebanon. It was a demonstration for Palestine and Nasrallah. What a drag!
Doha,
You don't have to extol the virtues of Nasrallah! I'm just saying, don't point the finger at him, not until Israel's aggression ends. When the aggression ends, there will be plenty of time to finger-point. Keep the focus on Israel.
I mean, this may seem outrageous to you, but Hezbollah could have reasons to point the finger at the March 14 Forces. For example, look at the way Israel has invoked Resolution 1559 in support of its aggression. Doesn't that prove Nasrallah may have had a point:
Without accusing anyone of treason or jumping to hasty conclusions, I am simply saying Resolution 1559 serves the Israeli policies in inciting civil war and creating political chaos and turbulence," Nasrallah said. "We should be careful not to take positions that would harm Lebanon or push it again into disarray and instability," he said.
I'm not saying that Nasrallah is right....only that such debates are what is not needed now. What's needed is creative colloboration on how to get the world to stop Israel's aggression. For example,
(1) Explaining to the American public that this is a war on Lebanon, not on Hizbollah. The Israel lobby has mastered the art of public relations ("hasbara"); you need to do no less.
(2) Writing letters and calling the American media. Again, the Israel lobby has mastered this art, and Lebanon's supporters must do the same.
(3) Working with the Arab public to pressure Arab leaders to end their shameful support of Just Reward. There are plenty of Arab bloggers you can work with in this regard.
(4) Ditto for the European public. Again, there are plenty of European bloggers you can work with.
There are just some ideas I have. Let's brainstorm on what we can do.
(5) Work with Israeli peace groups. Are they planning up any upcoming demonstrations against the war in Lebanon? Why not have speakers from Lebanon address the really?
Here are some Israeli peace groups:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/
http://www.alternativenews.org/
http://www.yeshgvul.org/index_e.asp
The point is...the Lebanese blogosphere doesn't needs to wage a jihad on behalf of Lebanon. It just needs to show the same level of creativity in mobilizing the world to end Israel's aggression that it did in supporting the March 14 movement.
ithout accusing anyone of treason or jumping to hasty conclusions, I am simply saying Resolution 1559 serves the Israeli policies in inciting civil war and creating political chaos and turbulence," Nasrallah said.
I doubt Nasrallah's rhetoric. It is contradictory to Israel's actual interest, and works upon your fears more than anything else; Israel's interest is in a strong, stable, secular, moderate, economically prosperous, and peacful Lebanon.
One that could help leverage the regional political arena to moderation and nonviolence rather than the Irani-influenced Jihad and hate.
It's even worse than that, Behind-the-scenes:
I'm an American Jew.
Another Israeli peace group, Coalition of Women for Peace:
http://coalitionofwomen.org/home/english
Ziad - My only proof can be the relative peace from our side for the past 6 years.
Unlike a lot of other Arab people, we actually know the Lebanese a bit better. We were there for quite a while, afterall. We used to watch METV back in the day, before we had any decent television of our own. In the days before fatahland, some Israelis even ventured up north for vacation in what was considered 'the las vegas of the ME'. We had allies in Lebanon. We still do. Friends, even.
Lebanese people have a face. It's not just pure demonization (though Nassralla's isn't a very popular face as you might imagine)
I can see your POV, and admittedly, right now what I say probably seems counterintuitive. However, when you think about it rationally, what interest have we in further military advances? We left Lebanon, after all. Despite what Nasrallah would have you believe, we didn't have to go. We chose to leave. We also chose to ignore several brutal and blatant violations of our border from HizbAllah during these past few years, in a hope that a stable Lebanon will eventually disband the resistance and take over border control. I even honestly believe that in due time, Lebanese government would have done so. But it is still traumatized from the assasination of it's leader, and too soon after the Syrians left, still too weak to act against HizbAllah. I can see that, and so can we all, but we'll be damned if we let some of you think for a minute longer that HizbAllah can keep taking a toll from Israel without retaliation. I'm sorry this is the way it had to go, but Lebanon really left us with no choice. I'm particularly sorry for the civillian loss of life and property. Not to mention the economy. But I'm also sorry for the same loss on our side.
Hopfully, when the dust settles, HizbAllah will be weaker, rather than stronger, and we'll be able to bury our dead and our conflict behind us, in a path we should all hope will lead to normalization between our governments and people, a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem and prisoners, and maybe even (with Syria's damned grace) Sheba'a Farms.
God have mercy on us all otherwise.
Works fine here, actually. But I'm on a small ISP. No one in Israel has the power to block sites for the whole line, but that site probably blocked Israeli IP ranges for fear of DDOS attacks or something.
Some horrible pictures though. We don't post the same sort of images, because to us it seems disrespectful to the dead, not because we don't have the equivalent horror happening here.
Thanks for the advice, Ronen and Shmuel. Actually, it's precisely because I don't want to see Lebanon turn into another Iran, Afhganistan, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia that I am working to stop Israel's aggression.
To all Lebanese Bloggers, I hope you realize my comment about pointing the finger at March 14 and Resolution 1559 was meant in a tongue-in-cheek way. However, it does a raise a key point that has been lost in the media coverage. The purpose of Resolution 1559 was to bring security to Lebanon. Never in their right minds did the March 14 movement ever imagine that Israel (which is in violation of too many Security Council resolutions?) would invoke Resolution 1559 as a pretext for Israel's aggression on Lebanon. A UN resolution intended to provide Lebanon with stability has become a legal weapon to justify bombing Lebanon back to the Stone Age.
This is a point that needs to be made.
Imagine if you will that a friend of a friend comes to visit your country and your town, and because of your friendship you agree to let him stay at your house. Imagine that one day you come home to find that your visitor has gone to visit the neighbor's house and killed someone there. It turns out that your visitor is a murderous madman.
Are you responsible for what your visitor has done? What do you do? If the visitor is too scary for you to kill or capture yourself, then what do you do? What are the limits of hospitality? And which is more important, GOOD or FRIENDSHIP?
That is the situation that Lebanon is in. She has a visitor from Iran named Hizballah who has been murdering the neighbors. Now the neighbors are going through Lebanon's house to look for the murderer, who is hidden somewhere in the house and has hidden weapons under the baby's crib, behind the toilet, and under every mattress. It's time for Lebanon to take responsibility for the actions of their guest and STOP HIZBALLAH BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
You've remained passive when the Syrians came and did nothing when they pulled out.
While I largely agree with the rest of your points, exception must be taken to this one. The Cedar Revolution was far from 'nothing.'
Not to sound bloatful, but this really isn't as disproportionate or as devastating as Israel can get. Either today or yesterday (all these days are a blur) was the first time Israel used the Menatez MLRS unit. Our airforce is at about ~20% capacity. We have a whole spectrum of devastation at our disposal.
Not that I think anyone should be thanking us for holding back or anything, but honestly, why is it surprising anyone that we assault disproportionatley? We are trying to win, you know. Preferably sooner rather than later, while still trying to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.
Again, not expecting any thanks here, but our counterparts in the Arab world would have, and historically did, things far more devastating with no regards to civilian losses.
1earth said:
Lebanese aggression just killed 3 Israeli-Arabs in Nazerath, including 2 children.
Keep rejoicing Arabs, this time it really looks like your illegal wars and terror attacks will drive the Jews into the sea.
If you haven't noticed, no Lebanese on this forum is rejoicing over civilian casualties in Israel. It is only Israelis who are justifying their own.
More than anything, I'm just thinking about the next step. When the gunshots die, will the national dialogue table resume?
Doha - I just posted IDF's plan for "Enf of Crisis"".
Unfortunately, the solution doesn't seems to be close.
Ilan
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