Friday, July 21, 2006

Wearing Black And Longing For Blue


My Mediterranean is wearing black. Mourning the lost summer season, mourning the deaths and destruction, mourning its longing for a happy crowd and a tranquil sky, mourning the reflection of the green mountains of Jabal Loubnan.

Experts say that there might be one or the other reason for this: Either it's because of the increased activity of ships coming on the Lebanese coast as of 7 days, or the fuel that might have leaked out when the Israel warship sank last week.



"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."

24 comments:

Unknown said...

I wish those experts could help solve this situation and stop the killing on both sides.


Ilan - No War

Moon River said...

I'm sorry, so very sorry for what is happening in Lebannon!
We start to hear more and more people from your country calling for stopping Hizbulla.

For the world sake it is a holy mission. i hope you see that.
i want to add an article written by Noni Darwish, a brave woman:

and here "Brought up to Hate", an article by her:

Noni Darwish, an Arab Muslim whose father is an honored martyr in Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank. Nasser had him set up the Palestinian Fedayeen during the 50's in Gaza. He was responsible for the deaths of 400 Israelis. As a Muslim and an Arab who lived 30 years in Gaza and Egypt, she has an important perspective about her own religion and the poisonous culture of hatred throughout the region.



Brought Up To Hate



By Nonie Darwish
Telegraph.co.uk | February 17, 2006

The controversy regarding the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed completely misses the point. Of course, the cartoons are offensive to Muslims, but newspaper cartoons do not warrant the burning of buildings and the killing of innocent people. The cartoons did not cause the disease of hate that we are seeing in the Muslim world on our television screens at night - they are only a symptom of a far greater disease.

I was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt and in the Gaza Strip. In the 1950s, my father was sent by Egypt's President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to head the Egyptian military intelligence in Gaza and the Sinai where he founded the Palestinian Fedayeen, or "armed resistance". They made cross-border attacks into Israel, killing 400 Israelis and wounding more than 900 others.

My father was killed as a result of the Fedayeen operations when I was eight years old. He was hailed by Nasser as a national hero and was considered a shaheed, or martyr. In his speech announcing the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, Nasser vowed that all of Egypt would take revenge for my father's death. My siblings and I were asked by Nasser: "Which one of you will avenge your father's death by killing Jews?" We looked at each other speechless, unable to answer.

In school in Gaza, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness. At school we sang songs with verses calling Jews "dogs" (in Arab culture, dogs are considered unclean).

Criticism and questioning were forbidden. When I did either of these, I was told: "Muslims cannot love the enemies of God, and those who do will get no mercy in hell." As a young woman, I visited a Christian friend in Cairo during Friday prayers, and we both heard the verbal attacks on Christians and Jews from the loudspeakers outside the mosque. They said: "May God destroy the infidels and the Jews, the enemies of God. We are not to befriend them or make treaties with them." We heard worshippers respond "Amen".

My friend looked scared; I was ashamed. That was when I first realised that something was very wrong in the way my religion was taught and practised. Sadly, the way I was raised was not unique. Hundreds of millions of other Muslims also have been raised with the same hatred of the West and Israel as a way to distract from the failings of their leaders. Things have not changed since I was a little girl in the 1950s.

Palestinian television extols terrorists, and textbooks still deny the existence of Israel. More than 300 Palestinians schools are named after shaheeds, including my father. Roads in both Egypt and Gaza still bear his name - as they do of other "martyrs". What sort of message does that send about the role of terrorists? That they are heroes. Leaders who signed peace treaties, such as President Anwar Sadat, have been assassinated. Today, the Islamo-fascist president of Iran uses nuclear dreams, Holocaust denials and threats to "wipe Israel off the map" as a way to maintain control of his divided country.

Indeed, with Denmark set to assume the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, the flames of the cartoon controversy have been fanned by Iran and Syria. This is critical since the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to refer Iran to the Security Council and demand sanctions. At the same time, Syria is under scrutiny for its actions in Lebanon. Both Iran and Syria cynically want to embarrass the Danes to achieve their dangerous goals.

But the rallies and riots come from a public ripe with rage. From my childhood in Gaza until today, blaming Israel and the West has been an industry in the Muslim world. Whenever peace seemed attainable, Palestinian leaders found groups who would do everything to sabotage it. They allowed their people to be used as the front line of Arab jihad. Dictators in countries surrounding the Palestinians were only too happy to exploit the Palestinians as a diversion from problems in their own backyards. The only voice outside of government control in these areas has been the mosques, and these places of worship have been filled with talk of jihad.

Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? Arab society has created a system of relying on fear of a common enemy. It's a system that has brought them much-needed unity, cohesion and compliance in a region ravaged by tribal feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption. So Arab leaders blame Jews and Christians rather than provide good schools, roads, hospitals, housing, jobs, or hope to their people.

For 30 years I lived inside this war zone of oppressive dictatorships and police states. Citizens competed to appease and glorify their dictators, but they looked the other way when Muslims tortured and terrorised other Muslims. I witnessed honour killings of girls, oppression of women, female genital mutilation, polygamy and its devastating effect on family relations. All of this is destroying the Muslim faith from within.

It's time for Arabs and Muslims to stand up for their families. We must stop allowing our leaders to use the West and Israel as an excuse to distract from their own failed leadership and their citizens' lack of freedoms. It's time to stop allowing Arab leaders to complain about cartoons while turning a blind eye to people who defame Islam by holding Korans in one hand while murdering innocent people with the other.

Muslims need jobs - not jihad. Apologies about cartoons will not solve the problems. What is needed is hope and not hate. Unless we recognise that the culture of hate is the true root of the riots surrounding this cartoon controversy, this violent overreaction will only be the start of a clash of civilis-ations that the world cannot bear.



Link to article
http://frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=21322

Lirun said...

moon river..

nice find..

ok lets bring out the darwish in each of us :)

lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
"peace to the eastern mediterranean"

francois said...

might be the fuel tanks that the israely airforces and navy targetted...


after killing , they are polluting lebanon

Dar Hakim said...

we support you all

Amon Ra said...

It may be slightly irrelevant but what about the reaction of UN. Would anybody like to comment on that???

I mean there is a well established idea from previous posts about the role of Israel, Iran, etc... but why UN, which in other cases in the past seemed to support a certain position, now they merely speak about a ceasefire when they know that is not such a simple issue?

zauber said...

Here, from Argentina, we support Lebanon.

http://www.angorya.com.ar

Amon Ra said...

gsh;

I absolutely agree but in such a case what is the reason all these discussions take place???

People speak about peace but if public opinion does not have any influence at all then maybe we should re-evaluate what we are saying and for what purpose....

Amon Ra said...

gsh-observer;

Your arguments are convincing enough... Lebanon has become a theatre of the absurd for all others' interests apart from those of Lebanese people...

The problem is that everybody has its own burdens. Israelis, Lebanese, and above all (in my opinion) people from western countries who express their grief every time but during the last 50 years continue supporting the same kind of governments...

P.S: What about Jordan???

Amon Ra said...

gsh;

This is a quite progressive way of thinking regarding what Israel could do...

25% is not a small percentage and it may increase if this ... (i really don't know how to call such an irrational situation) continues.

In such a case, Israel will have achieved a long-term destabilization in the area and i dont want to think what worse can happen in the future

francois said...

gili about propaganda
i m wondering how cant u recognise that your army killed more then 350 people and that your answer was disproportionated

if there is a propaganda, there is as israely propaganda in the western countries.

you loose this propaganda for sure when the images of the devastated south lebanon will be on the air, when the foreigners being evacuated will be making their testimony about israel war crimes.

and it is possible to act israel on this issue for the foreigners that are evacuating

http://www.reseau-damocles.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=218

Lirun said...

this is reallygoing around in circles.. this is beginning to resemble the cycle of violence itself and i'm disappointed..

lirun
tel aviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
wanting peace in the east med sea

Amon Ra said...

"The first signs of trouble are perceived, it is easy to find a solution; but if one lets trouble develop, the medicine will be too late, because the malady will have become incurable. And what physicians say about consumpive diseases is also true of this matter, namely, that at the beginnning of the illness, it is easy to treat but difficult to diagnose but, if it has not been diagnosed and treated at an early stage, as time passes it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to treat... if one recognises political problems early ... they may be resolved quickly, but if they are not recognised, and left to develop so that everyone recognises them, there is no longer any remedy."

"Macchiavelli: The Prince"

If after 58 years of controversy the best solution is to invade in Lebanon then probably it is too late...

It makes me uncomfortable that all the latest news do not receive considerale attention from European authorities, which probably confirms GSH above comments...

Anonymous said...

hello,
first of all i would like to say that i pray for all of you people involved in this conflict.
may god help you all to do the right thing.
i dont care which side started all this hatered.
i just think that killing is the proper solution to solve the problem you got.
i live in a small town in germany as an child educator.
a lot of young german/lebanese boys and girls are visiting our house.
at daily basis i can see how these childeren suffer from this conflict even if it is miles away.
how can we develope a living which grants everyone to prosper and live beside each other.
i try to teach these children to respect other humans, but i question my request.
are we humans unable to live in peace. how long will we incapable to do the right things.
killing cant be the right decision, it will only prolong the suffering.

may be god have mercy with us all.

luke

govi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
govi said...

well... i find that most of the "we cant help it" people have bought into general propaganda... anyways thats jus imho...

well.. there are somethings that arent very clear to me at this moment...

1. When the hizbollah kidnapped the israeli soldiers.. did it expect the crisis to turn this big? if it didnt, as most of the people seemed to have opined, then how can this be a ploy of iran to divert attention from their nuclear programme? (im no iranian or supporter... jus curious)

2. Secondly, israelis always had the option of helping the lebanese army drive out the militants from their(lebanese) land, rather than doing it themselves... there is a similar example where the ULFA(United Liberation Front of Asom) and the NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) and the KLO (Kamtapur Liberation Organisation), which are outlawed and banned terrorist organizations in India, maintain a steady violence both on civilian, para-military and military establishments and personnel, were tried to be eliminated from the southern Bhutan area... the indian army had made some successful pursuit and exterminate operations inside the bhutanese border most of which were later discontinued after the bhutan government raised some sentivity issues. After this, the operations shifted to providing helicopters and training for the personnel of the Royal Bhutan army. Most of the stories of the ULFA or other terrorist organizations are not well known or documented as that of the islamic(for want of a better word) terrorist groups... even in india! But, if you sift through the pages and the websites you can gather that these guys are no lesser in any grade, when compared with other organized militant groups around the world. Though this counter-insurgency operations were far from outright victories, many terrorist camps across the border have been dismantled, and mind you the terrain is always against the army operating in the area, and you are talkin about the himalayas!

well, i am an indian, a passive observer, as passive as anyone can be, still sitting at his office @ 4:30 AM, reading all scraps of information on the current crisis in the middle east and wondering whether the "Armageddon" some of the right wing conservatives are waiting for is looming imminently, what with some of the people in the US terming the current crisis as the world war III.... Anyways with the current mumbai blasts, that killed my country men, and a victim of terror myself, i can remember only a saying that my teacher at my primary school used to teach us... "Violence is the weapon of the incompetent" and hence i detest it in all forms...

as a bonus... http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Colbert-FOX-WWII.mov

govi said...

well.. video might be a parody... but... well... u can see those above 50s politicians sitting in those chairs and calling the numbers.... as i hav heard one say "the death of a man is a tragedy, death of millions is just statistics"... now this attitude that we have is pretty serious... the situation isnt greatly different in most counrties around the world, extremists coming into power with open or hidden agendas... and most of the people like me are just sitting and watching them... exasperated...

govi said...

nip,

well, as far as the answer to 1 is concerned i think it is a mere speculation, though there is no doubt that the shiite hezbollah is shadow fighter of the shiite iran, that tries to convert the region into a shiite controlled islamic republics. Well, someone (http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/) had quoted this article, by Martin Kramer, who i believe is at the Tel Aviv university(im not sure). I think there might be more truth in his article as he believes that the hizbollah and the sectionist forces in the middle east will be more than surprised at israel's reaction to the kidnapping incident. To what end the drama was hosted we may not know, but voices of support to hizbollah has appeared in all the arab countries, though the governments are holding onto a different opinion...

well, as far as the second one, it may be nice if a lebanese answered upon it, but i still feel that violence should always be the last option. You might think that it is okay for me to talk of non-violence and stuff, sitting in nice office suites in one of the corporate houses, but i hav seen violence and deaths, manmade like the current serials bomb blasts during a short stint at mumbai with my uncles and the godhra sectarian riots that left lots of muslims and hindus dead... and natural ones like the tsunami that claimed more than 150000 in asia...

govi said...

im afraid that truth is turning out to be pretty harsh... but, wouldnt the lebenon hav accepted the israeli aid had it been through a series of dialoges with the lebanese govt., given that most of the polititians were pro-us? But i cant help thinking that this can also be intepreted as a sign of occupation, as southern lebenon was until 2000 or even that the hizb would not have stayed put while such dialogues were happenning.... but now it seems far from reality, as the lebanese can never accept any aid from the israeli(nor the israeli's would be willing to offer any if u think abt it).. and i still cant come to terms that israel might be able to dismantle the hizb's terror bases in south, and annihilate it, given the protracted violence in most other occupied territories, like iraq for example, and even afghanistan... this doesnt spell hope for the lebanese in any syllable.. :(

The only way a militant organization might be destroyed, is by removing the support it gets, and then systematically neutralize and absorb the fighting corps into mainstream society... there is no military solution for militancy, as it just breeds the hatred. the middle east has always been a bed of thorns, with militancy breeding almost everywhere and then permeating into all moderate societies. With afghan terrorist grounds being destroyed thanks to the coalition forces, the militants are now scattered all across the globe, only waiting to strike! The onyl things these escalations and warfare does it to destroy the moderate voices on both sides of the border, and making peace an ever-unreachable goal...

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

That picture is most sad... What a tragedy...
It is a sad day when our oceans are dying from mans recklessness.

The post was very poetic...

I also loved your ending quote:
"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."

Peace. I will return often.

Lirun said...

we have a saying "the death of a person is the death of a world"

this war for me is like the death of a universe.. all blame reasons and excuses aside.. i hate it

wishing for peace for all in the east med sea..

lirun
telaviv

francois said...

bunch of lies

israel agreed to leave the lebanese vital infrastructure not bombed

today they destroyed the GSM antenna (as long the tv antenna) in the heart of the christian aera of kesrouan. terbol, sannine , etc... being bombed

my dad is a surgeon , i m wondering now how can he be called for ER to his hospital to save the lifes of civilians that you also bombed

saying it s a war against the hezbollah is a lie, it s a war against lebanon and all its componments and moreover it doesnt have any sense as you israelien are on contrary increasing the support of the shia community to the hezbollah instead of strenghtening the autority of the lebanese state

Beny Shlevich said...

Correction: The Israeli warship wasn't "sank", it was hit. 4 of its sailors were killed, and it returned to the Ashdod port.

bob2008 said...

Lebanese is an adjective referring to matters related to the Republic of Lebanon, which is located on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
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Bob
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