The Lebanese Bloggers: Felt like it

Monday, August 07, 2006

Felt like it

5 comments:

Hassan said...: eran,
yeah, the cedar should be totally green. i got this flag from a friend who bought it at ebay and i took the photo in the munich march two weeks ago. on another note, i miss the heat wave. at least we had the sun while rallying.; 9:45 AM
Hassan said...: eyal, thanks!; 9:45 AM
Hassan said...: Fighting Sullyvan,

May Israel go out of Lebanon and not come back. Note I said 'out of Lebanon' and not 'away'. I believe in Israel's right to exist, in -and via- peace.; 10:20 AM
BHCh said...: To be Arab Lebanon has attacked Israel from the day the latter was born... How about being Arab by being peacefu? That would make a difference.; 7:36 PM
GreenLegion said...: Great spirit Gents . On both sides .

Allow me to use this space, which seems the most appropriate I found to date, to express the concept that the only solution to our Middle-Eastern self-inflicted holocaust is a Confederation .Sounds nutty in times like these huh ? Yet, if we persist in relying on the "Western world" to solve the problems they themselves have created and fostered , we will have no other future than the present .
To whomever it may interest , here's an abstract from a letter I wrote in 2001 to a very famous , elderly Italian journalist(now deceised) in responce to some of his comments about the role of Israel in the Middle-East.
I would like to have the opinions of open-minded , intelligent, peace-seeking middle-easterners such as yourselves on the matter.

"....On that occasion, You mentioned the common cultural legacy that binds the western world to Judaism , and called for an increased interest by italian authorities in the matters and destinies of Israel, you regarded as an enclave of the West in the Middle-East .

About the affinities of the european soul with Judaism, You have a point: it is widely recognized that the latter together with hellenism, constitute its foundations.
But why this should necessarily imply for Israel a role as the colonial outpost of the West in classical Syria, I just don't understand.

To begin with, and taken for granted there is no other alternative than to eternalize the opposition between the West and the Arab world (read Christianity and Islam) as if it were a heavenly fight between two transcendental entities, the dirty job as sword of the europeans, certainly shouldn't pertain to the Jews,their favoured victims since two thousand years.
The Arabs were still at the stage of that indistinct nomadic desert population, from which stemmed the tribe of the Ben Israel, when Rome imposed its rule over the kingdom of Herod; and one feels heartened that you Sir, as descendant of the Romans should claim today for a "byblical right" of the Jews over the land of Palestine.
The Arabs were still there and were now well distinct, and they too in the vest of the victims this time, when the Crusaders bathed up to their knees in the blood of the Jews massacred during
the taking of Jerusalem of 1099.(Even on this occasion , I suppose, had You existed, You certainly would have advocated the cause of the "biblical right" with the Crusader states of the Terra Santa).
They weren't present during the pogroms perpetrated by the Kossaks in Russia.
They were, during the Auto da fés of the holy inquisition in Spain and Portugal, where
they were known as "moriscos" , and shared the same fate of their infidel jew cousins "marranos".
They weren't there to man the Nazi concentration camps , nor did they take part in the fascist raids.
They are present today as palestinians.

Furthermore, talking about affinities, the Jews have in common with the West a mere historical and cultural legacy, but they share in addition with the Arabs the belonging to the same ethnic and linguistic group of the descendance of Sem.(How 's that for a "byblical right" ?)
Thus, as far as genealogy goes, those who are willing to practice that deformed abort of western thinking called antisemitism, should coherently also profess themselves as antiarabs , and vice versa.

Moreover, comining back to the issue of the crude , almost epic confrontation between the
western and arab cultures, I consider it as a gigantic, useless, misunderstanding , perenniously encouraged by those who have an interest in keeping alive the bloodthirst of the masses .
Infact , although the Arabs don’t have in common with the West as much as the Jews do,
indeed the contacts accross the Mediterannean have been numerous and of fundamental importance.
In this respect , distinguished historians identify the encounter with the merchant culture of
the Arabs as the cause of the evolution of the western medieval survival economy towards that more
rational exploitation of the production factors that will pave the way to capitalism as we
know it today . More widely recognised however, is the role played by the Arabs in preserving , enhancing and devolving to the West the legacy of its own long lost classical epoque , that would
later blossom into the Renaissance .

There is Sir , I believe , a place for Israel in the Middle East . But not as watchdog of the West .
Instead , as coowner of a common home for those as extraordinary as misfortunate populations known as the “ people of the Book “ . And here, a “ historical miracle” would be needed ,
of the ilk of the unification of Italy , or the fall of Iron Curtain , which I pray will happen soon,
for in this brave new world , those who fail in building their own regional geopolitical aggregate,
are destined to lose the race and to be smashed between the other blocks , especially when fate has positioned them at the crossroads of all civilisations .
If such miracle should take place , then would come the time for the Middle-easterners to make good use of their natural vocation for cultural affinities and trade : only then , would come handy
the priviledged relations between Israelis and Americans , Lebanese Maronites and French , Syrians and Russians , Jordanians and British , Palestinians and Beduin Arabs .

Maybe such a picture would disturb too many . Hence , it will always be easier to keep selling to
the world and to the directly concerned , the most awsome and cynical fraud of all times :
that the historical and endearing slaughterers of the Jews are their best buddies , whilst their own
Semite blood-brothers and actual neighbours are their worst foes ."; 6:16 AM

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