Leaving you with some selected readings:
Reclaiming The Issues: Islamic Or Republican Fascism?
Bigotry and Ignorance of Islam
The Big Lie About 'Islamic Fascism'
Islam In Europe (the social aspect that might have facilitated the political game)
Can you really not see?
A taste of the Israeli terror

(picture, Wilfrid Hoffacker)

We Halla' shou _Z?



(Mahmood Darwish, July 2006)

The 'real Beirut' is not downtown..

Downtown is a facade we present for the ekhwen el 3arab to maintain our economy. In downtown though, there's a club. A club where my cousin goes. My cousin lives in dahyeh and he's young and he's lost and he's depressed all the time. He gave up on his ambitions faced by the lack of opportunity that he had to inherit because of the mistakes of the ones who came before us.

In downtown, there's a club, where people dance hysterically so they can laugh and forget the worries of not knowing what tomorrow will bring. One is called Mohammad, he’s from taree’ li jdeede, or 7ayy elleja or msaytbeh or Nwayri or any other modest area in ‘real Beirut’. He was raised to nationalism. His dad knew abu 3ammar. He tutors kids in a Palestinian refugee camp, next to mar elias, a place in ‘real Beirut’.

In downtown, there’s a restaurant. The first that opened in downtown Beirut. A guy named Georges works there. He lives in Shiyye7 or 7adath. He grew up in Jnoub, in Bint Jbeil with his family. He knows the Qoran by heart. His family is modest. They now live in Baalbak. He has a rich uncle in Dubai and he was offered a job there. Georges doesn’t want to leave Lebanon.

In downtown Beirut, there’s a café, where Akram works. Akram is from 3alay. His father died in the civil war. He forgot the ‘old scars’. He’s a funny kid with blue eyes. He wants to live and to laugh. In downtown Beirut there’s a Palestinian guy, he says he’s Lebanese now. He loves this country with all his heart. He lives in a modest apartment with his mother and wife and children. He works as a driver for a rich Saudi family.

Beirut is a modest city. The people are modest people. They try to forget the pain yet they live it once again. Beirut is not just Verdun and Hamra and Achrafiyeh. But Verdun is not just fancy malls, Verdun has Syyar el darak and it's close to 3aysha Bakkar. And in Achrafiye there's Sassine but also 7ay el syrian. There's Al Dente and Friends burger. There's le cemier and Crystal.

Beirut is a broken woman. A woman who accessorizes to make her living while she suffers in silence. Her father died and left her to the world.

Beirut cries Beirut. Beirut cries the South. Beirut lost the dreams.

All we have left is our patriotism. As exaggerated as it might feel or seem. I kept seeing a new divide in this war. I heard them use labels to describe our population. I heard bourgeoisie to describe the ‘real Beirut’. I have never lived a real Beirut and a fake Beirut. I have never seen bourgeoisie in my Beirut. They label us. They fail to recognize that we’re not just Akram and Ali and Omar and Paul. We are a not a mosaic, we are a kaleidoscope. An ever changing pattern of identities. The men in power might have us labeled but I refuse to think we are. The people who fall for it are, in my eyes, not true Lebanese. It is hard to ignore facts but I choose to marginalize it as error. Our writings were about memories. Our writings did not reflect our present reality. We wanted to escape for moments or simply dream of another reality. Our writings did not mourn the South. How can you write about the South without mourning. We wanted to bring happy memories and remind you why you should hang on and fight with all you've got. Our writings were like Beirut, shined up to please while bleeding on the inside. We wanted to please our soul and yours and of that we're guilty.

We all live in a ghetto. I live in an emotional ghetto in the US. If we didn’t believe in our unity, who will? It is not a balsam, it is a recipe for change.

But who dares to dream in times of war?

A votre santé... fraternité, solidarité, liberté et courage

(on a building in Jounieh, sent to me by Janelle)

Baynetna… we bisara7a
(pic)

I don’t know when it will end... I don’t think it will end... Not a month from now... Not a year from now... Not a lifetime...

Ya3ne bisara7a

I’m scared and confused... I don’t know if I found myself... Or lost myself in this... I don’t know if it matters... If I lose myself... When people... Lose their lives...

Bisara7a

I do miss you... But I don’t feel that I deserve... To be happy in any way... and I know it’s wrong... But who cares... It’s also right...

We kamen

I feel guilty every second... Of every day... I feel guilty when I feed my cats... I feel bad when i tell you that... I feel guilty when i eat a full meal... When I wear a clean shirt... When I wear perfume... When I wash my hair... When I smile to strangers...

I’ve grown intolerant of everything... And everyone... On this side of the ocean... The least I can do... Is to punish them... With my scorning looks... For their indifference... But who am I to judge them... When I feel so guilty myself...

I pity every moment I thought... I’m in control... Of anything in life... Including myself... I regret every second... I look down at the bench... To the gods of science... When I could be looking up... To the gods of mercy...

I feel humbled and small... Yet outraged and frustrated... I feel hurt but who am I... To feel hurt, compared to them?... I feel weak, but how can i... When I should fight... And I don’t know what I should do... And i know it will not matter... What i do or do not do... And i feel sick with despair...

bisara7a... mish tay’a 7aleh... bikill sara7a... I’m still in denial
Bass khallouwa baynetna...

Lebanese Whispers...
And a little gift from _Z, here.

(picture from le monde de Jimmy)

In these difficult times, the collective human psyche tends to clench up in an almost regressive state of extreme nationalism and social identity. I have never seen an overt celebration of Lebanon and a severe state of nostalgia and longing and belonging as I have seen since June 12. As we religiously reminisce about details and feelings and memories that we cherish and share, we might be mistaken to be living a sentimental bourgeois dream that only remains in our consciousness and that does not reflect the reality. Just like Fairuz songs. We have transcended from the bleak reality and imagery and evoked our mental treasures of what we see Lebanon was, is and should be. Maybe it is our way of locking the memory and preserving It from destruction. Maybe it is a foolish dream. Maybe it is a state of mind. So be it. Lebanon is and will remain the Levant of cultures, humanity, arts, love and our identity. It is heaven on earth but mostly it is the heaven in our hearts.
Lebanon is my father. Tough, old and dignified. Beirut is my mother. Warm, ageless and beautiful.

Lebanon is like “Mais el Reem”, _Z says,

"This play (as are all Rahbani plays) is charged with images and scenes, portraying the authentic, pure and simple lives of Lebanese dwelling in villages that inhabit the flanks of the mountains and are scattered throughout the country. Not only these images are long gone now (we never really lived them), but our generation even goes to the extent of claiming that they weren’t real to begin with, and they exist only in the Rahbani plays; or at least they don’t exist anymore. But strangely enough, these are the same images that we call to mind, once we speak of nostalgia, remembrance and recollection. It is these images (or similar) on to which we zoom-in whenever we need to summon to our memory, a nice, quiet, and peaceful tableau, where we can hide safely, and even for a little while, and escape the reality we do not want to deal with."

Ibn Bint Jbeil: "When one first exits from the airplane and enters Beirut's environment and smells its air, that earthy rocky sea-salted air, one is transported instantaneously into a mystical time and space. It is unlike anything else. A daze overtakes you. You become mesmerized. This state of emotional bliss remains with you as you drive through Beirut and smell its buildings and trees touch its walls, hear its human voices."

Lebanon is home to so many images and instances and emotions. An aroma of feelings and memories and faces.

mononoke: "Beirut is the the smell of polluted traffic. The sun on your arms. The sweat in your hair. The scent of the gardenias around my wrist. The taxi's zammour. His curses and yells. Suddenly remembering forgetting to stop for the 'rabtet khebez inti w jeyeh'. The sea on my lips the salt on my skin. Another sunburn today. The unmistakable smell of Beirut. The instant smile right as you exit the plane. On the balcony with chai and mne2eesh w labneh w zaitoun w ba3ed shwayyet zeit."

Misschatterbox: "Beirut at 30. Beirut is a Muslem man. Beirut speaks Arabic, French, English and Spanish. Beirut lives at Montreal, at Paris and at all the cities of the world. Beirut lives also at Beirut. Beirut is my mechanic at the corner, also my architect, mostly my friend, my patience, and also my strength. Beirut is reserved, discrete, wise and sometimes audacious, crazy and alive. Beirut loves women, refinement, music, exhibits, aromas, noise songs and all the cultures. Beirut makes me savor all this for Beirut is never blunt. Beirut makes me valse till 2 in the morning, just like that, because it’s Beirut. Beirut feeds me when I forget to eat.
Beirut listens to my ridiculous love stories, my ridiculous worries, my tasteless daily life. Beirut is my friend.

Beirut is a handsom young man who has black eyes. Beirut is a family at a porche singing for peace. Beirut sings and plays the instrument of life. I love Beirut because I read it for 6 months. Beirut at 31. Beirut is Christian. Beirut is a woman. Beirut is gossip, smiling, extrovert, cultured, curious and charming."

And what else?

Eve: "In Beirut, there’s something, like that, just like that. Stuck in the air, printed on the walls of small roads,dripping from the trees after the rain. There’s always a shortcut road that takes you to the sea. There are always cameras taking pictures, fearing that the eye would forget, fearing that the heart would drift. There’s a road built just to carry your dream, while you walk, not knowing where.There’s something in people’s eyes, like a question, like the old buildings, like an escaping look, like the ruin.In Beirut,there’s a secret that you don’t know until you’re at the airport with your bag… until you’re estranged stranded in young cities, one after the other, forever longing to your crude city, the city where “the difference between the darkness and the light is one word”… And you miss the familiar chaos where the cars park on sidewalks and people strut in the middle of the streets… And forever, for as much as you hide away, you’re haunted with the fever of Beirut, and you know the illness is part of you and you know that she will never leave you.In Beirut,There’s something bigger than me, and bigger than you. There’s an April that never ends. And a place, a place that, whenever you lose yourself, whenever you fall, whenever you hurt, you come back whispering the letters of its name once anew, in Beirut."

And you know she will never leave you. And you live it, you miss it, you can almost smell it and feel it and hear it.

Rewa: "Sometimes I want to open the window just to hear the noise of cars honking at each other all at once. The ka’ak seller pushing his old cart, heavy with freshly baked dough stuffed with ripe brown dates. The quiet sprinkle of thyme and sumac over handbag-shaped bread sold for peanuts. And speaking of peanuts, they sell them hot and roasted served inside outdated fashion magazine pages shaped like ice-cream cones. Listen to the aroma of simmering coffee creeping from the kitchen. I want to hear the neighbors arguing at the tip of the road, laughing at local sitcoms at night. The cold cough of their engines in the morning that drives them impatiently to work. The halt of school bus wheels ready to gather the future. Cries of church bells on Sunday fattening sleepy eyes. The sweeping Muezzin at dusk when it’s time to eat after a long day’s fasting. The sky giving birth to transparent rain drops the weight of leaves. Dip a piece of pita bread into a platter of mint-garnished labneh. I want to touch an olive tree. Do you know how much work it takes to make this bite complete? I want to hear my language spoken in French and English. I want to hear it uttered in Arabic. Sometimes I want to open the window to hear Beirut."

Beirut is a story forever to be told in so many ways. Beirut tells the story of Lebanon.

Ibn Bint Jbeil: "A state of enchantment builds as you drive out of Beirut and head into the country. You see a construction crew digging up the Earth on the coastal road. The Earth there is red with fire and warmth. It screams of fruit-juicy blood-love. As you continue on the coastal road, the strong smell of the Jnoub enters your nostrils and captivates your mind. You are no longer in control of your senses nor of your thought process."

Eve: "And how our faces resemble the heart and soul of this land. How they carry prints of our sand, our dust our papers and our dates.. How they resemble the vineyards of Bekaa and the apples of the mountain and Saida’s castle and Sour’s marina. How full these faces are of the summer’s sun, of December’s wrath, of rain dripples on the windows and of September’s last days. How our faces scream of springs, of mountain roads, of tree branches that witnessed our childhood, of stolen first kisses… How our faces draw smiles out of disasters and print the tears we dried with laughter… How you, My Lebanon, live in our faces…"

These are our memories. This is our story.

Mar: "Those memories are our balance. It is more a heritage than a dream. I strengthen that bond to my heritage through dreaming.These memories are real, they're in every corner. All you have to do is look closely and you'll find that they're real.I taste them in the fruit. Smell them in the summer breeze and the winter wind.I touch them when I hug my family after a long absence. I feel them when you're lost somewhere in the mountains and you ask a stranger sitting on his porch drinking his evening tea, about where you are, and that very stranger invites you in for a sip of tea and insists that you will have dinner " We7yet Alla bt'ba" ( In God's name you're staying for dinner), yeah, that complete stranger!It stirs emotions when you go to a grocery store you've only been there once and the vendor asks you to take the grocery and pay him some other time because he can't break a $100. Yii walaw ya 3ammo ma3le ma3le bta3tine bokra... I feel like crying then, because that kindness kills me.It's when I listen to my grandpa's poets and endless stories...The list goes on...It's there, you cherish its existence when you move away and look at it from a distance..It stares back at you reaffirming it's existence...When you go back, you embrace it and it devours you, every time.It's there..."

_Z: "I miss that kindness too! It also reminds me of my summers in the mountains. We would be biking all day long, and running around in the apple orchards. When we got tired, we would rest under the shades of a big walnut tree (jawzeh), or on the steps of a closeby porch to a house, or in some strangers' courtyard, looking to cool off and catch a breeze. A few minutes after we park our bikes, and take off our caps, the door opens, and out comes the Woman of the house to greet us with frozen glasses of sharab el toot (berry juice) and sandwiches (halloum w khyar). We drink, eat, rest, and head off politely, waving thanks and goodbyes... On our way we would pick an apple, wash it in the cold fresh waters of the many natural springs in the village, and continue to Rachid's Supermarket... He should be expecting us by now. We drop by "Hello Mr. Rachid" (marhaba m3allim Rachid!), and discuss "intellectual" issues (we were 8 or 9), and matters of concern to us. He would then offer us Bonjus ice cream (bouza 3a talej), and a Kinder Surprise chocolate. I later found out (years after), that it was my father who had ask Rachid to cater for our desires whenever we dropped by, and not to take our money (lira w noss); he would then pick up our bill (on trust) whenever he drove by, in his white Datsun 120y, for groceries, or for an afternoon cup of coffee and a game of backgammond. But that didn't take anything away from Rachid, he was the nicest man. Many times, our feeding crazes were on the house (bonjus + unika).He listened to us while we entertained him, and we were glad that we had a grown-up as a friend and yet another place where we could hang out. Him having the village's chocolate supply helped his case tremendously, but still Rachid was known for his genrosity and good spirit. Tfaddlo ya ahla bel shabeb! (Come in, welcome young men - youth)"

Wars come and go. We stay...

Rouba: "Yet between our havoc-wreaking wars we form steadfast friendships from different sides, we speak of freedoms of speech and freedoms of mind. We love and we hate and we love again.we kiss on the cheek, all of three slitheringly sloppy kisses on the cheek, with warmth.we have a mean sick sense of humour and we know it and we mock and we laugh and we fume and we laugh again. we curse our sisters' and our mothers' genitalia left and right.we breed and bud "artistes" just as fast as we capture the most chic suicidal stilettos, build the swankiest swingiest "boite" of a club on the memories of a graveyard, and expose brilliant expos and plays and books and restos and novel Beirut Time-Outs.and politics we bicker and bicker and bicker.sunnis bicker shiites bicker maronites bicker greek orthodox bicker roman catholics bicker druze bicker protestants bicker communists bicker socialists bicker grandfathers fathers mothers uncles aunts distant cousins and cousins brothers sisters babies bicker. but we are normal between wars."

And here you have it. So many images, so many memories that so many different Lebanese people share. I’ve had people telling me of course you’re nostalgic and you miss Lebanon, it’s home. I always wanted to say, no it’s Lebanon.

But once you go Red Lebanese (...)

Hope...

(pic)

Hope...
Hope is a baby born on a night of turmoil
A smile on a child’s face, torn with anguish.
A song whispered behind the walls of darkness
A mother’s embrace still tender mending the aching limbs
My heart that skips a beat at the sound of a song still alive
The pride of having lived and the eternal rebellion of the mind
One wall that stands unbroken weeping at what once was
And ushering what will be.

Hope...
In humanity and beauty and nature and the order of life
For how many times humanity have risen above destruction
How many lives bloomed from the womb of ruthlessness
How many noble men stood facing the vulgarity of a display of power
How much solidarity came out of grief and unity defied the pillaging of decency
How much care faced the violent grip of fear
How much wealthy souls faced unspeakable losses and defied failure
How many times have we survived.

Hope...
In our earth seeding perpetual goodness in the face of human nature
The culled images of sceneries of ample rivers and majestic mountains
A land still green, the smell of jasmine, the sound of laughter
The mountains and the rivers and in people who dance
Even to the rhythm of uncertainty
To facing numbness with fearless hearts
To never let the feeling die and never give in to unfairness
To an endless habitual quest for being and for believing

Hope...
In never again having to defend the right to be
Never again will the hand of terror strike on me
Never again see your earth bleed
never see your sky cry
never the dirt in your sea
Hope in the tears of joy
knowing how much i love you
In eyes that will forget
and arms that will forgive
Hope is what will never
be taken away from me
Hope in you
In loving you
In owing you to keep the hope.

Update: Is it too soon for hope? should we get ready for another round? Read till the end.
And are we talking peace?

Update: more frustration, UN load of crap and utter deception 1701
Update: more despair, may God help the Palestinians, if he/she is up there . Read here.

Earth has not anything to show more fair
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth

I know I promised… Well I take it back...

I don’t want to hear or see or feel anything for a while, please.
I don’t want the reactions and interactions, the sympathy looks and the solidarity back taps and the pity facial expressions masking an empty head.
I don’t want the analysis and the aftermath and the point of views and the threats and the unequivocal evidence of a yet ambiguous human succession of events.
I don’t want to be here or there. I don’t want the weight or the burden or the natural or the unnatural feeling that should or would or has to follow.
No more pictures please.
I don’t want the nostalgia, the pain, the fervor of anger, the paralyzing loss, the shock and disbelief, still. I don’t want the acceptance either.
I don’t want the fake questions and the quick responses and the perpetual detached existence.
I don’t want the bigotry and the hate and the disguised tolerance and understanding, I don’t want forgiveness either.
No more headlines, no more orange... back to blue.
No more Fairuz songs. I don’t want to long and ache for times I will never know and live.
No more being nostalgic to nostalgia.
No more pain.
Yes I promised not to hide anymore...
I need to hide for a while.

Build a bridge


Petit oiseau si tu n'as pas d’ailes
Et tu ne peux pas voler
P’tit oiseau si t’as pas d’ailes
Tu peux marcher… :)
Gad El-Maleh

To L.,

I ran into a wonderful friend of mine today. As she describes herself, L. is a middle aged woman who is running around trying to support her twins, to keep a marriage working, a carrier running all while trying to keep her moral high in this ugly world she has to wake up to every morning.

We used to talk about politics whenever we would run into each other in the lunch room. She would ask me about my country and the recipe I used to prepare my lunch. She tells me she talks about me to her friends telling them proudly that she, a hard core Jewish lady with close ties to her family in Israel, has a friend from Lebanon, a funky graduate student who has a piercing wherever is possible (even though I don’t) and who has a different hair color every week (another slight exaggeration) and who shaved her head in solidarity with the people of Iraq (...).

My friend is a peace activist whose eccentricity and defiance go as far as refusing to shampoo her hair because, according to her, this is another marketing scam. L. says, “Why should I use a strong detergent to strip my hair of its natural oils and then go and buy those commercial oils to regain conditioning to my scalp?” It makes sense biologically speaking but the idea horrifies me esthetically. She introduced me to ‘Women for Peace’, 'Jews against the occupation' and ‘CodePink’. We criticized the Bush administration, shared our frustrations towards the growing uncontrollable imperialism in the US and the unconditional support of the right-winger neo-cons to the Israeli politics, controlled by the Israeli lobby and serving corporate America while the rich gets richer and the poor poorer.

We feared the disguised modern day colonialism of the US/Israel lobby fueled by the anti-Islam propaganda that resonates well in the west is made even possible by puppet-like dictators planted in eastern countries where the population is poor and the resources are privatized and that it keeps unraveling under the holy war on terror of the catholic apocalyptic crusaders. We feared that, as far as the Middle East goes, the US support to Israel is bad news for the Muslim world and for real Jews. Jews who scream not in my name to the horrors that are being committed in Palestine and Lebanon. She feared for her children to the growing resentment of the world to the legacy they leave through Zionist Israel that is an extension of the fascism growing in America and that was and remains to be a state of terror that breeds hate for generations to come.

When the war on Lebanon started, I ran into L. in the hallway. The minute she saw me she started crying. My friend was in fact sobbing to the point where I had to comfort her, and then I started crying myself. We ceased to be two persons with opinions and resentments. Two people who feel suffocated and angry at the funding cuts for science, at the ‘intelligent design’ wave, at the fake bipartisan democracy, at the biased propaganda. We were two hurt women, suffering for all the pain in the world and revolting against our weakness and helplessness against the world. L. is a very passionate very intense lady. She has a very warm body language and she emphasizes her points with her teary olive-shaped eyes and her daring waving hands. She almost leaves you heartbroken to the extent of her empathy, guilty for doubting the world and she leaves you hopeful and lucky for knowing her.

“What can I do? What can I do?” she screams to me in the most humane almost apologetic way trying to make me understand that she is as heartbroken about the dead children and mothers and fathers. She tells me how she stopped talking to half of her family who can’t see what she sees. She tells me how she attacked a rabbi telling him that a state that loots, tortures, confiscates land, undergoes ethnic cleansing and mass killing and war crimes is not a state that should represent her or her children or the religion she believes in. She told him a state built on racism and greed and religious fanaticism is not better that the enemy we try to demonize and to finish off. She tells him we adopted the techniques of the Nazis and what kind of hope will that leave our children with even if you don't care about their children? She then tells me the rabbi looked her dead in the eye and told her, “Every dead Palestinian child is a step forward”. She says she is not surprised, i say i'm not either for these are the hopes of those leaders who are exploiting the religion to their political interests and who exemplify the civilization of hate and the culture of death.

L. cries again, then from a curtain of tears, she regains her defiance for minutes to say that this is not the fault of Israel, this is the fault of the criminals in this administration, the Cheneys and the Woolfowitzs and the Rumsfelds who blindly support the evil that is Israel. She says someone in her family sent her Olmert’s speech and asked her to think about it, the same person who calls her a self-hating Jew. She tells me “I sent him what you wrote about the speech to make him see your perspective and I told him who you were, you see he doesn’t know anyone from Lebanon”. She tells me it doesn’t matter how blue my husband’s eyes are, we’re semites and we’re the closest thing to you. We’re not Europeans and we will never be. She tells me that she’s been ridiculed, called a leftist extremist, a conspiracy theorist, a self-hating Jew. To them she says “what? And your shit doesn’t stick?, you call me a self-hating Jew, which is the most racist thing to call me, just because I don’t agree with what you want to define me and a whole race with?”. She expresses her disgust at the lies, the propaganda with the doom doom doom background music for each war brainwashing the masses, the lies "they claim civilians left behind must be HA when we see cripples and old people", she tells me about the fuss for these enhanced images "but we know what happened, human rights watch, activists who called a told us after they witnessed, war crimes..."

She says, “I’m no better than a lot of peace activists who have been harassed, threatened and even killed”. We agree that we both now understand how all the genocides in the world took place and the world watched as it does today, how the people in power exploit the grief and victimization of the masses in order to fuel more hate and to sponsor more wars instead of focusing on the righteous and the goodness in the world. As always we decide that there will be no hope for peace in the Middle-East, we give examples of a lot of people we know that are just like me and her, to keep some hope for the future. We agree, though, that these people who are the majority are neither greedy nor aggressive enough to step up and try to rule. And we leave with no answers.

I give these words to L. and i tell her that even when i can't say the world will ever change, i see hope knowing people like her exist,

“Loss and losing. Grief, failure, brokenness, numbness, uncertainty, fear, the death of feeling, the death of dreaming. The absolute, relentless, endless, habitual unfairness of the world. What does loss means to individuals? What does it means to whole cultures, whole peoples who have learned to live with it as a constant companion?”

but she also says,

"The time has come, the walrus said. Perhaps things will get worse and then better. Perhaps there's a small God up in heaven readying herself for us. Another world is not only possible, she's on her way. Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing."- Arundhati Roy.

And to L. i say, the unholy alliance has to come to an end.

Inside a Lebanese heart


Have you not seen
before you killed?

Have you not noticed,
that place on a baby’s neck?
That place of extra fat
when he lays calm
On his daddy’s chest
And the place between his fingers
Where dirt settles as he makes a fist
For days
And it’s too tiny to separate
Too delicate to clean

Have you not seen
How a kid looks up to you?
Trusts you to be good and to be fair
How he can’t conceive you will betray him
How he doesn’t know betrayal
Do you know he has no defense
Do you know the defiance
Of a kid
And it’s too dear to break
Too noble to crush

Have you not known
Have you not known an old woman?
Have you not had a grandmother
Do you know how her eyes
Are full of affection
Yet full of disappointment
How her helplessness like that
Of a child
And it’s too sad to ignore
Too real to deny

Have you not realized
How heartbreaking it is
When you humiliate a man?
That the tears of a man
In front of his children
Make the heavens cry
That a man’s dignity is like that
Of a god
And it kills you to witness
and it changes you forever

Have you not cried
When you killed a mother
With a baby inside her
When you prohibit the use of dead embryos
And when you prohibit killing unformed embryos
Yet you reach with a hand of steel
of frozen times
With a smile of death
To a mother’s womb
And you rape the life out of a baby
Who found refuge in the place
He thought safe
The body of a woman
Blessed by God
He thought
And it’s too late to forgive
And it’s to grave to forget
And it kills you inside.


Loves gained: 4 millions
Loves lost: one.

Inside a Lebanese conscious

Oumi mishan alla, sawili wara’ 3inab
Mishta’ la akel immi

Ra7 sawwilak eish baddak,
7ate7kili 3ala ramallah

bass kirmal el awadem
shou baddik halla’ biliblad
trikina bihammna

baddi a3rif shou natirni
baddi a3rif kill shi sar
into lfalastiniyye heik
bitfakkro jiri7kon akbar minjiri7na
mabta3rfo innolli sabkon sabna
we ra7 ysibna ba3ed

we ba3ed khamsesneen

keefek ya sitna?
alla ysabbirna

Keefak inta?
Shifit illtillak mara7nerta7

Halla’ 7keeli 3aramallah
3e deir yassine
We jennin we nablus
7keeli 3ala ghaza wel deffa
7keeli we ana b’illak

b’illak 3an lekhyem
b’illak 3ala sabra we shetila
lghaziye we qana welshiye7
we 3ala sour we saida
bint jbeil we eldayhe
ma ahre ahrak
we jir7i jir7ak
we wlede wledak
we atelna wa7ad
elli we b'ellak...



(Nizar Kabbani, Atfal l7ijara)

Inside a Lebanese mind

If Bush is deterring Syria and passing 1559 indirectly through the Arabic support of the Sanioura’s 7-point plan, while giving Israel its exit strategy, why did Israel refuse?
HA said they will disarm and that they support the Lebanese government, Nasrallah said directly, and indirectly through Berri, that he supports the deployment of the Lebanese army to the south and the presence of UNIFIL, what does Israel still want?
Why did Chirack support the original French/American UN resolution plan?
Why is Iran not allowing its people to join the ranks of HA in Lebanon?
What does Syria want?


Chirack expressed his frustration at Syria lately. Syria wants to be back in the international community. The regime in Syria after Assad the father is basically an Iranian regime and is very reminiscent of the Syrian control over Lebanon. The US has been stalling. The goal is to isolate Syria from Iran by weakening HA in Lebanon and showing Syria that it won’t gain pressure on Israel and the USA through its HA card and it’s basically just using Israel to pressure Syria by destroying its card. Bush recently encouraged Olmert to hit “terrorist cells” in Syria and I think this was only a strategy to scare Syria. Meanwhile Olmert asks Washington to talk to Syria and Bush refuses. Syria wants to be talked to and Bush still refuses. Why is the whole region being dragged into a war you might ask? Bush wants chaos in Lebanon and in Syria, created through Israel, while weakening the resistance, just to get its troops in to “keep the peace”. Why did i say Syria so many times. Right now i tend to think it's all about that. The Iran/USA war might come down to cold war while using Syria as a pressure point and Lebanon merely as a battlefield (of course). While Israel HA is being used as a bait.

Very interesting update that might answer all questions:

A disagreement between Washington and Israel about the Shebaa farms. While the Israeli ambassador to the UN (the devil) stated that the Shebaa farms are outside of this present conflict and that basically Israel does not want to give it back, Washington is pushing for the Shebaa farm to be given to the UN and to be temporarily under UNIFIL control.

I just heard this today and it was just the expected move to support the theory below:

What’s the war in Lebanon about you might ask?

This is one theory:

THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE WASHINGTON POST.

"Summary:

The war on Lebanon of July 2006 presents a much-awaited opportunity for The United States to place a 'robust enough' force in southern Lebanon along the Tapline route connecting Saudi Arabia and Iraq's oilfields to the Mediterranean. In this way the US secures a vital route and preparesthe ground for Syrian-Israeli talks.

US goals in Lebanon:

In Lebanon, the US is intent on securing the vital -- and only -- pipeline route that connects the Saudi and Iraqi oil fields to the Mediterranean, and onto the lucrative European market as part of a longstanding strategy to beat Russian energy sales to the EU.

On its way to the Mediterranean refineries of Zahrani south of Sidon, Tapline crosses through the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and into the heartland of the Lebanese south. To ensure the safe passage of oil through Tapline, the US seeks to bring regional stability by coercing Israel and Syria to resolve the Golan dispute and solve the border and resource disputes between Lebanon, Israel, and Syria. The current war seems to be a step in that direction.

Following several years of pressure on both Israel and Syria, including stripping Syria of its influence on the Lebanese government while simultaneously exposing the role of the Israeli lobby in determining US foreign policy, there remain three issues before the negotiations can resume on US terms:

First, the US needs a pretext to place troops in southern Lebanon -- and eventually the Golan - to secure the route. Israel has adamantly resistedthis option for years, sometimes even mobilizing its domestic partners in the US to oppose such moves.

Second, the US needs to stabilize the route by adjusting the power balance by weakening Hizballah's military capability so that the US-backed Lebanese army could control all of the country including the areas controlled currently by Hizballah.

Third, the US needs to ensure that its presence in the area is accepted - if not called for -- by all the parties involved. From the Lebanon side, for years US funded NGOs have been active in the south, in what seems to be a prescient sense of positioning of US 'public diplomacy' with the local population. (Today, the multinational force of about 7,000 will be dominated by NATO forces, including Turkish troops, with token contingents from Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia and Russia. The actual US role today seems to be limited, but it might change during the course of the resolution. The main base will be near the port of Sidon, and another logistical base may be established near Tripoli). From the Israeli side, preventing Hizballah rocket fire will be the primary role of the US-led force and will be tolerated only if it appears 'robust enough' to do so.

So what is the US strategy?

1- Encourage Israel to destroy Hizballah's fighting capability.
2- Hope that the escalation in fighting will result in a serious and credible threat from Hizballah to Israel that Israel cannot solve on its own.
3- Make sure there are US partners both in Lebanon and Israel that support US presence on the border zone (Siniora and Peres).
4- Sell the idea of multinational troops that are more effective than UNIFIL troops as the only alternative to a continuous war.
5- Ensure that Syria is not alienated, and perhaps engaged, so that it can negotiate Golan with an exhausted, dependent Israel.

Why is the US silent on Lebanese infrastructure destruction?

1- It needs to give Israel space and time (3 weeks seems to be the pre-war agreement) to complete the task--at the risk of being complicit in the war crimes against Lebanon, more blatantly than in Kosovo.
2- It foresees that its presence in Lebanon will bring it the lion's share of lucrative contracts to rebuild, following the same logic used in Panama,Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
3- It might have been the price Israel demanded for Israel to accept the multinational force. The logic is that since Lebanon is going to become a US 'affiliate', in preparation for a peaceful agreement, the economic war is about to begin. 'Setting back Lebanon 20 years', the stated goal of the IDF before the attacks, fits the convoluted logic of giving Israel a 'head start'.
4- Targeting civilian infrastructure brings unity to the Lebanese polity, something that serves the US intention of stabilizing the country in the aftermath, marked by Washington's insistence that Sinioria's democracy is not weakened.
5- Escalating the war and widening the target base increases Hizballah's response against Israel, prompting its people to call for an end to the war.

The precedents for this approach of using a simmering conflict as a pretext to bring in the troops are several. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Panama's invasion, and the establishment of bases in Macedonia during the Kosovo crisis are all examples of the US exploiting a local conflict to provide a pretext for the US to intervene militarily. The strategic goal is the securing of the transportation and marketing routes of energy from Saudi Arabia to the European market.

The conflict exploited is the Hizballah-Israel simmering confrontation."

Have you seen Syriana?
And to clear up the Kosovo example read here.

Meanwhile in Lebanon:

After the Lebanese Civil War ended in 1991, the infrastructure, in fact the wholecountry, was in ruins. Cities and towns needed rebuilding, millions of Lebaneserefugees were displaced throughout the country, Government institutions, those thatsurvived destruction, were totally dysfunctional. Between 1991 and July 11th 2006,Lebanon and its people paid very dearly, in cash and in sweat, towards therebuilding of their country. That came at a cost: $45 billion in foreign debt--a lotwhen you think the population of Lebanon is only 3.75 million. What was morecolossal, however, was the rebuilding of Lebanon's image as a beautiful country(which it very much is), safe for tourists and attractive to foreign investment.Lebanon's economy is a "trust economy"--the country's image is a vital stimulant andcatalyst for Lebanon's economic stability and growth.

In the past 29 days, the following has happened:

Infrastructure
a.. Total direct damages in Lebanon is estimated at $6 billion, of which $1.2 Billion is in infrastructure. The consequential and indirect damages are incalculable.
b.. The Union of Engineers estimates that there are 440,000m2 (109 acres) worth of rebuilding in the South alone.
c.. There are over 7,000 buildings -- not homes, buildings-- that have been totally destroyed.
d.. Over 100 bridges have been destroyed, most of them essential for linking villages, major town, and cities together.
e.. For those of you who live in, close to, or commute daily to large cities, think of what would happen if the main highway artery into the city was taken out.Think of the colossal traffic. Think of the stress. The Israeli destruction of Ghazir, Casino, Halat, and Madfoun bridges did just that, cutting off hundreds of thousands of Lebanese in the Kiserwan and Jbeil provinces from entering Beirut.The only alternative now is to use local roads and village streets to make the crossing.
f.. Villages in Southern Lebanon are completely cut out: there are no roads leading into the villages, there is no electricity, and many of the mobile and telephone lines have been brought down. The President of International Red Cross, upon visiting a number of Southern villages a few days ago, declared that the South of Lebanon is nearing a humanitarian disaster. To note that, the second largest Red Cross operation in the world today is in South Lebanon, Darfur, Sudan being the first.

People

a.. +1000 killed, 30% of whom are children under the age of 12, +3000 injured.
b.. Over 900,000 refugees, over 60% of them no longer have homes.
c.. Over 220,000 Lebanese (5.9% of the population) have already left the country with a wave of mass-immigration expected to take place with the opening of Beirut International Airport

Pollution

The lebanese shore has 3cm of black thick crust onit of fuel and dead fish and according to the bioecologist will need 10 years to beclean again.
Beirut has a black cloud one can see from some altitude and people who live in it inhale gunpowder mixed with CO. This is not mentioning the accumulating garbage.

Industry & Economy (Source: Minister Gemayel, ex-President, Association of Lebanese Industrialists, Jacques Sarraf on political talk show Bikoull Jour'a)
a.. 60% of the expected $4.4 Billion tourism dollars for 2006 are lost, and withit the potential revenue of years to come.
b.. Half of the expected 1.6 million tourists (an influx of 42% of Lebanon's population) are long forgotten
c.. 17,000 businesses, between pubs, bars, and restaurants, have shut down
d.. 165,000 summer-time jobs are lost
e.. There are between 25 - 30 major industrial/manufacturing companies that havebeen destroyed
f.. Of the major manufacturing companies destroyed, four of them are joint-ventures with direct foreign investors--this marks a terrible blow in investor confidence
g.. About 90 small to medium size industrial/manufacturing companies have been destroyed
h.. LibanLait, one of Lebanon's leading dairy and dairy products producer whose facility is said to top the standards and technology available in similar European plants, has been completely destroyed.
i.. Total industry/manufacturing direct damages estimated at $190,000,000
j.. Officials estimate Lebanon needs $10 Billion to effectively cover damages and start its recovery process
k.. The country has passed its critical fuel reserves.

Hospitals

a.. Hospitals are running out fuel, including the American University Hospital (AUH) in Beirut, the country's number one hospital and one of its largest. No fuel means no electricity. No electricity means a disaster to thousands of patients whose life is dependent on the running of certain medical equipment, from kidney dialyses to life-support. Fuel ships stand a few nautical miles from the Lebanese ports but won't enter until Israel guarantees they will not be targeted. That guarantee has been systematically denied by Israel on the basis that some of that fuel might go to Hizbollah. Israel has even rejected plans to have international monitoring groups that will ensure the fuel goes only to hospitals.
b.. The siege is also preventing much needed medication to enter the country. Ofthe many hospital inventories that have almost run out, perhaps the most tragicand touching is that of St. Judes Children Cancer Hospital.
c.. Pharmacies have raised the alarm of not only depleting stocks but a surge in sales of stress-relief medication.

Education Sector
a.. Officials are not even speculating as to when schools will re-open. For one, many of these schools now house thousands of refugees. Second, many of the principle roads are no longer accessible preventing a large mass of students from practically making it to school.
b.. Universities are closed until further notice.
c.. When schools and universities do open, the magnitude of change on students and parents, and the emotional, psychological, and practical consequences of that, is going to be very severe.

Come... Let's play

A displaced Lebanese child.
(pic. of Fatima and more of her friends from this site)

I still leave my apartment every morning,
I still wake up
I still go to the store and pick up one, two packs of Marlboro
I still miss the nights in Jbeil by the sea shore,
A handful of peanuts and eyes on the stars…
I can still smell the sea, and feel the sand in my fingers…
I can still taste the air of Beirut…

I still glance at the shelves to glimpse at the headlines,
The papers are leaving us, more so every day
The blogs are outraged, less so every day
And you would think the killing stopped
And you would think it’s not getting worse
No
No
No
And a hundred no to you
And a hundred no will not stop you
And a million life that’s not good enough
And a stream of blood not big enough

I still wake up
Look around me in awe
How do people go on?
How do I go on?
And I miss a hot day at Bint Jbeil
And I’ve never been to Bint Jbeil
What if it is all a dream?
What if her brother was killed?
What if he was a prince?
And I feel sick
And I read a curfew
No
No
No
I scream, and nobody listens
How dare you?
It must be a dream

And I feel their boots on my skin
And every rip in the earth
Rips in my heart
Rips in my soul
And every vein they cut
They cut from my wrist
And as they block the sky
I live in darkness
And every little face they burn
Every little lash they burn
Every little mouth they burn
And as the earth opens up
Once more
To hide their pure bodies
I curl up
With a dead stare
My body aches of disgust
Still as our dead shores
My body revolts and spits out
A black breath for our black skies
Blood for blood
Tears for our fears
vomit for the lies
Sweat to expunge the sins
And I’m still scared
Still scared,
Are we ever prepared
For the unspeakable

Do you hear the screams
Under the rubbles
Do you see the Litani
A river of blood
Do you see the dead
Can you close your eyes
Are you the devil
In disguise
Is this the human demise
Is this the beginning
Or the end?
And now what?

We wake up
Again
And pretend
To be alive
our story
we will not forget
you will see it
in our eyes
our turns
our stares
our soul
that you will never steal...

Beirut..
(don't forget the Amnesty International global candlelight vigil on Monday, click here)
(pic)

She said, “And you know what bothers me too? How they pronounce our names on those foreign news channels.. My village and your village, and all the places where my father used to take us. Just like that. Like a stranger who brings you news of an old lover and tells you he married or died or killed himself, not noticing the pain screaming in you eyes. It hurts how our names lose their meaning when they say them…”
Here's another piece translated from Eve,

In Beirut

In Beirut,
there’s something, like that, just like that…
Stuck in the air, printed on the walls of small roads,
Dripping little by little from the trees right after the rain…

There’s something that makes my foreign friend drive recklessly and ignore the traffic lights. Something that makes him tell me about some of our places. Places that I haven’t had the chance to see and colors I couldn’t understand. He starts understanding the difference between mjadarra and mdardara, he starts talking politics, he loves Fairuz even when he doesn’t understand a word she says. He starts building a house in the mountain, where he would spend the rest of the summer. And sometimes, so many times, he would get carried away and say: “Us Lebanese will never learn…”
In Beirut,
there’s something that makes him love her more than i do…
There’s always a shortcut road that takes you to the sea. There are always cameras taking pictures, fearing that the eye would forget, fearing that the heart would drift…
There’s a road built just to carry your dream, while you walk, not knowing where.
There’s something in people’s eyes, like a question, like the old buildings, like an escaping look, like the ruin.

In Beirut,
there’s a secret that you don’t know until you’re at the airport with your bag… until you’re estranged stranded in young cities, one after the other, forever longing to your crude city, the city where “the difference between the darkness and the light is one word”… And you miss the familiar chaos where the cars park on sidewalks and people strut in the middle of the streets… And forever, for as much as you hide away, you’re haunted with the fever of Beirut, and you know the illness is part of you and you know that she will never leave you.
In Beirut,
There’s something bigger than me, and bigger than you. There’s an April that never ends. And a place, a place that, whenever you lose yourself, whenever you fall, whenever you hurt, you come back whispering the letters of its name once anew, in Beirut.

In Beirut, there’s something, like that, just like that…
Stuck in the air, printed on the walls of small roads,
Dripping from the trees after the rain…

Beirut though should only be praised and whispered to in the language of the heart so here’s Eve’s Beirut:
http://lebanonheartblogs.blogspot.com/2006/08/bi-bayrout.html

And so many people around the world love Lebanon as much as we do
and more small examples here...

CNN… A window to the future… minute by minute updates here.

Since I came to this country, I learned what CNN was all about...

The first time I heard about the twin towers, I didn’t know what the twin towers were. Coming from the Middle East you know that Bin Laden is an American creation. A couple of days after the 9/11 tragic fiasco, Sharon was on TV defining the Islamic axis of evil and soliciting the world’s sympathy. A two in one package in the spirit of a war-guided PR campaign against the Islamic street and with the knowledge of the influence of the Israel lobby in the current administration, I knew back then what to be expected.

Then Bush had his famous crusaders speech that he later apologized for. Bush is largely supported by the red states but surprisingly even the democrats of the large blue east and west costs were supportive of his election just for the mere fact that, pushed by the pro-Israeli neo-cons Woolfowitz, Chaney and the sorts, he would start the war on Iraq, which was becoming a threat to Israel. We watched the Iraq “terror” propaganda unfold. We saw the WMD case get wrapped with the 9/11 incident advocating an eminent threat that made sense to the mentally challenged.

With time, of course, it started to unfold. No WMD but who cares.. More and more stories about discrepancies in intelligence and lies and lies about 9/11 even… but who cares… what’s done is done… The public is too short tempered and short sighted and busy busy busy.. busy working from dusk till dawn to be able to afford all the shit that you need to have to complete your fruitless existence. Look at Iraq now. People say the result is a disaster for Bush and I say well how do you know that? This might be exactly what Bush wanted, chaos and modern day colonization played upon the argument that these countries could not control their own people (Cuba would be next just watch).

In a joint press conference testifying at the senate hearing, the generals are saying a civil war might be erupting in Iraq, no shit!!! 100 people die every day and Rumsfeld told us not so long ago from the parallel world he lives in, as Zakariya put it, that the results could not be better there. Today, With Rumsfeld smiling in the back, senator John Warner, the chairman of armed forces committee, answered a question about the government’s role in Iraq by saying that the Lebanese government is still functional and it only needs to get rid of its militias. When the reporter corrected him, he goes.. well yeah I meant Iraq. Remember when Bush kept mistaking Iraq for Iran, well no mistake there, Iran is next.

I think we should start considering these little mistakes as signs, the same as the leaflets dropped by the IDF. There is nothing you can do about it but be ware that you were warned. In a recent article by Cockburn he mentioned a quote from Clarke, “Wesley Clarke is now saying that back in late 2001 he visited the Pentagon and was told the planned hit list included Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan as part of a five-year campaign plan. Two down, five to go” and so here you go…

It is clear now that with the function of the American press, CNN became like a crystal ball. A place where I can look to predict what will happen next. Based on the amount of time and money invested in the propaganda you can anticipate the next war and extrapolate the possible damage. We know the war on Lebanon was all about Iran because we’re Lebanese and we understand our regional politics, but we could have as easily understood that from the non-stop pictures of HA fighters depicted as an Iran-funded “terror” organization.

Syria was recently called by the president of the United States of America a state of terror. So the whole state is “terrorist” so watch as the Syria/USA war unravels as well, or continuation of sanctions to say the least. So Hamas, Hizballah, the Iran army, the Syrian army, AlQaeda, Taliban, Fath, PLO, IRA.. who knows the Cuban army, the Venezualan army, the Chinese army and of course the North Korean army are all terrorists.. maybe the Swiss guard of the Vatican, after all they are a small insurgency and they did fight a mighty army in the past with ferocious force driven by ideology.. And they wear weird outfits.

What you don't see on CNN...

Shouldn't the purpose of journalism to question the government? This IS a faschist country.

Nasrallh is always a step ahead.
Also after Israel's threat to hit the center of Beirut, Nasrallah said today if you do that we'll hit Tel-Aviv, he added note that this would be a reaction and not an action. He said we will be willing to stop fighting if you do. The headline now is Nasrallah threatening to hit Tel-Aviv. The American administration is whoring Israel for war and the media is not showing people the road to peace. After the headline, Nasrallah's threat, they go straight to Condi said we want peace. Nasrallah also said, it is not Israel, Israel is just a tool and Olmert is a fool. Israel will suffer for days to come, for future generations. It will suffer the hate of the world just because it is being used, through Olmert's thirst for power, by the bloodthirsty administration in the USA. The USA refused Israel's request to pressure Syria to exert some influence on HA. The USA asks Israel to hit "terrorist cells" in Syria. Nasrallah is right. He asks the Arab leaders not to be fools. Not to support America just to keep their leadership. He says the new "middle east" will not include your posts, it will not necessarily include your countries. Arabic countries are to be dissected down and weakened down and reduced to small colonies based on religion and sects (Iraq). Nasrallah is right but non of this is translated on CNN. Why should they. Leave the people in the dark. Leaving information out on purpose is the oldest trick in the book, straight out lies by the media.

What you see on CNN...

The Israeli ambassador to the UN, a.k.a. the devil, says today that we the Lebanese have to blame HA for our death, that the international community should not hold the low death toll in Israel against them. He also said that HA is hiding missile launchers in civilian houses. Every civilian house we hit has a room for HA’s missiles and a child who sleeps with a missile in the next room is a child who might very well not wake up, he said. (http://www.bloggingbeirut.com/archives/590-a-Plane-VS-a-Child-Exhibition-Downtown-Beirut.html). Didn't Ramon say all the ones left in the South, including civilians, must be HA and so they must die. Didn't they start the war by saying all of Lebanon and Lebanese will be punished? Really no surprise there. Don't they say every Palestinian child killed is a step forward? So why are we shocked? Because the world is silent? what world? Show me a government today that didn't write its modern history books with blood, so fuck that world you talk about.
"Devil" also still argues that Israel needs to defend itself and repeated the idea of collateral damage. (doesn’t collateral damage imply that the undesired damage is a side result to the desired goal? Meaning killing your opponent and maybe harming some civilians in the way?) He still says that Israel doesn’t target civilians and that it is HA who are the criminals using their children and women as shields.

In an interview with Larry King, the secretary of state, a.k.a. ugly bitch, said that the U.S. never opposed a cease-fire. Goes along the statements of the "devil", that they never target civilians.

When the UN post “accident” happened, Christiana Amanpour was covering the event. Her fellow CNN reporter almost pushed her into saying that this could be done by HA. Finally she laughed and said, this was an air strike, but yes we can’t overrule the possibility. Part of the strategy of discrediting the UN observers, an Israeli official said days later, these UN personals used to eat and play cards with terrorists. Yet every time they set their demands, they say implement 1559, because it's a UN resolution, knowing that Israel is in breach of 68 UN resolutions but that doesn't seem to matter.

They mention for a minute the Human Rights Watch report describing Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon and then they show a response by the IDF, as if the two parties are equally credible and reliable and unbiased to comment on the matter.

Some questions:
- Tehran would not allow international forces in Lebanon and Israel gets new fighter jets from the USA and says this is America's thanks to Israel for fighting Iran. Are we Iran?
- What's a terrorist? Is it the costume thing? Is it not sexy enough?
- Why not call Fidel a terrorist? A dictator, ok.. Like Saddam.. Killed only his own, fine.. Are you then going to bomb Cuba, take its money, kill its people and put Castro to trial? That's how democracy is born right? Spasms...
- Where is Anderson Cooper shaving when he's on the Lebanese/Israeli border?
-How come the death toll in Lebanon as shown on CNN is always less by 200 people and the injured by a thousand?
- What's wrong with Paula Zahn's mouth?
- If you can make a documentary where a reporter follows the footsteps of BinLaden, how come the intelligence can't catch him?
- Why is the Israeli ambassador to the UN always on TV?
- Why is Bush in the ranch?
- The "devil" gave an analogy equating the HA fighter hiding behind a civilian to a bank robber taking a hostage, he said if you shoot the hostage, it's the robber's fault. Not in any Hollywood movie have i seen a policeman shooting the hostage in the head in cold blood, How is that legal?, especially if the hostage is a child?. That's when you actually get a negotiator, you know like diplomacy for fuck sake. He said that Lebanon is taken hostage by HA, well that explains why they're going to shoot Lebanon now. So the question is, are Israeli diplomats just idiots?
- How do they call Khkhkhizballah cowards when they're scared to death of them?
- How do you fire a katyusha from behind a child?
- What the fuck is wrong with that Australian reporter in downtown Beirut?
- Why do all the politicians look so well rested when we look like crap?
- How do you talk to Syria when you don't talk to Syria and what is Queen Nour doing speaking in our name?
- Why do they have a different title for each war when all our wars are the same war?

My sister's dark war humor:
- we are fighting with a proportionate force, they kill 800 of us, we blow up an olive factory and kill a tree.
- The children of the Intifada responded with stones to bone-crushing rubber bullets, we are responding to cluster bombs with missiles that blow up toothpaste factories in Kyriat shmouna. We're going to fight the Israelis with plaque.

Know you did us wrong
so wrong
for we have not known of a bigger injustice
nor shall we
for as long as we survive
nor shall we forget
nor shall we forgive
nor shall you rest
on the rubbles of the hearts
nor shall you see us
for we look like you
nor shall you know us
for we will embrace you
but damned you are
and your children after you
by the tears of the orphans
that you made us
damned is a nation
built on blood
and doomed you are
stranded in a sea of hate
more polluted your soul is
than our Mediterranean
the coast dampened
by the smiles of the angels
wears the black
and mourns your eyes
and the eyes of your children…

Death toll:

- 831 in Lebanon, many of them children, 3225 injured (> 750000 in Lebanon displaced)
- 19 in Israel
- 176 in Gaza

Read this article by Justin Raimondo.