Blogging was not on my mind at all, as other things in life, like vacationing and wrapping up work before I run away to Europe for two weeks - were keeping my quite busy for the first half of July.
Then something happened. So many things started unfolding that one thinks it's a nightmare. For History fans, or for movie goers, to sum it up, if Nazis invaded Switzerland, they would have been more compassionate than the Israelis are inflicting on Lebanon.. I have yet to comprehend how people who claim to have survived a holocaust can inflict so much pain and hatred on others. They are killing children, bombing hospitals, disconnecting highways, targeting even the Light-houses, bridges, aracheological places, water dams, milk factories (?), ambulances, humanitarian aid, gas stations and all. They are dropping 25 tonne bombs, all that for a kidnapping of two soldiers - for heaven's sake they are two soliders , not two nuns, or two old ladies with flower brimmed hats!!! They forgot that they have stolen someone else's land, thrown a million Palestinian refugees out since 1948, and gone to war against their neighbours in the name of finding a safe haven for their people. They have brought nothing but hatred and destruction.
For those who will throw accusations back at me of being anti-semite, I can afford to be called an anti-semite, as I am a semite myself!! Try something else.
Another thing to be said, the US tax payers are paying for F-16, they are defending Israel on false pretences and whether they know it or not, they are contributing to genocide against a whole country.. they are inviting havoc and hatred on themselves more and more.. then someone asks, why do Arabs &Muslims hate the US? Perhaps they should take some more time to see what is being done and committed in their names with or without their knowledge.
Ignorance is not always the best defense in the face of terrorism and hatred.I'm back at work despite the dangers involved, in the afternoons and weekends I try to contribute some work with the disaster relief efforts. To make it easier to comprehend, Lebanon is asking for Earthquake relief equipments , a magnitude 8 earthquake. As if it's not enough destruction, any moving vehichle heading towards the severed cities or towns, whether an ambulance, a truck, a motor cycle, a UN or International Red Cross truck, ANYTHING is being targeted. Those are the civilized people who survived Auschwitz - who have the right to defend themselves.The problem is not the lack of food, medicine, supplies, the problem is that the civilized helpless defenseless [yeah.. right] Israelis hit any truck carrying aid - or should i say, especialy any truck carrying aid. They managed to kill 65 people, including 42 children in Qana in a bomb shelther last sunday, and prevented ambulances from arriving there for 12 hours. The very same village they "accidently" dropped a bomb that killed 102 civilians in 1996 who were seeking refuge in a UN barracks, and lately they have grown accustomed to the killing of civilians everywhere else around the country. 1000 Dead civilians.
My friends, coworkers and family are still fortunate to be alive, but we dont know when our luck will run out. Until then, we will not give in to the force of evil. Until then, we dare to dream of peace.
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ReplyDeleteYou're a new blogger, so I won't be hard on you.
ReplyDeleteFirst : If you want people to read your blog, be sensible and factual, throwing words aroung like genocide and what not, isn't going to help you. If Israel wanted to do Genocide in Lebanon, believe me we wouldn't have 1000 civilians dead, we would have 100,000 civilians dead.
Some would argue that it is veiled Genocide, that is, it is intentionally limited to as to not attract scrutiny and attack, but still getting rid of a few people they dislike. Maybe so, I don't know, but it's still not genocide, it is indiscriminate and illegitimate and amounts to war crimes, but not genocide.
2. About the anti-semite bit. Your line of reasoning is flawed. It is not because you are a semite that you can't be anti-semitic (not suggesting that you are). Indeed, the word anti-semitic has come to mean hate or discrimination toward Jews in general. So the word has been tokened to refer to a specific community and not to the whole semitic community. You see why your reasoning is flawed? If you are accused of being an Anti-Jewish for instance, would you be able to retort back and say "I can't be Anti-Jewish, I myself am Jewish". Indeed it doesn't make sense :-)
By the way, just so you know, most Zionists will argue that Jews who hate Jews exist. They call them Self hating Jews. Basically any Jew who disagrees with the policies of the state of Israel is automatically labelled a self hating Jew. For example Noam Chomsky or Walt and Mersheimer, or Uri Avnery, and many others.
In any case, overall the rest of the post is sensible although a bit too simplistic. I think you'll find that in time you will have to sharpen your arguments, because Israelis will just have a field day with your posts.
All this from a Lebanese who categorically condemns Israel's disgusting agression on Lebanon, its people and infrastructure.
All this from a Lebanese who categorically condemns Hezballah's illegal, irresponsible and unilateral attack on Israeli soldiers.
Fadi - a GREAT post!! You're absolutely right - I second your anylysis! As to milk-factories ... are you so sure, Hizbullah fighters didn't hide there?? Cm'on .. or in powerplants - maybe they live there too!? Were it not THAT sad, I'd say it doesn't go much more ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteDo you hear ANYTHING about the two soldiert who were kidnapped? I don't - for a long time already. What does that tell? They needed a pretext ... on top, what had NOBODY reported about the two brothers, a doctor and his brother, who were kidnapped from Lebanese soil by Israel PRIOR to the abduction of the soldiers?? I'd like to understand ...
The US-taxpayers are not told the truth, not shown the pictures, told the REAL story! The media is highly censored ... you have to understand the pictures of dead children and babies are "too cruel for the audience"! That they are REALITY - is ignored! I could go on and on and on ... I am SO FURIOUS about the ignorance, the lies, the lack of compassion of the rest of the world where people just sat for the last month in front of the TV's and looked ... like a bad criminal.
STAY SAFE FADI - WE SUPPORT YOU ALL THE WAY!! This nightmare will end, I pray soon - and Lebanon will stand up again and be more beautiful that ever!! The people are GREAT - they are resiliant and proud ... and will make it! If there only a tiny part I can contribute to it - you bet I will!!
GOD bless you, Lebanon - and ALL Lebanese people!!
Fadi, Your post is purely emotional and I imagine that it is healthy to release the frustration But my, is it dangerous when rantsare presented as truth and facts????
ReplyDeleteYes the two soldiers were the spark but it is the provocations and totally irresponsible and might I add illegal activities of a private militia that Israel was responding to. Do you think that they should have abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens and just wited until HA has guided missiles with larger payload capacity. Our government has failed us Fadi. They were not courageous enough or strong enough to stop HA who took it upon themselves to play this deadly game on behalf 4 million people.
No doubt the Israeli reaction has been brutal and debilitating. It has generated a few massacres and detroyed lots of infrastructure in addition to the over 1000 civilian deaths This carnage by Israel must stop and is sensless because I am not sure that in the final analysis this devastation visited by the IAF has produced many tangible results.
But asking for the killings to end and pretending that we had nothing to do with them is a completely different matter. Then please do not cheapen the words such as genocide by using them so cavalierly. If the death of 1000 people after an intensive warfare for thiry days is genocide then what would you call what is going on in Iraq or better yet what went on during our civil war? The death of one person is one death too many but to just condemn one side and use sensational words serves no purpose, at least no constructive end.
All of this suffering could have been avoided had we deployed the Lebanese army to the south prior to July 12, 2006. But when we chose not to honour our obligations as a sovereign state we became complicit in the illegal activities that we seemed to condone.
No use crying over spilled milk. Even today the carnage could be brought to a quick halt if we find the backbone to declare openly that we do not condone the activities of private militias on our land and that we will from here on impose the rule of law on every one.
Fdi, as a Lebanese, I feel your pain but I will not blame others for all my problems and I do not want to go back to having only a facade of a modern stste that hides a dysfunctional and rotten system beneath it. I am not willing to tolerate a state within a state anylonger and I demand a government that takes its oath of office seriously and that will not shy away fromimposing the law.
I almost broke into tears when anoymous spared me his grapes of wrath. This must be a first?
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of this blog is that it allows me to reject/accept the comments, I intentionally left yours to draw attention to the following:
"believe me we wouldn't have 1000 civilians dead, we would have 100,000 civilians dead."
----Oh I believe you, please go ahead. I'm adamant that we want a genocide. War crimes won't do. Kill us all. This time, we promise to call the 6,000,000 bodies graveyard Auschwitz. Those that are left of us can then go occupy a piece of land somewhere else, kill it's inhabitants, attack its neighbours, and then keep lamenting our selves are defenseless pitiful poor little things.
Is this what you wanted to hear? I have more of that, but I will refrain from using this language.
HOW DARE YOU be so inhumane. Have you no shame? Have you no respect for human life? Do you even consider the Lebanese, or for that matter, anybody else, human beings? [if in doubt, check the last paragraph]
I will use the same logic you used to prove something: "I cannot be anti-Jewish because I'm Jewish."
Does that mean that "I cannot be inhumane because I am a human being myself." How else would you describe Adolf Hitler.
Religious affiliation is a choice, political affiliation if a choice also. Religion as a "race" is repulsive, because in one part it ends up degrading the person, or the religion. When will the Zionists get that out of their system?
Example: Does Ariel Sharon represent Judaism? Do his acts warrant mass-reward or mass-punishment. Let us not fall into a trap of prejudice. Let us first agree on the following terminology:
A Jew, is a person with a religious affiliation to the Jewish religion. That is not part of our discussion. If you think Elvis is God, good for you, visit Graceland, but don't occupy the house.
A secular person, is a Jew,Muslim, Buddhist, Catholic by birth, but who is not religiously affiliated with a religion - by choice or lack of practice or belief.
Hence, Halutz is a person (maybe), not a Jew as far as I am concerned. Unless religion is turned into a brand stamped on one's forhead, it's none of my business in this blog.
A Zionist, is a person who is either secular or Jewish, but has a political plan that covers, but is not limited to, genocide (keep killing till we qualify), displacement of people, and God promising them something, although many of them don't even believe in God?
Halutz is certainly a zionist, don't care where or what or how he prays. However, if he hears voices at night, they're either his victims, or he needs Lithium to cure his delusions.
An Israeli, a term only appearing after 1948, can be a Jew, a muslim or christian (survivors of the Nakba of 1948), a secular person, a zionist, or Russian who thought Moscow was too cold in 1988, or a Falasha who was after a better life, but ended up at a war front or sweeping streets for Europeans instead.
I would very much like that both Arabs and "Israelis have a field day" over the blog, to have a civilized discussion, instead of fighting over the border.Don't you?
Drop the biggotry, threats, the wailing scenes, the crying over anything before 1945, the accusations, and let us state only FACTS & ideas.
Please be polite, specific, and respectful of the value of human life.
now my favourite part:
All this from a Lebanese? I cannot BelieVE you're Jealous!! You actually made us all very proud [btw, you have every right to be jealous], at least no body is discussing self-hating Lebanese, whereas their is an anti-semite, anti-zionist etc. term in all World Languages. Why is that do you think?
Everyone around the world are either fond of us Lebanese, or dead Jealous. Not surprisingly, some are both Fond & Jealous, there are no exceptions. God is Lebanese, He the Almighty makes sure no exceptions occur.
So, I will take your attempt to a degrading comment as a compliment, because I know you mean it as one!
Did I catch you similing?!
I knew it!!
No doubt the Israeli reaction has been brutal and debilitating. It has generated a few massacres and detroyed lots of infrastructure in addition to the over 1000 civilian deaths This carnage by Israel must stop and is sensless because I am not sure that in the final analysis this devastation visited by the IAF has produced many tangible results.
ReplyDeleteSalam Aleikom..
ReplyDeleteJ'espere que mon commentaire va etre publier.Les choses s'agravent de jour en jour,rien ne predi un cessé le feu immediat et inconditionnel.Le peuple libanais s'est adopté une resistance farouche et exemplaire qui est en Hizbullah,je na sais comment expliquer un mon ami Yaron que le Hizbullah defendt le liban car l'intrut c'est israel,la destruction des infrastructures,la turies des civils quotidienne sous pretxte que des membres de la resistance se cachent ou bien tirent des rockets des tois des maison n'est que foutaise et mensonge et propagande made in israel&usa corporation, je me demande pourquoi les gens ceux qui croient que notre culture,notre religion,nous enseignent la haine et la probation de tuer tout se qui est etranger a notre communauté,a ses gens là je lance un message,apprenez,soyez curieux,nous sommes le contraire de tout ça,encore une fois je blame les quelques medias,d'ici ou d'ailleurs,qui nous caricaturisent,comme des etres primitifs,dommage.Cet guerre soit disant est declanché pour ramener les 2 soldats a la maison,mais voir la distruction massive du sud liban les choses vont au delas du precedent pretexte,je peux que traduire cette offencive,de rage,de haine,rien n'avoir avec la paix,car,tuer,menacer,bloquer les aides humanitaires,n'a rien avoir avec des gens qui veulent la stabilitée de la region....Yaron,ne regrete aucune victime libanaise pour lui les libanais ont choisi le sacrifice de mourir pour le hizbullah,mais c'est logique cher ami,quand une chose est prise par force,la resistance,la foi,la patience,trois piliés qui constutuent une force indestructible,que meme,les armes les plus sophestiquées ne peuvent afaiblir,la verité et l'amour ganent toujours,aucune injustice ne dur,croyez-moi...