Lebanon Blog

Lebanon four years after...

2010-07-14T00:53:00.000+03:00

With the end of the 2010 world cup, the Spanish national soccer team claims the title as football world champions... For the Lebanese, it meant running through the streets with a Spanish flag. As I returned home from watching the match with a friend, I witnessed two young children from a nearby balcony shouting to me "Monsieur! Viva l'Espana!" I kept on moving to my building's entrance without even flinching at their comments. The whole experience of the World Cup in Lebanon is astonishing, because its population decides to embody almost all of the teams who are in the cup and parade in the streets on their behalf. One neighborhood erects a gigantic Germany flag. Another puts up a Brazilian flag. These flags leave the Lebanese flags...few and far between...

Perhaps this isn't the most significant part of my post. It is more interesting because of what fears this environment evokes. It reminds us all of what followed during the last World Cup. The unexpected confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006. This year, it has become almost an accepted belief that war will break out this summer, as soon as the football is finished... That has happened and here we are, eagerly awaiting the fate of Lebanon's summer. With tourism at an all-time high and Lebanon's relative stability continuing, it seems like a recipe for disaster in the making (only in Lebanon)..

While many hold the belief that when Italy wins, Lebanon suffers with a war or invasion. This year we will have to wait and see if the Spanish victory will spare the Lebanese summer. Maybe it's not a bad thing for the Lebanese to wave the Spanish flag, or to go down to the South and embrace the Spanish troops that are working as part of UNIFIL. Instead, villages are confronting them and challenging their patrols. Instead they should be welcoming them and inviting them to stay as long as they can, because the moment they leave will be a harsh moment for Lebanon..

From the World Cup to the United Nation's Interim Force in Lebanon... Respect the Spanish...

The Perfect Storm Followed by the "Perfect Storm"

2008-05-09T02:43:00.002+03:00

The last few days have gathered together the perfect storm for Lebanon to erupt. A strike was held and taken hostage by the feuding opponents of the Lebanese government. After the leader of Hizballah spoke, Beirut witnessed some of the nastiest street fights it has seen since the unforgettable civil war. Residents of Beirut were left listening to the sounds of bullets and grenades and rendered helpless.

I recall at one moment, all I could do is pray for rain. Rain for some reason, which is very rare during the spring and summertime, might be able to slow down the deterioration and aid in restoring the calm.

Unbelievably, I'm sitting here at almost 3 am, during a very violent thunderstorm which woke me up from my brief sleep. I was almost certain I was hearing RPGs or some sort of explosion, but it was ordinary thunder. I felt that I had to write at least for my own thought and record of how this perfect storm just seem to enter the scene at the right time. While I don't have the energy to keep writing, I couldn't resist putting this one in the books. :)

End of the 40 days of Mourning

2008-03-23T00:56:00.002+02:00

The latest twist in the fate of Lebanon finds the country and its people brought once again to their knees by foreign powers. With the Arab Summit approaching (ironically being held in Damascus), the main topic of discussion is supposed to be how to end the stalemate in Lebanon. This will prove to be an extreme challenge with the Lebanese delegation absent at the Arab League event. Other Arab countries have threatened to boycott the event if Lebanon does not have a president. Since there has been no signs of a deal, it would seem these countries will have to make good on their threats.

While this topic is worth reflecting on, I would rather take a minute to discuss the current threat of conflict, the new potential Israeli-Lebanese War. One could say that this new war began in February with the assassination of Imad Moughnieh.

I remember hearing on February 13th that Imad Moughnieh was assassinated in Damascus. My initial reaction was of pure shock because I knew how covert this guy was in all his movements and activities. He was so good at keeping on the down low that many intelligence agencies didn't even have a photograph of him.

He was killed in a carbomb assassination, which Hizballah holds Israel responsible for and has guaranteed retaliation for this loss. Israel has told Hizballah and Syria through different diplomatic messengers that it will retaliate for any retaliatory attack.

In the end, this leaves Lebanon staring down another potential war that will push the country to the brink of internal and external breakdown. The real question is when will the foreign powers open the gates of hell?

The Infinite Perceptions of Reality

2008-01-16T00:05:00.000+02:00

News in Lebanon travels fast. You sit. You wait. You hear about an explosion. You wait. You hear that it was in a certain area. You wait. The area changes. Someone tells you they heard it, they see smoke, it was definitely a bombing. But who? Why? All of these questions keep swirling in your head. Plenty of people will offer what they think, and when the day is done, you probably have heard just about every possibility out there.

THIS TIME, it was a bit different for me. After living here for three years, you gradually begin to accept a situation, and everytime something happens you just sink a little further into depression, but feel that eventually it will just go away. The last bombing, the assassination of Francois Hajj, left me depressed and not in the mood to write, because in the end, I feel like I am writing the same thing over and over again, which might reflect exactly how the Lebanese feel. It's like having a disease that slowly breaks you, so slowly that you have enough time to develop a false sense of improvement; this is the Lebanese disease. However, this time, it was "close to home".

Today, around 4:40pm, a remote controled bomb was detonated as a U.S. Embassy vehicle passed by on the searoad, near Nahar l Mout. Witnesses have said that a car was trying to pass the diplomatic vehicle and inadvertently took the brunt of the explosion as the bomb was detonated. The embassy SUV was lightly damaged, in comparison to the car that was mangled next to it. 4 people died. 20 injured.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack up til now. The question may never be answered. The more important question is where exactly is this country going? In the end, all of the victims of this horrific attack WERE LEBANESE.

As an American living in Lebanon, I have to admit that the situation has left me with a new fear. Not only are there explosions in Lebanon, but they have begun to target my country, which includes me, even if I don't agree with the current politics. At the end of the day, I'm American, I will be seen as an American, and my intentions are irrelevant. This new dynamic has brought me back to my original fears, leaving me in solitude.

The hardest part is getting up the next day and trying to live it as you did the day before, hoping that the situation will calm down.

If history is any indicator of events, it would look as if Lebanon is yet again destined for another rocky dead end, leading to civil strife. The only thing that can save them is the "watan", which is what someone told me, and I believe she is right. "Watan" translates as nation, but carries a meaning that is beyond words, that only one man has seemed to have mastered. I leave you with this thought.

"Pity the Nation" by Khalil Gibran

Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine-press.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hooting, only to welcome another with trumpeting again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

The Slippery Slope

2007-11-12T23:38:00.000+02:00

I guess this is as good a time as any to start writing again. I know I have been silent for the past few months, but I feel like this is all due to my unfortunate adaptation to the lebanese environment. I have slowly become indifferent to a situation that once struck me with awe.

The current situation on the ground shows that it will not be a quiet week nor month. There is a great likelihood that some type of conflict will break out before the presidential election has time to take place. Why u ask? Well, let's just look at the regional and local players.

Syria - It has been sidelined from the latest events, holding only two wild cards: Lebanon and Iraq. Syria will do just about anything to retrieve its lost territory and needs to jockey for a new position at the table. Look for Syria to take a bold step soon.

Hizballah - The Shi'ite Political Militia is working on preserving its lifeline through domestic shows of force. It will do anything to keep an ally in Baabda or do it's best to keep the elections from happening. Look for some type of knee jerk reaction following Syria's bold step to set off some type of conflict, postponing the election

Iran - need to say anything other than.. nuclear program? the Iranians will do anything to take the International Communities eyes and sanctions off of them. Why not send some telegrams to South Lebanon to raise the roof?

Israel - The poor little country who lives in a jungle, surrounded by big bad hungry lions, is looking for a way to regain its deterrent strategy in Lebanon. The little country that could will do whatever it takes to put the shine back on the IDF's brass.

to be continued...

July 15th... the countdown begins....

2007-07-07T18:44:00.000+03:00

I heard July 7th, 12th, and 15th.. You wouldn't believe rumors, I mean who does anyway? What has caught me by surprise is that the rumors have been circulating ever since the ceasefire in August. The latest word on the streets of Beirut go along the lines that Syria is going to pull out all of its citizens from Lebanon due to "security concerns" and ultimately close the borders, leaving Lebanon landlocked. In addition to the Syrian move, there are rumors that the Opposition movement will take the opportunity to set up a second government. This hasn't happened since the civil war, so it will be bringing Lebanon on the brink of a second civil war, which promises to be as bloody as the first.

While these rumors continue to circulate, the second major rumor is a war between Israel and Syria that will drag Lebanon along with it. The battlefield will go beyond the South this time, as Hezbollah has been preparing it's new strategy in the Bekaa Valley, a stronghold which it would like to exploit in another guerrilla warfare style fight with Israel.

What do the two rumors have in common? Well, it's a good question and worthy of some analysis. If in fact the opposition does take the bold step of setting up a second government, then it will jeopardize the safety of the UNIFIL forces in the South. The second government's jurisdiction may not include greater Beirut, but it's constituents largely are found throughout the South. This second government could ask for UNIFIL to withdraw, allowing Hezbollah to re-establish its presence along the Israeli border which would be the biggest blow they can deal to Israeli PM Olmert. Olmert hangs by his teeth on his claim that Hezbollah no longer has presence on the border and that the war was not fought in vain. This can all be a different story come July 15th.

This move would send Lebanon down a terrible path of instablity and chaos, especially when looking at the National Army. While the country has grown very patriotic after the events occuring in the North between the Fatah al Islam fighters and the Lebanese Army, this support could split based on the Army's action or inaction. Keeping the Army neutral will become a major problem for Commander Michel Suleiman, as the soldiers do feel ultimately loyalty to their background, which in short, translates to their religion. Look for a struggle within the Army and it's ability to stay inactive or active. Once the army goes, the last institution trusted by all Lebanese, the country will plunge into a fiery abyss.

The solutions lie outside of Lebanon, as the conflict seems less and less about Lebanon and more about the fight for regional supremacy between the US and Syria and Iran.

Summer in Lebanon seems to reflect everything except summer: a season for relaxation, entertainment, and tourism. Lebanon has found summer to be a convenient season for political upheaval, crisis, and war.

More Weapons for Israel

2007-06-22T10:27:00.000+03:00

Rewarding a country that proved to be irresponsible with American weapons by increasing military aid, and not to mention EXPEDITING THE PROCESS!

Washington to increase military aid to Israel
By Aluf Benn and Shmuel Rosner

WASHINGTON - The United States will increase its military assistance to Israel and sign a new agreement securing American aid to the country for the next decade, President George W. Bush announced Tuesday following his meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Olmert had persuaded Bush to announce the aid increase, senior political sources said yesterday.

Prior to Olmert's visit to Washington it was agreed that the issue would be raised during their meeting, but the President gave his response to the Israeli request for increased military assistance only during the meeting with the prime minister.

"The increase of the military assistance is the most important result of Olmert's visit to the United States," the political sources said. This year, Israel will receive $2.4 billion in military aid from the U.S.

The agreement concluded by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to which the United States' economic aid package to Israel would be gradually diminished and the military aid would increase, is ending this year.

According to the existing arrangement, most of the grant is meant for procurement from the U.S. industry, and Israel is allowed to spend 26.7 percent of the military assistance in shekel purchases for acquisitions from local defense industries.

Israel asked for a gradual increase in the aid over a 10-year period at the tune of $50 million per year. At the end of the 10 years, Israel will receive $2.9 billion annually in military assistance from the U.S.

Olmert told the president that an announcement on the increase in aid would be an expression of American support for Israel against the growing threates to its existence in the region.

In its announcement, the U.S. reiterated that the increased funds will allow Israel to deal with the new challenges it faces and to ensure a "qualitative military edge."

The prime minister asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for his assistance in expediting the handling of a number of IDF procurement requests meant to complete the replenishment of equipment and stores used during the Second Lebanon War.

Gates pointed out that though there is no problem with the requests in principle, there is an orderly procedure. However, Bush intervened and directed the defense secretary to expedite approval of the IDF's requests.

From Street Fights to Bombings - Sinking Back to Violence

2007-05-23T20:36:00.000+03:00

Violence, it is something we all witness at some point in our life. Some people see it daily and others see it once in their lifetime. It does scar you, but the funny part is, as anything in life, if it happens a lot you just become immune to it. Now I'm asking myself, have I become one of them? This week has seen the one of the bloodiest times in Lebanon (concerning internal fighting). For those of you who have missed the news, or due to poor coverage... A group of Islamic militants known as Fatah al Islam فتح الإسلام has been resisting the Lebanese Army. The trouble recently started with a bank robbery in a small Lebanese village, Amion. The perpetrators made off with approximately $150,000. The car used in the robbery was traced back to this group, Fatah al Islam. The Lebanese Police raided an apartment used by the group in Tripoli early on Sunday(May 20th)and the militants resisted arrest. They started a small gunfight. In tandem with this gunfight, militants started to attack army positions near the Nahar al Bared Palestinian refugee camp. This is how the current conflict started. The army has been fighting the militants, all the while there were two massive explosions in Beirut. The first, in Mar Mitr, Achrafieh, ripped through cars in a parking lot adjacent to the ABC Achrafieh Shopping Mall. The blast, which happened at 11:50pm on Monday, was heard as far away as Jounieh and Jbeil. I was personally watching tv and talking on the phone when the blast rocked my apartment. I will never be able to clearly articulate what it feels like to be in a situation like that.. It is a mixture of feelings that take over. The first is the pure shock and fright from the noise, the second is a sense of being lost and not knowing where it happened. Was it next door? Was it the Israelis? Was it just a sonic boom? I ran outside to see if I could find smoke, but there wasn't any in sight. I talked to others in the neighborhood and they shared with me their stories and the shaking they experienced. After 20 mins, I was able to find out it was near the shopping mall. The next feeling is the insecurity of walking anywhere and the realization that it could have been me. I do walk past that street on a daily basis. I don't know why, but I didn't run to this blog to write about the experience, and that is what is starting to scare me. I feel like it's something that just happenes based on the time that i have spent here. It has become as common as seeing a bad car wreck in the US. You take a look at it, and are thankful it wasn't u.

The next night, there was an explosion in West Beirut.. The first since i have moved to Lebanon. This is what made me wonder who was responsible. Verdan is an upscale Sunni neighborhood. You can find some of the best shopping there, as it is quite fancy with a string of restaurants and stores. Luckily enough, there were no casualties. A few people were wounded but no deaths were reported according to my knowledge.

Now back to the main story. The army is currently sitting outside the Nahar al Bared Palestinian camp, waiting for the right moment to strike. I heard from an inside source that Lebanon is currently receiving weapons from the Gulf that are more sophisticated and will get the job done quickly. While they waiting, thousands of Palestinian civilians have fled their homes in the camp to seek shelter from the shelling. The shelling was as harsh as anything I have seen. The smoke clouds had an erie resemblance of those generated by Israeli missiles.

So what is next? The army has gotten the green light from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to enter the camp and uproot the militant organization. Some are predicting a fast operation and others believe it will be a long operation that will take weeks. We will have to wait and see. As for me, I have been just commuting back and forth between my work in downtown and my house in Achrafieh. It's probably one of the dullest moments of my life, but I can't take the risk.

The army has stepped up it's security measures by setting up tons of checkpoints. I had my own fun experience when the army pulled me and my friend over and ordered us to "Get on the ground". I have to say that i don't blame them because I haven't shaved in 2 months, but it is helping me keep on the low down as I seem to fit in more. I don't really want to scream out as an American, but I'm sure that it's not only my appearance that gives it away.

That's it for now. I will write more soon. Take care and I hope everyone out there has a quiet night.

Israeli jets buzz Beirut

2006-12-12T22:08:00.000+02:00

Just noting that the Israeli Air Force just buzzed Beirut. Nothing unusual... It's a shame that the French haven't fired at them yet.......

The Battle for Beirut

2006-12-09T02:04:00.000+02:00

First of all, I would like to begin this post by apologizing for not posting earlier. Honestly, the times have been so hectic that I got caught up in my work (trying to get to work) and neglected this site. It's very important to me for many reasons, serving as my memories, my portal to friends and family, and a chance to bridge the gap between the Lebanese world and an audience in the West. I by no means am considering myself a bridge, rather I am trying to explain what is going on as a witness to events here. I shall cut of my philosophical monologue to start discussing the situation.

So.... what has been going on in Beirut? Well, for one, we have reached a stalemate between the two polarized groups in the country (summarized by Anti-Syrian and Pro-Syrian, which honestly is a terrible crime to put it that way) or if you want to get Lebanese, you can say the March 8th group (Hizballah, General Aoun, and friends) vs. the March 14th group (Hariri, the Lebanese forces and old man Junblatt). As of today, there has been a fiery exchange between the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Fouad Siniora and the Secretary General of Hizballah, al Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. One thing these guys both have in common: they are both in hiding... who are they hiding from you ask? from different people of course, Siniora is fearing an assassination attempt by some group within Lebanon (which will be accused of coming from Damascus) and Nasrallah is fearing an assassination attempt by our funloving neighbor in the south, led by Mr. Olmert. As daring as the Israelis are, I don't believe they are in the position to carry out such an operation, but it might be just the PR stunt they need in order to regain notoriety as the military badboys of the Middle East.

Ok, so this is not my usual style of writing.... let me just take a minute to explain to you that this situation has affected me to the point that i want to go nuts. Every day I pass these protesters and I have to walk from an area far away from my office in order to get to work. There are no stores open, so lunch isn't very pleasant, and quite frankly, the atmosphere is tense with a feeling of uncertainty for tomorrow. I'm sure you get this all the time wherever you live, especially in the states right? So where was I?

Yes, Nasrallah and Saniora are duking it out, but the problem is, that the Lebanese will continue to suffer... Ok, yes, there are people that are excluded from the government that shouldn't be, and yes, the residents of Southern Lebanon may have a few reasons to get upset, but my gut feeling is that this move by the Hizballah isn't for purely Lebanese reasons. I don't know how much more I want to say, because I feel everyday as if my opinion is shifting, as if it is only reflecting Lebanese society. To clear up any doubts in your mind, the opposition (as the March 8th, Pro-Syrian, Hizballah and friends, whatever you want to call them) does extend beyond Muslims. A good part of the protesters are in fact Christians who follow the ex-General Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement (www.tayyar.org). In addition to this group, the Lebanese Communist Party is also involved in this push to depose the current regime.

Call it an attempted coup
Call it an end to foreign interference
Call it Iranian checkers
All I know is that I will be much happier when it is over

The streets have become so tense that several clashes have broken out, one in particular leaving a young man dead. Although both sides have called for restraint, it is only a matter of time before patience runs out.

There are predictions that the opposition will start using "Phase B" this week which has been rumoured to include civil disobedience to stop places such as the airport, the ports, anywhere to paralyze the government. I will keep you posted on the latest developments.

Hope for the best, expect the worst...

Ciao

Happy Halloween from Israel

2006-10-31T19:20:00.000+02:00

At 9:30am, I was rudely awaken by the sounds of an F-16. My first thought was that war had broken out and I had slept through whatever had sparked it. The F-16 has a distinct sound when it is flying at a low altitude, and quite frankly I have become an expert at identifying military aircraft from the Israeli Air Force.
Following the initial horror, I hopped out of bed and turned the television on. There was nothing flashing on the television indicating that there was war nor was there a newsflash on the bottom of the screen. I went outside and just listened to the sounds that i am all too familiar with. The jets stayed over Beirut for over 30 minutes and conducted "mock" raids. For those who are not familiar with military jargon, it is simply planes acting like they are going to bomb you without actually dropping anything. The Lebanese military reportedly fired back at the Israeli jets but unfortunately the defense budget doesn't include high tech equipment. Once again the Israelis have managed to cause panic and violate the cease-fire that has been in place for the past few months. What do they plan to gain from this action? I honestly can only see it as a way of provoking Hizballah to attack in the South. As a result, Israel will claim self defense and try to do what it failed at in the Summer war.
The EU issued a statement to Israeli relaying its dismay over the actions. It warned that the air space violations will only provoke further violations. The French have previously threatened to open fire on the intruding jets, but thus far have not kept their word. While Israel has openly stated that it must conduct flyovers in order to acquire intelligence, I am not sure what type of intelligence it gathers from conducting mock raids over the major cities. I can't imagine the view was good enough to see anything other than random building that would have been demolished if they would have dropped their smart bombs.

The point of this post is to provide written proof that the Israelis are trying to provoke the next war, but will definitely claim that the conflict began when initiated by the other side. Had this been any other nation, the world would strongly condemn its actions and view it as an act of war on a sovereign nation.

Rally Weekend in Lebanon

2006-09-22T13:17:00.000+03:00

Today we will witness the support of Hizballah as they will flex their political muscles in front of the entire world. However, the speculation isn't about the size of the crowd, rather on whether al Sayyid Nasrallah will grace his followers with a public appearance. For all of those unaware, Nasrallah has gone into hiding since July 12th, the outbreak of the 2006 Summer Israeli-Lebanon war. Many people fear that if Nasrallah does make an appearance, Israel will not waste an opportunity to attempt an extra-judicial assassination. It has succeeded in killing many leaders in the past, and based on its poor performance in the Lebanon assault, it would be grateful for a chance to bloat a victory of some sort. My prediction is that Nasrallah will not make a public appearance, although it would make quite a statement if he does, showing the world that he is not afraid of any Israeli threat and he truly is a power in Lebanon.

A counter-rally is scheduled to take place on Sunday by the Lebanese Forces led by Samir Jahjah. It will take place in Harissa, a Christian stronghold known for its church, Our Lady of Harissa. Although the LF rally was not publicized as strongly as the Hizballah rally in Dahiya, it is certainly expected to draw a sizeable crowd.

What does this mean for Lebanon? Will there be more Muslim-Christian tension? With the outrage generated from the Pope's address, it would certainly seem possible. But the situation in Lebanon is no longer as clear cut as it was in the past. Ex-general Michel Aoun's party has allied itself with Hizballah before the conflict in a key move to consolidate his power base and pave way for a future position in the Lebanese government (possibly as the next president). He has flipped and flopped as the Christian Anti-Syria leader to Syria's mediator among the Christians in Lebanon. It will be interesting to see who shows up at the rally in Dahiya, if Aoun supporters join in, and if Nasrallah does make an appearance. What this means for Lebanon is not clear as the country continues down a path of uncertainty and political instability.

The dynamics are shifting back to the pre-war atmosphere of the March 14th (Anti-Syrian) and March 8th (Pro-Syrian) groups. If this is the case, then one would have to anticipate more assassinations and carbombings to rock Lebanon in the near future. As politicians are growing bolder with their criticisms of each other, it is putting Lebanon's "unity" to a test that will eventually push the sensitive frictions into civil strife.

Twilight Zone / Deadly diaries

2006-09-03T02:26:00.001+03:00

By Gideon Levy

Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the fourth floor. Two brothers. Their parents and siblings were all killed while they were sleeping. Only the brothers were saved from the inferno caused by two missiles dropped by a plane on their house in the middle of the night. Awad, 19, is seriously injured; Mohammed, 20, uninjured, tends him. Their parents and all seven of their younger siblings, including a disabled sister, were killed. Just try to imagine.

The signs of shock and grief are obvious on the two orphaned brothers. They stare at the floor, speak very softly; their faces are pale and lifeless, even six weeks after that bloody night. On the wall of the hospital room they've taped a picture of their father, taken with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Dr. Nabil Abu Salmiya was a lecturer in mathematics at the Islamic University in Gaza and a Hamas activist. The wanted man Mohammed Deif visited the family's home in the middle of the night - and the air force bombed it. Deif was wounded, but survived. A family was almost entirely wiped out. This was on the day that the war broke out in Lebanon; no one paid any attention to the killing in the south.

The wounded and the dead continue to arrive at Shifa. This week, ambulance after ambulance pulled up, carrying the victims of Israel Defense Forces' actions - this time in the Sajiyeh quarter of Gaza City - followed by distraught family members. The atmosphere was bleak and threatening, with dozens of armed Hamas soldiers in their blue camouflage uniforms securing the place, Kalashnikovs cocked, on the surrounding roofs, in the hospital yard and corridors. Relatives of the injured lay on the floors of the rooms. The only hospital in Gaza is full to bursting.

A stench permeates the city streets. The garbage hasn't been collected for many days, due to a strike by municipal employees who haven't received their wages for months. The smell filters into the hospital. The electricity only works for a few hours a day, since the air force bombed the only power station in the Gaza Strip; the heat is oppressive. The elevator is either stuck or barely moves.

Awad Abu Salmiya lies with both legs in bandages in a bed by the window. A faint breeze from the sea offers the only bit of relief.

Not far away, in Beit Lahia, Ahmed al-Attar, 17, sits in a wheelchair. His father pleads with Israel and the world for someone to see that his son gets prosthetic legs. Ahmed was injured when the air force fired a missile that hit the mule-drawn wagon in which he was riding with his mother and nephew. They were on the way to pick figs from the family plot near the sea. His mother and the other boy were killed outright; Ahmed lost both legs.

This also happened in the course of Operation Summer Rains, whose end appears to be nowhere in sight; no one in Israel seems very interested in it. Meanwhile, the IDF goes on killing - nine members of the Abu Salmiya family, two members of the Al-Attar family. Together, they're 11 out of 212 people who were killed, including 50 children and teenagers, between the abduction of Gilad Shalit at the end of June, and the end of August.

An empty lot in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. A two-story house used to stand here. Unlike other places, all the rubble here has already been cleared away. The back part of the house was completely destroyed; the front was left tilting on its side. Two missiles. Mohammed and Awad were sleeping in the front of the house, which faced the street. The rest of the family was asleep in the back and was killed. Perhaps only the father was still awake, together with Deif. No one knows. No one will say. It was 3 A.M. Neighbor Ibrahim Samur had gone with Dr. Abu Salmiya to the mosque that evening to pray, and afterward they'd chatted a little in front of the house. They parted at nine. No one saw Deif, of course. In the middle of the night the neighbors were awakened by a tremendous explosion, followed immediately by another one. They say the blast shook them out of their beds. The houses are that close to one another.

In a rented office on the ground floor of the house next door, which serves as a public court for settling conflicts in the neighborhood, a picture of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi hangs on the wall; a water cooler with Israeli-brand Eden spring water sits below it. Here, Abdullah Samur, an 18-year-old, describes what happened that night at the neighbors' house. The children crowding about outside are all wearing T-shirts from the Hamas summer camp. One wears a shirt bearing the likeness of the late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Abdullah went to sleep at midnight that night and woke up at 3 A.M. to the noise of a plane overhead. He lives on the third floor. It was July 12, a few hours before the outbreak of the war in Lebanon. The boom jolted him out of his bed. The windows shattered and the doors came off their hinges. Smoke filled his house from the fire that broke out next door, and his parents yelled for the children to flee.

Outside, Abdullah saw the destroyed house next door and the smoke coming from it. He knew the neighbors well. Nabil and his wife Salwa and all the kids he grew up with - Nasser, 6, Aya, 7, Uda, 8, Iman, 11, Yihyeh, 13, and Basma, 15.

And there was Sumiya, too, a disabled 12-year-old, who used to get picked up by a special car that took her to school. She was also killed. Abdullah had been with Awad and Mohammed that afternoon - the only ones who survived. That night Abdullah helped his father extricate the bodies. They found Awad rolled up inside a carpet. And Mohammed Deif? "I don't know him at all," the neighbor says.

The Israeli papers reported that the wounded Deif was pulled from the wreckage and rushed to Shifa. According to the reports, the rescue vehicle was also hit by a missile from the air.

Abdullah's uncle, Ibrahim Samur, also says he's never seen Deif and has no idea what he looks like. Ibrahim lives on the second floor. His 3-year-old son, Mutaz, was lightly wounded by shrapnel, and so was his wife. He rushed them to Shifa while his neighbors' house continued to burn. Since then, all the children have been sleeping in their parents' room. Mutaz cries when he hears a plane.

"He was a good person," Ibrahim says about his neighbor, Abu Salmiya. "He was active in Hamas, but not in its military wing. He was a teacher who helped his poor neighbors." Ibrahim recalls that in their last conversation, on the way back from the mosque, they didn't talk about politics, Abu Salmiya didn't mention any meeting he was supposed to have during the night.

The IDF Spokesman's comment: "In a joint operation of the IDF and the Shin Bet security service, an attack on a house in the northern Gaza Strip was carried out in the early hours of July 12. The house served as a hideout for senior activists in the military wing of Hamas, who planned and carried out acts of terror and the firing of Qassam rockets. At the time of the strike on the house, those present were involved in planning the continued military activity of Hamas. One of those present was Mohammed Deif, who sustained wounds of unknown severity."

The unpaved street is now named for Nabil Abu Salmiya. Before we say good-bye to head over to the hospital and see the two surviving brothers, Ibrahim mentions a name: Nissim Mizrahi. Nissim Mizrahi from the bankrupt Rosh Indiani clothing business, who left Ibrahim - who ran a sewing workshop that has since closed down - with a debt of NIS 130,000.

Ahmed al-Attar sits in a wheelchair. The stumps of his legs are still bandaged. The pain bothers him and he presses on them to find some relief. On July 24, Ahmed and his mother and nephew set out, as they did every day, to the family plot near the sea, to pick some figs. It was around 3 P.M.; they proceeded slowly in their mule-drawn wagon.

"Suddenly we got hit by a missile," he recalls. "After that I didn't see anything. I woke up in the hospital and they told me that my mother and Nadi were killed and that my legs were amputated."

After three days in Shifa, he was transferred to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, but they couldn't save his legs there either. He also suffered burns on his head and other parts of his body, and these wounds are still bandaged. Ahmed is a 12th-grader who, two months before the tragedy, married a 16-year-old named Zeina. His mother, Hiriya, was 58; his nephew, Nadi - his mother's grandson - was 12. Ahmed heard that Nadi was thrown dozens of meters from the wagon, and that his mother's body was torn to pieces as a result of the direct hit.

The IDF Spokesman: "On the morning of July 24, two Qassam rocket launchings were identified as originating next to the Agricultural College in Beit Hanun. The two rockets were fired at Sderot, and one landed next to a school in the city. Later that same day, IDF forces identified two terrorists, who arrived at that location and loaded the launchers on a mule-drawn wagon. The IDF fired accurately at the point where the terrorists were and at the wagon with the launchers, and verified a hit. At the time of the firing, an older woman and her grandson were not seen in the wagon. In the event that they were riding in the same wagon, then it was the terror organizations that are the ones who took no pity on their lives, and engaged in terror activity directed at Israeli civilians under the cover of noncombatants, exploiting them as a human shield."

Hiriya left nine children and some 50 grandchildren. She was a peddler in the Jabalya market, where she sold figs, grapes and strawberries, and cheese that she made herself. On the wall in the Beit Lahia home hangs a picture of a cousin, Mohammed, 23, who was killed by an IDF bullet while standing at the window of his home, exactly three weeks before the grandmother and grandson were killed.

In the memorial picture of Nadi that hangs in the street, one sees the boy's face and that of the killed leader of the Popular Front, Abu Ali Mustafa, in the background. Why the Popular Front? "Because they supplied the family with food during the four days of mourning," Ahmed's father, also named Nadi, explains. Instead of a picture of Hiriya, there is a poster with a drawing of a red rose. Here, pictures of women are not displayed, even after their death. They won't show us a picture of Ahmed from his wedding either, so that we won't see his young bride.

Nadi heard about the tragedy on the radio, when he was in the city. This morning he went back to fishing for the first time, but since 5 A.M. he hadn't caught anything. Someone brings a picture from the scene of the tragedy: a dead mule. The photo is on the cover of the weekly report, No. 29, of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, 2006. In the background an ambulance is visible. The mule lies on the sand, at the foot of the wrecked wagon. A direct hit.

HAARETZ

My Return to Lebanon

2006-08-29T04:15:00.000+03:00

Flying to Lebanon has always been an exciting experience, whether it is due to the people I meet along the way, or the feeling I get when I approach the beautiful landscape. However, this time, I had to be sure to remember what Lebanon I had left. To not get caught up in the romantic version that has become imprinted in my mind from my last two years. I had to approach it in a more realistic manner; it had just suffered from a horrific and destructive war.

To begin however, this time was nothing less than eventful, as I feel it was the most horrific time to fly in the US. As I was leaving, I was reading about aircrafts that were grounded because of threats, one that actually had a stick of dynamite onboard, and going through the toughest restrictions we have seen. The prohibiting of all liquids might even have helped soft drink companies as I was forced to buy more drinks than I ever have and throw them out because I had to board the next leg. JFK and I seem to have a relationship of tragedy, as I arrived to find out that the amount of carry-ons allowed was changed and I had over-packed. As a word of advice to anyone planning on traveling, check the latest rules and guidelines from the airlines because they don't have a shread of sympathy when you show up unprepared.

Moving on to the actual flight, I took Virgin Atlantic to London (another security chaos zone) to jump on a Middle East Airlines flight that was restricted from landing in its own country. (MEA is the national carrier of Lebanon). The flight was forced to land in Amman, Jordan as it is the only established route. This means every flight with Beirut as the destination, must land and refuel (while unknown individuals in Peugots drive up to the plane and conduct some sort of security procedure). Rumor has it that they acquire the roster of passengers and can pull anyone off of their choosing. I'm not one for rumors but I did land this bit of information from an inside source. After leaving Amman, we were forced to go around Lebanon, steering clear of the Israeli airspace (for the better!) by going over Syria and back North of Lebanon to approach the airport from the Mediterranean Sea. Going directly to Beirut from Amman would only take 20 minutes, however, our flight took 45 minutes. Sounds petty, but it's the principle.

After getting settled in, I found the city of Beirut exactly as I had left it, the areas of which I frequented often were intact and back to the normal feel (minus the enormous number of tourists seen during this part of the season). I have to keep reminding myself that there has been such horrible atrocities and that I must be aware of anyone who may want to show me what they think about America, afterall I am a walking advertisement. As much as I would like to believe I fit in, I feel that there are too many awkward mannerisms inscribed in me that makes this obvious. However, the only encounters I have had to this point have been extremely pleasant and positive. I was walking back to my apartment when I passed a man whom I greeted normally on my way to work every day for the past year. He stopped me with a shocking look on his face, and spoke in broken English asking me where I have been for the last month. He expressed that he was happy I had returned and that he was wondering where I had went. My neighborhood afterall has observed me for a long time. It is part of the culture, they are aware of who is around, who fits, who doesn't, so at some points they look at some of my friends who visit me, and may be thinking "who's that foreigner?" and not referring to me :)
Returning to work was almost like a class reunion, while many of my co-workers have not returned; the others who had, wanted to exchange stories of tragedy and their efforts to take in the refugees. One co-worker was extremely active as she spent most of her time in the South trying to find places for the fleeing families. I told her that I was proud of what she had did, and it was nice to know that such caring people do exist in this world. I tried on my own to be "the hero" as someone once put it, but failed miserably because of my skin and mannerism, no one wanted to be associated with an American, or at least not in the time of war. It is understandable, however, it does sting you when you have good intentions. Especially when you are trying to save lives and help people located shelters in such a time of chaos and destruction.

There are moments that I walk to my apartment and expect to hear loud blasts coming from the direction of Dahiya, but they never come.. It's a silence that I am thankful for, but it feels as if it is only temporary. I say this, not because I feel that future conflict is inevitable, rather it is the result of the eerie nature of war, and the effects it has on someone, traumatizing all of the people stuck within its wrath.

While there is much joy in my return, I face the sadness and the reality of which Lebanon has been left.

Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs

2006-08-25T20:22:00.000+03:00

August 25, 2006
By DAVID S. CLOUD

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — The State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said.
The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.
Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said, “We have heard the allegations that these munitions were used, and we are seeking more information.” He declined to comment further.
Several current and former officials said that they doubted the investigation would lead to sanctions against Israel but that the decision to proceed with it might be intended to help the Bush administration ease criticism from Arab governments and commentators over its support of Israel’s military operations. The investigation has not been publicly announced; the State Department confirmed it in response to questions.
In addition to investigating use of the weapons in southern Lebanon, the State Department has held up a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets, a cluster weapon, that Israel sought during the conflict, the officials said.
The inquiry is likely to focus on whether Israel properly informed the United States about its use of the weapons and whether targets were strictly military. So far, the State Department is relying on reports from United Nations personnel and nongovernmental organizations in southern Lebanon, the officials said.
David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, said, “We have not been informed about any such inquiry, and when we are we would be happy to respond.”
Officials were granted anonymity to discuss the investigation because it involves sensitive diplomatic issues and agreements that have been kept secret for years.
The agreements that govern Israel’s use of American cluster munitions go back to the 1970’s, when the first sales of the weapons occurred, but the details of them have never been publicly confirmed. The first one was signed in 1976 and later reaffirmed in 1978 after an Israeli incursion into Lebanon. News accounts over the years have said that they require that the munitions be used only against organized Arab armies and clearly defined military targets under conditions similar to the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973.
A Congressional investigation after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon found that Israel had used the weapons against civilian areas in violation of the agreements. In response, the Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on further sales of cluster weapons to Israel.
Israeli officials acknowledged soon after their offensive began last month that they were using cluster munitions against rocket sites and other military targets. While Hezbollah positions were frequently hidden in civilian areas, Israeli officials said their intention was to use cluster bombs in open terrain.
Bush administration officials warned Israel to avoid civilian casualties, but they have lodged no public protests against its use of cluster weapons. American officials say it has not been not clear whether the weapons, which are also employed by the United States military, were being used against civilian areas and had been supplied by the United States. Israel also makes its own types of cluster weapons.
But a report released Wednesday by the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center, which has personnel in Lebanon searching for unexploded ordnance, said it had found unexploded bomblets, including hundreds of American types, in 249 locations south of the Litani River.
The report said American munitions found included 559 M-42’s, an anti-personnel bomblet used in 105-millimeter artillery shells; 663 M-77’s, a submunition found in M-26 rockets; and 5 BLU-63’s, a bomblet found in the CBU-26 cluster bomb. Also found were 608 M-85’s, an Israeli-made submunition.
The unexploded submunitions being found in Lebanon are probably only a fraction of the total number dropped. Cluster munitions can contain dozens or even hundreds of submunitions designed to explode as they scatter around a wide area. They are very effective against rocket-launcher units or ground troops.
The Lebanese government has reported that the conflict killed 1,183 people and wounded 4,054, most of them civilians. The United Nations reported this week that the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon from cluster munitions, land mines and unexploded bombs stood at 30 injured and eight killed.
Dozen of Israelis were killed and hundreds wounded in attacks by Hezbollah rockets, some of which were loaded with ball bearings to maximize their lethality.
Officials say it is unlikely that Israel will be found to have violated a separate agreement, the Arms Export Control Act, which requires foreign governments that receive American weapons to use them for legitimate self-defense. Proving that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah did not constitute self-defense would be difficult, especially in view of President Bush’s publicly announced support for Israel’s action after Hezbollah fighters attacked across the border, the officials said.
Even if Israel is found to have violated the classified agreement covering cluster bombs, it is not clear what actions the United States might take.
In 1982, delivery of cluster-bomb shells to Israel was suspended a month after Israel invaded Lebanon after the Reagan administration determined that Israel “may” have used them against civilian areas.
But the decision to impose what amounted to a indefinite moratorium was made under pressure from Congress, which conducted a long investigation of the issue. Israel and the United States reaffirmed restrictions on the use of cluster munitions in 1988, and the Reagan administration lifted the moratorium.

The New York Times Company

Doing More Harm Than Good in Lebanon

2006-08-20T21:13:00.000+03:00

Thursday, July 27, 2006; A24

I have lived in Lebanon for two years. I celebrated the withdrawal of the Syrian army and, before being evacuated recently with other Americans, I suffered the city's destruction by the Israeli army. I'm not interested in the politics of pro-Israeli policy, but I will say: To me and residents around me, it felt undeniably as though Israel was targeting civilian areas without heeding humanitarian guidelines.

This conflict will have lasting effects because, in the minds of the Lebanese, the United States' name is attached to all Israeli military action. Anti-American sentiment is rising in a country that has tended to be pro-American. People are convinced that the United States wants to see Lebanon destroyed, and they feel deceived by the empty pledges of support the United States has made in the past. We need American diplomatic intervention.

I spent more than a week bracing myself amid constant air raids, which have driven civilian casualty levels to 20 times those in Israel. Death and destruction will breed only more radicalism and hate, defeating the Israeli goal of disarming Hezbollah.

I can't help wondering: What makes the Israeli government so sure it will not create another dynamic, breeding more terrorism for years to come?

Winning over the hearts and minds of people is necessary to finding a sustainable solution to the conflicts in the Middle East. Military might cannot achieve this.

JOHN ORAK

Washington

Arab-Americans upset by U.S. handling of Lebanon evacuation

2006-08-20T21:09:00.000+03:00

By Brian Knowlton International Herald Tribune
Published: July 31, 2006

WASHINGTON In a borrowed cubicle in the offices of the Arab American Institute, barely back from an exhausting 58-hour evacuation from Beirut, Radney Wood and a friend, John Orak, were working the phones and sending out e-mails to spread the word about the trials of Lebanon.

Wood, a 26-year-old New Yorker of Lebanese descent, had been working for a United Nations development program when hostilities erupted. Orak, 25, a South Carolina native with Slovak roots, was teaching English in a State Department program for poor youth who Washington feared would otherwise embrace Hezbollah.

Like many Lebanese-Americans and friends of Lebanon, they are deeply worried by the fighting, and fearful of a growing backlash among Arab-Americans and people in the region over the U.S. role there.

They are also upset about the way the U.S. government handled the evacuation of Americans, viewed as slow and disorganized, and about the State Department's original intent to charge them for it.

"I've never been so disappointed, never felt so abandoned by my government," Orak said.

Among Lebanese-Americans and others there is a widespread sense that the U.S. government would have reacted differently if, say, there had been 25,000 Americans under attack in Israel instead of Lebanon.

"Even if the government claims that they didn't deliberately evacuate American citizens at a slower rate," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, "then the best construct that can be placed on it is that the process for evacuating Americans from a foreign land is a broken system."

"Ridiculous" was how Samar Saad of Dearborn, Michigan, reacted to the government's original plan to charge people for their passage to Cyprus while other governments were bringing their nationals home without fees. "Our taxes are going to pay for bombs getting dropped on us," Saad said, "and now we have to pay for our own way out?"

The U.S. government ultimately waived payment, but only after days of uncertainty.

"A lot of people came back with the feeling the country doesn't care about them," Saad said.

The State Department insists that it has done everything possible in harrowing circumstances - beefing up embassy staffing and sending in navy ships and marines.

"Before the crisis," said Juliet Werr, an embassy spokeswoman, "we had two phone operators and an antiquated system."

Once the crisis erupted, she said, "We were getting 500 calls an hour. We made everyone answer phones. We set up a call center staffed 24/7."

Amid widespread outrage over the law requiring people to pay for evacuation, Representative John Dingell of Michigan introduced legislation to overturn it, but he said that congressional support for the bill had evaporated once the State Department waived repayment. And the State Department itself said it had no plan to push for change in a law, which, to the surprise of many Americans, has long required evacuation repayment.

As far back as World War II, when 80,000 American civilians were evacuated from Europe in 1940, "individuals were responsible for paying the passenger rates for this transportation," said Vijay Padmanabhan, a State Department legal adviser.

Legislation passed in 2002 at the Bush administration's request essentially codified that practice, requiring reimbursement by evacuees "to the maximum extent practicable."

The requirement is rarely enforced. But asked whether the State Department would favor permanently ending reimbursements, a spokeswoman, Janelle Hironimus, said "No," and added that people who left Lebanon on their own would not be reimbursed for their travel expenses.

Rita Stephan, a University of Texas doctoral student, who was in Beirut with two young children, does not know what else she could have done.

"I thought, 'I'm sure the embassy knows what's going on and has a plan,'" she said, "but I kept calling and the phone seemed to be off the hook."

E-mail messages from the embassy advised staying put, she said, but Israeli jets were "hitting targets we could hear." She said she told her children it was fireworks, then told them the truth.

Stephan, who has dual citizenship and a Syrian passport as well as an American one, called the embassy again and again until, after midnight, a duty officer answered and said, "If you have another passport, just go to Syria." She and her children made it to Damascus on a road bombed two hours later.

James Zogby said that his nephew managed to leave Lebanon on the third day of hostilities. But Lebanese-Americans, said Zogby, executive director of the Arab American Institute, are feeling that "because they are of Arab descent that they're kind of second-class citizens."

Sounds of Beirut

2006-08-16T05:00:00.000+03:00

History Will Judge Us All On Our Actions

2006-08-01T05:44:00.000+03:00

July 31, 2006
Michel Aoun- Wall Street Journal
RABIEH, Lebanon -- While aircraft, sea-craft, and artillery pound our beloved Lebanon, we Lebanese are left, as usual, to watch helplessly and pay a heavy price for a war foisted upon us due to circumstances beyond our control. Considering that this crisis could have been avoided, and considering that there is -- and has been -- a solution almost begging to be made, one cannot but conclude that all of this death, destruction and human agony will, in retrospect, be adjudged as having been in vain.No matter how much longer this fight goes on, the truth of the matter is that political negotiations will be the endgame. The solution that will present itself a week, a month or a year from now will be, in essence, the same solution as the one available today, and which, tragically, was available before a single shot was fired or a single child killed. Given this reality, a more concerted effort is required sooner rather than later to stop the death and destruction on both sides of the border.
From the outset, this dispute has been viewed through the differing prisms of differing worldviews. As one who led my people during a time when they defended themselves against aggression, I recognize, personally, that other countries have the right to defend themselves, just as Lebanon does; this is an inalienable right possessed by all countries and peoples.For some, analysis as to this conflict's sources and resolutions begins and ends with the right to self-defense; for others, Israel's claimed self-defensive actions are perceived as barbaric and offensive acts aimed at destroying a country and liquidating a people. Likewise, some view Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers as fair military game to pressure Israel to return Lebanese prisoners; yet others perceive it as a terrorist act aimed at undermining Israel's sovereignty and security.These divergences, and the world's failure to adopt different paradigms by which Middle East problems can be fairly analyzed and solved, have produced, and will continue to produce, a vicious cycle of continuing conflict. If the approach remains the same in the current conflict, I anticipate that the result will be the same. This, therefore, is a mandate to change the basis upon which problems are judged and measured from the present dead-end cycle to one which is based on universal, unarguable principles and which has at least a fighting chance to produce a lasting positive result.My own personal belief is that all human life is equal and priceless -- I look upon Israeli life as the same as Lebanese life. This belief stems not from my Catholic religion, but rather, from basic human values which have their historic home in Lebanon. It is no coincidence that a leading figure in the drafting and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was Charles Malek, a Lebanese citizen.I ask, will other Arab countries and leaders have the courage to acknowledge that Israeli life is equal to Arab life? Will Israel have the courage as well to acknowledge that Lebanese life is equal to Israeli life, and that all life is priceless? I believe that most Israeli and Arab citizens would answer in the affirmative. Can we get their governments and their leaders to do the same?Acknowledgement of equality between the value of the Lebanese and the Israeli people can be a starting point and a catalyst. The universal, unarguable concept of the equality of peoples and of human life should be the basis upon which we measure and judge events, and should provide the common human prism through which the current conflict, and old seemingly everlasting conflicts, are viewed and resolved. This is the only way to peace, prosperity and security, which is, after all, what all human beings desire, regardless of their origin.The ideological, political and religious differences between the party that I lead, the Free Patriotic Movement, and Hezbollah, could have been addressed either through confrontation, or through internal dialogue. Recognizing the value of human life, the obvious choice was the second option. We sat down with Hezbollah to discuss our differences.After many months of extensive negotiations, we came up with an understanding that included 10 key items which laid down a roadmap to resolve 10 of the most contentious points of disagreement. For example, Hezbollah agreed for the first time that Lebanese who collaborated with Israel during Israel's occupation of south Lebanon should return peacefully to Lebanon without fear of retribution. We also agreed to work together to achieve a civil society to replace the present confessional system which distributes power on the basis of religious affiliation. Additionally, Hezbollah, which is accused of being staunchly pro-Syrian, agreed for the first time that the border between Lebanon and Syria should be finally delineated, and that diplomatic relations between the two countries should be established.We also agreed that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should be disarmed, that security and political decision-making should be centralized with the Lebanese government, and that all Lebanese political groups should disengage themselves from regional conflicts and influences.Last but not least, our extensive negotiations with Hezbollah resulted in an articulation of the three main roadblocks regarding resolution of the Hezbollah arms issue: First, the return of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons. Second, the return of the Shebaa farms, a tiny piece of Lebanese territory still occupied by Israel. And third, the formulation of a comprehensive strategy to provide for Lebanon's defense, centered upon a strong national army and central state decision-making authority in which all political groups are assured a fair opportunity to participate.This structure, if joined together with international guarantees which forbid the nationalization of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and which protect Lebanon from Israeli incursions, and if tied on the internal level to a new, fair and uniform electoral law, is the best hope for peacefully resolving the Hezbollah weapons issue.This is the essence of the comprehensive solution we seek. Because it embodies a shift from a policy based on military force to one founded upon human values and reconciling the rights of parties, it would stand the test of time. If rights are respected, and if parties are treated with the deference that they implicitly deserve as human beings, then the long-term result will be not only physical disarmament, but also a disarmament of minds on both sides.Our party presented this solution internally to all Lebanese political groups, the Lebanese government, and the international community -- including the U.S. administration -- repeatedly, for an entire year before this crisis began.Rather than help us to resolve the weapons issue peacefully and avoid the current agony our country is now enduring, the international community and Lebanese government flatly ignored the proposed solution. Many of Lebanon's main political players cast us aside as "pro-Syrian" "allies" of Hezbollah. No matter. These are the same individuals who -- only a year before -- branded me a "Zionist agent" and brought treason charges against me when I dared to testify before a Congressional subcommittee that Syria should end its occupation of my country.You see, after Lebanon was liberated from Syrian occupation, the international community (apparently enamored by the quixotic images of the Cedar Revolution) demanded that the Lebanese elections take place immediately and "on time"; it brushed off our grave concerns about the electoral law in force, which had been carefully crafted by Syria and imposed upon Lebanon in the year 2000 to ensure re-election of Syria's favorite legislators.This flawed electoral law -- initially imposed upon us by Syria and then reimposed upon us by the international community -- has had disastrous results. It brought to power a Lebanese government with absolute two-thirds majority powers, but which was elected by only one-third of the populace. With a legislative and executive majority on one side, and a popular majority on the other side, the result was absolute gridlock. Currently in Lebanon, there is no confluence of popular will with government will, and therefore the government cannot deal effectively with this or any other problem.History will judge us all on our actions, and especially on the unnecessary death and destruction that we leave behind. The destruction currently being wrought upon Lebanon is in no way measured or proportional -- ambulances, milk factories, power stations, television crews and stations, U.N. observers and civilian infrastructure have been destroyed.Let us proceed from the standpoint that all human life is equal, and that if there is a chance to save lives and to achieve the same ultimate result as may be achieved without the senseless killings, then let us by all means take that chance.

2006-07-27T19:34:00.000+03:00

NW Marchers Rally Against Israeli Actions
By Allan Lengel

Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, July 26, 2006; Page A12

Hundreds of protesters, many carrying antiwar signs and fake coffins, marched quietly in a mock funeral procession yesterday through upper Northwest Washington to the Israeli Embassy to protest the bombings in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and to urge the United States to broker a cease-fire.
"One, two, three, four, we don't want your racist war; five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state," protesters chanted outside the embassy, off Van Ness Street. More than a dozen police and security officers stood outside the building.
"Israel out of Palestine, cease fire now," the crowd continued after speakers demanded an end to the killings of civilians and to U.S. support of the bombings.
The demonstration came as the United States and United Nations searched for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. It also came less than a week after hundreds of people, including Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) and U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), attended a rally in downtown Washington supporting Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and others maintain that the bombings are necessary to repel Hezbollah, root out terrorism and protect Israelis.
Hundreds of people -- Arabs and Americans, blacks and whites, Muslims, Christians and Jews -- began the 1 1/2 -mile procession to the embassy late yesterday afternoon by heading north on Connecticut Avenue. They passed a commercial stretch that included a gym, where customers on treadmills peered out the window at them.
Some motorists honked in support. But the driver of a Ford Mustang convertible yelled out, "Israel forever," prompting a protester to yell back, "Shame on you."
Emad Fraitekh, 44, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem who lives in the District, said he hoped the march would "deliver a message to the American people and the administration that what Israelis are doing right [now] in Lebanon and [the] Gaza Strip is far beyond Israel's right to exist or Israel's right to defend itself."
Jeff Mendez, 33, a D.C. peace activist who helped organize the protest, said: "The recent escalation in the Middle East is not only ungodly, it's inhumane and illegal. Now more than ever, there should be a citizen call for peace and nonviolence."
The march included some Jewish protesters. Members of an anti-Zionist sect of Hasidic Orthodox Jews, clad in black hats and long black coats, came from New York. Some carried miniature Lebanese flags, and all expressed support for the Palestinians and Lebanese.
"We believe that the whole existence of Israel, the Zionist state, is against the Jewish religion," said one of the Jews, Joel Wagschal, 25. "We are in pain for all the suffering of the people in the Middle East."
Another Jewish protester, Israel-born Alma Gottlieb-McHale, 24, carried a sign in Hebrew that read:
"Hundreds of innocent civilians killed, for what? Israel and Gaza, Israel and Lebanon. We've already been in this movie."

Evacuated from Lebanon

2006-07-24T21:13:00.000+03:00

After spending 58 hours traveling, I have finally reached Baltimore, Maryland and am currently in Washington, DC. I am trying to share my experiences with as many people and help inform the American public about what is going on in Lebanon. If you have any organization or contacts that may be interested in hearing from someone who has been in Lebanon and can talk about the current situation, please email this blog..

The evacuation was an extremely long process:
The US State Dept is extremely unorganized and it's inefficient methods left many Americans stranded, who they promised to get out by unrealistic deadlines.

The US Marines in contrast, were absolutely wonderful, comforting people and offering immense help to all of the fleeing Americans.

The US Navy crews also were very helpful.

The evacuation route went from Beirut to Cyprus to Ireland to Baltimore.

While traveling, I heard a plethora of stories of family members who were forced to evacuate leaving so many family members behind. Eventhough many of people were fleeing the area, they were doing so reluctantly, especially myself, leaving friends and my students behind to an uncertain fate. The rumors are that the fighting will intensify after the foreigners have evacuated.

I will post more later, I am still trying to recover from the endless hours of traveling.

Anonymous from the Saida area

2006-07-17T23:58:00.000+03:00

This is an email I received from a friend:

just minutes earlier a volunteer passed by the house am staying in in
a village east of Saida to write down our names on a list to organize
the distribution of aids(food water ...e.t.c) and just then i realized
i became a "mhajjara" literaly ttranslated to mean "forced migrant".
i have heard this term alot in talks about the lebanese war 15 years
ago and never in my life i thought i'd become one.
i am tired i haven't slept in days i am on the verge of a nervous
breakdown...yes, it happens when you realize you are not being
considered as a human being anymore, but a mere bitter number.

113 dead, 100's injured, and tens of thousands "mhajjareen", all
roads, bridges ports and our only airport bombed from south to the
farthest north..all alond the border with syria is being bombed
complete blockage. just now an israeli general stated that
they are ready to bomb any institution related to Hizballah
where ever it was and most are between or near civilian suburbs and
villages...the only thing i can understand is that "we don't care
how many motherfucking civilans we kill, we want to complete our
mission, wipe out hizballah" , forgive my language but war is ugly
and bitter and cruel and i will not attempt to make it look or sound
any better than it really is, not in my language not in my post...
yet again the war of forgeiners fought on our country... war of
isreal with syria and iran is fought on lebanese grounds,
and yet again lebanon has to pay the incomprehensible price
of blood and destruction..
there are no words that can descreibe the destruction, roads i've
beent o almost everyday places i was there..don't exist anymore..
it's turning into one huge ghost town,
there is absolutely no movement in my city Saida, all shops
are closed, everyone either fled or like my Grandparents
refuse to leave their homes and would rather die in them, fuel
staions are emptying from fuel after the bombing of two
fuel stations on the borders of saida...and when i say borders
it's not a far place it's a couple of kilometers from my house
since distances are negligible in such a small country as lebanon.
i enlisted my name on a list of people who want to leave teh country
when things calm down a littel and it is safe to move around..
i don't think it is anytime soon....
things are getting worse everyday, israeli airplanes are throwing
papers village after village asking the people to evacuate,
in an attempt to stress on hizballah
i don't understand how that is possible when allll transportaion
is down, the only way is to flee on foot kilometers carrying
their belongings, or stay and face their fates...
a genocide happened yesterday when 23 vilagers frrom "Merwaheen"
a village int he south fled to seek refuge in a UN center and the
UN center refused to accept them, afraid that the 1996 genocide
of "Qana" may repeat itself..(anyone and i know most don't know about
it,thanks to israeli propaganda, google it) the poor villagers
were left in open air as they were going back to their homes
and were met by an israeli missile, all dead.

it's turning into an extermination plan...there is absolutely
no considerations for any form of human rights..no consideration
for people's lives..this is israel's war with hizballah
why are inocents being killed? why am i sleeping everyday
to the fading sound of israeli f16 and sounds of explosions?
i can't understand and i don't want to understand it..
why are civilians attacked and why are israeli's using
phosphorus bombs (i don't know what the hell they are, and
am not interested, but i know they are internationally banned
weapons)
isreal's response to the kidnapping of it's soldiers is completely
exaggerated, i can't think of any word to explain the destruction
going on here...it's brutal and inhuman and nothing, nothing
anyone can say or do can justify such a response...
there is so much going on, so many things i want to say
but at this moment i am drained...
everything i learnt and believed in IIPES about any attempts for
peace with israel fell into the water along with my hopes and dreams
of having a country of livi9ng in peace of opening a family
business in my home city of raising my children in the place where
i grew up......
all i see now is destruction and bitterness and fear and loath
and all i can think of is survival..it's not a matter of not wanting
to die, but a matter of refusing to die for such reasons..

bear with me such a bitter post, but it is the truth, bare and solid
and just as it is, and truth hurts..

love to you all including israelis

Rola

2,000 Israelis March in Tel Aviv to Demand End to Offensive

2006-07-17T11:11:00.000+03:00

Around 2,000 people marched in Israel's commercial capital of Tel Aviv on Sunday to demand an end to the punishing offensive against Lebanon that has left some 150 dead, organizers said.
"Yes to a prisoner exchange," chanted the demonstrators, referring to the key demand of Hizbullah that snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid Wednesday, unleashing the Israeli offensive.

"Yes to peace," "Our children want to live," cried the mixed crowd of Jewish and Arab demonstrators.

The rally, organized by half a dozen Israeli pacifist groups, lasted around two hours before being dispersed by police.(AFP) (AP photo shows Israeli policemen arresting an Israeli left wing demonstrator in Tel Aviv)

Beirut, 17 Jul 06, 07:48

Bomb Prediction

2006-07-17T00:36:00.000+03:00

I have recently learned how to tell when a bomb will hit without the help of the television.. All you have to do is listen for the sound of a low humming engine.. That my friends is an announcement that there is a drone in the sky, immediately afterward the warplanes come in and bomb the hell out of a target.... Now just think about that happening 100 times a night.. I will keep you posted.. as the night goes on.. The attack is just starting now..

2006-07-17T00:03:00.000+03:00

An actual leaflet dropped by Israeli jets in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut (Ay Khudmay?) translation - Nasrallah says,"Can I provide any service?"

2006-07-16T21:28:00.000+03:00

Day 5

I am sitting in Beirut, waiting for the attacks to begin, the Israeli government promised it would be a strong attack tonight, we find ourselves saying that each night will be the worst night.. It doesn't look like the campaigns are showing any sign of slowing down, only growing both in intensity and bolder in targets. I feel for the people in Dahiya because they haven't had a break from the bombing.. The bombs continue to slam every hour, it's no longer a sound that is unfamiliar and granted it has only been 5 days of fighting..

There is continued talk about a ceasefire but the terms are unrealistic...go figure that would ever happen when talking to the Israelis.. I submitted an editorial to the Washington Post.. I am not sure if they will run it, but I am hoping that it will help get the word out. If you are able to, please write your local representative demanding the US to intervene in this conflict. I can't say enough how the bombings are all civilian targets. They are destroying neighborhoods that are densely populated....

The power has been off and on, and I am trying to take the opportunity to update this blog every second I get.

Bombs Bombs and More Bombs

2006-07-16T02:35:00.000+03:00

The Israelis continue to bomb Dahiya... I am not sure what they are hitting, what's interesting is that you can watch it all on TV. The Lebanese television stations set up cameras overlooking Dahiya and you can just watch the television.. see the explosion and count to 13.. Thirteen is the amount of seconds it takes before you can hear the explosion. The bombs keep on falling and I think I am going to go out of my mind. I am not sure that there are any more places that they can hit, so they will just continue to bomb the airport and hit the same bridges over and over again...

I wonder how much money is spent on each bomb, let's say 50,000 dollars? I don't know how much, but it sure could do a lot to help people if the amount was used for something beneficial to humanity.... I have probably heard over 250 bombs by now.. And yet I still can't stop jumping or flinching every time I hear one..

I am hoping that my students are all safe and sound, but I know that is far from reality. I tried to keep in touch with them but a lot of their phones aren't working now..

I hate that sound.. I can't even write this fucking blog without hearing at least 5 blasts... I will write more when I calm down..

Day 5 of the siege

Waiting for the worms

2006-07-15T16:00:00.000+03:00

I have never felt so abandoned by my government. I have nothing but anger for President Bush as he continues to lack common sense and the ability to reason. Regardless of your stance on Hizballah or what lead to this escalation, anyone with common sense will see that innocent people are suffering the most. We are completely isolated from the outside world, running out of oil and food from the blockade. Electricity is now a luxury that is not guaranteed and to be honest, I am not sure when i will be able to update this blog again. As for the violence, let me summarize it as Israeli warplanes constantly flying over lebanon, dropping bombs at any random place. Our civilian casualties are far exceeding the Israelis and furthermore they are equiped to hide from the miniscule rockets that Hizballah is able to launch. There is a huge difference between ground rockets and launching rockets from a F-15.

As for my safety, I am guaranteed to be safe because they are not coming close to the Christian neighborhoods but the sounds of war can be just as damaging.. Every night I wait for the next attack to watch the ground erupt into flames and the anti-aircraft fire. There is nothing to do other than stay awake, I am not sure the last time I had a decent amount of sleep, but who could think of it in a time like this? I will only suffer with the rest of the lebanese by having to search for food and water, which is becoming more scarce as this continues. The only ones that can bring an end to this conflict is the US and the Israelis, both whom seem staunchly opposed to doing so. Please make some noise in America for me and try to get the US involved to limit the hijacking of Lebanon.. The government is powerless and the people are stuck in this horrible mess. None of us are immune.

As for evacuation, I have heard that the State dept is putting together some plan to ship Americans to Cyprus, but I have to sign a promisary note to pay back the boat ride and they leave us stranded there, which doesn't really leave me in a good place, being that I own a ticket to the US leaving the former Beirut International Airport on Aug 3rd. There are 25,000 Americans here in Lebanon and I would have assumed that the US had more interest in calming this situation but once again the US has steered clear from any logical policy.

Let the world remember the best way to defend itself, destroy its sovereign neighboring country.

May God be with the people of Lebanon..

I will update as much as I can.

Day 4 of the siege

Lebanon under Siege Part II

2006-07-13T22:12:00.000+03:00

I just witnessed Israeli warships moving into the Lebanese waters and there is some place burning on TV.. The airport was attacked for a second time, and it is going to be a very long night. The Israelis dropped pamphlets from the sky warning Lebanese civilians to stay away from Hizballah areas.. It is getting worse and worse.. Israel is claiming that Hizballah hit Haifa which they are denying.. I don't know what will happen, but I'm sure the power is going out soon. I just want to say that i will be fine, and I will stay out of the fighting areas, but the night will definitely be long. Please say a prayer for Lebanon...

Lebanon under Siege

2006-07-13T16:03:00.000+03:00

First thing I want to say is that I am safe.. Right now the atmosphere is really horrible and we are all sitting waiting for the next move.. I will post more when I have a bit more time.. I am just hunkering down and watching the news...

Why in front of AIPAC?

2006-03-06T15:13:00.000+02:00

I guess I will never understand the political decisions made by American politicians. While I was sitting at home eating lunch and watching CNN International, the US Ambassador to the UN gave a speech indicating that America holds the right to take any phyisical action it deems necessary against Iran if it continues its path of isolation and nuclear defiance. The part that struck me funny is that the backdrop was lined with AIPAC AIPAC AIPAC... Why in the world would the US give such speeches from a lobbying firm that directly shows the American-Israeli ties following all the events both within its borders and outside its borders knowing all of the repurcussions that it may have? I believe that we should give such speeches in a neutral forum or environment to reduce the fodder for conspiracies that the Israelis control US foreign policy. I will try to get a picture of this briefing.. If this bothers me... I can only imagine what my Lebanese neighbors feel.... to be continued..

All is quiet, but for how long?

2005-10-11T22:26:00.000+03:00

Well it has been a few weeks since the last bombing... Which happened to be in my neighborhood. I was lucky enough to be in a taxi heading away from my apartment. It is not even a question that I would have been safe if i would have been at home... The problem would have been the fact that I would have heard the explosion. Sometimes people neglect the fact that damage from sound is almost as powerful as receiving physical damage. My experience with the Israeli F-15 sonic booms left me with a bundle of nightmares... some of them range from low flying jets performing "mock-raids" where they go into attack mode... Other dreams I find myself running from missiles that are being fired... The one thing i have learned from this, is that there is nowhere to go, and you couldn't get out of the way of any missile no matter how fast you can run...
I can only imagine what type of nightmares I would be experiencing if I was home when the blast occurred... It was only 3 blocks away so I would guess that it was definitely audible from my humble residence.
Shortly afterward, there was an assassination attempt on the life of May Chadiac.. The face of LBC... Even though I don't watch LBC too often, I know who she is because she is the main anchor for the news. The poor woman has been left crippled for life as she lost her left arm and leg. This type of targeting only proves that there are pro-Syrian elements if not directly Syrian elements responsible for the terrorizing explosions.
I am predicting a new wave of bombings accompanying the release of the UN report... I am bracing myself as are many around me.. but I am not ready to even consider fleeing from Lebanon. It will take more than sporatic bombings.. Stay tune for more Lebanese drama.....

The Dawn of August 30th

2005-09-04T17:30:00.000+03:00

August 30th will always remain a date in my mind as a critical turn of events in Lebanese politics.. I am not sure if the mainstream media picked up on the significance? Instead it has been focuses on Bush's folly in the Big Easy.... My prayers are with the families and the people in Louisiana who are suffering from the lack of US response to the natural disaster.. Coming from South Carolina, I have had my own great experiences with Hurricanes and their fury...

Taking a step back, August 29th around 11:40, I was on my way to an internet cafe to go check email. As I was walking down Bliss Street, there was a parade of Lebanese Army trucks (which is not that unusual). However, this time each truck had a machine gun pointed out... it is normal to see one truck in the group have a machine gun mounted on the front, but this time each truck had some serious weapon... I knew that it wasn't going to be a normal night... Lord knows what could go down in Beirut....

After heading back to my dorm and having relaxing conversation with the RA in the AUB dorm.. I went to sleep. The night had just begun for the Lebanese military and Lebanese ex-officials.. I had just gone to sleep when the power went out... (You know when the power goes out because the AC stops, and u don't want that in Beirut.. trust me) Dripping with sweat, I get up and turn the AC back on when the power returned. My AC had to be turned on manually. After finally going back to sleep, the power went out for the second time. Later the power went out for a third time. As I sit in bed, I am thinking in my head that something must be going down, something concerning the government. My mind was running wild with the possible scenarios. Maybe the Lahoud regime had fallen and there would be an announcement the following morning about the new government.

The next morning I went to work and asked around if they had made the same observations. Most said they didn't think anything happened... I didn't find out until later that morning when I read the newspapers with Headlines saying something that i would have never believed.

The Lebanese military arrested 5 suspects accused of plotting the Hariri Assassination. These 5 individuals were the highest ranking officials in the Lebanese Internal Security apparatus. While newspapers who did pick up on the story mentioned that there will be some violent repurcussions for the arrests, don't know how the Lebanese feel about these guys. They definitely will not be missed. I will post some stories with further information on these guys and their fate.... Just thought that it would be interesting to let all of you know that I sensed a "coup" of some sort.... this is a crucial event in lebanese history.... let's hope the changes continue to come...

Lebanese-Syrian border crisis intensifies after gunfightBy Majdoline Hatoum Daily Star staffMonday, July 18, 2005

2005-07-18T19:11:00.000+03:00

BEIRUT: The border crisis between Lebanon and Syria intensified yesterday when a gun battle broke out between Lebanese police and Syrian smugglers in the northern city of Qaa.
The latest flare up on the border comes as Syrian Marine Police arrested four Lebanese fisherman and confiscated their boat for fishing in Syrian territorial waters in Aridah, north of the Lebanese city of Tripoli.
The arrest of the four fishermen yesterday followed the earlier arrest of five others and the confiscation of two boats on Saturday.
The border row, which has also seen Lebanese trucks stranded on the Syrian border unable to cross, is in danger of becoming an international dispute.
The U.S. has accused Syria of scheming to "strangle" Lebanon politically and economically by closing its border to wipe out Lebanon's transit trade with the rest of the Arab World.
Washington has linked the border dispute to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's attempts to block Premier-designate Fouad Siniora's efforts to form a new Lebanese cabinet composed of anti-Syrian MPs.
Commenting on the shooting incident in Qaa, a police source said smugglers entered Lebanon from Syria and were returning with a load of smuggled goods when they were spotted and fired at by a Lebanese customs patrol.
One Lebanese officer was slightly wounded and the smugglers returned to Syria, the official said.
The source also claimed a Syrian border patrol member shot toward Lebanese customs officers. Syrian customs officials declined to comment on the report, saying they had not heard of the border shootout.
Commenting on the arrest of the fishermen, Syrian Transport Minister Makram Obeid
said: "This is a judicial measure. The fishing boats were seized and did not have the required authorization."
But the Northern Lebanese Fishermen's Union called for a symbolic strike today to protest what it called "this new un-fraternal measure."
A spokesmen for Tripoli's Association of Fishermen said thousands of Syrian fishermen have for decades being fishing together with Lebanese in the coastal stretch between Tripoli and Arida off the common border of the two countries.
Many Lebanese believe the measures are a response following the forced withdrawal of Syrian troops in Lebanon in the wake of massive anti-Syrian demonstrations.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held Lahoud and acting Premier Najib Mikati responsible of the crisis on the borders.
He said: "The country is blockaded. There are certain responsibilities on the president and premier. Why don't they discuss the issue with Syrian officials to get out of this problem?"
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, who met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus yesterday, called for both sides to maintain good relations. He said: " A political understanding is necessary between the two countries which must take into account the importance of the common interests that tie them."
The border scuffles come amid reports Syria intends to demand compensation for Syrian workers killed in Lebanon in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Syrian Social Affairs and Labor Minister Deyalla al-Haj Aref said her ministry has sent "detailed lists" of workers killed, including the date, time and manner in which they were killed.
Syria would discuss the issue further with Lebanon once its Cabinet is formed, she added.

Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report

2005-04-17T18:25:00.000+03:00

Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report
Posted on Saturday, April 16 @ 08:37:19 EDT
This article has been read 2526 times.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jonathan S. Landay, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

Several U.S. officials defended the abrupt decision, saying the methodology the National Counterterrorism Center used to generate statistics for the report may have been faulty, such as the inclusion of incidents that may not have been terrorism.

Last year, the number of incidents in 2003 was undercounted, forcing a revision of the report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism."

But other current and former officials charged that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's office ordered "Patterns of Global Terrorism" eliminated several weeks ago because the 2004 statistics raised disturbing questions about the Bush's administration's frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism.

"Instead of dealing with the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public," charged Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA analyst and State Department terrorism expert who first disclosed the decision to eliminate the report in The Counterterrorism Blog, an online journal.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who was among the leading critics of last year's mix-up, reacted angrily to the decision.

"This is the definitive report on the incidence of terrorism around the world. It should be unthinkable that there would be an effort to withhold it - or any of the key data - from the public. The Bush administration should stop playing politics with this critical report."

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed that the publication was being eliminated, but said the allegation that it was being done for political reasons was "categorically untrue."

According to Johnson and U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the issue, statistics that the National Counterterrorism Center provided to the State Department reported 625 "significant" terrorist attacks in 2004.

That compared with 175 such incidents in 2003, the highest number in two decades.

The statistics didn't include attacks on American troops in Iraq, which President Bush as recently as Tuesday called "a central front in the war on terror."

The intelligence officials requested anonymity because the information is classified and because, they said, they feared White House retribution. Johnson declined to say how he obtained the figures.

Another U.S. official, who also requested anonymity, said analysts from the counterterrorism center were especially careful in amassing and reviewing the data because of the political turmoil created by last year's errors.

Last June, the administration was forced to issue a revised version of the report for 2003 that showed a higher number of significant terrorist attacks and more than twice the number of fatalities than had been presented in the original report two months earlier.

The snafu was embarrassing for the White House, which had used the original version to bolster President Bush's election-campaign claim that the war in Iraq had advanced the fight against terrorism.

U.S. officials blamed last year's mix-up on bureaucratic mistakes involving the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the forerunner of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Created last year on the recommendation of the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the center is the government's primary organization for analyzing and integrating all U.S. government intelligence on terrorism.

The State Department published "Patterns of Global Terrorism" under a law that requires it to submit to the House of Representatives and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a country-by-country terrorism assessment by April 30 each year.

A declassified version of the report has been made public since 1986 in the form of a glossy booklet, even though there was no legal requirement to produce one.

The senior State Department official said a report on global terrorism would be sent this year to lawmakers and made available to the public in place of "Patterns of Global Terrorism," but that it wouldn't contain statistical data.

He said that decision was taken because the State Department believed that the National Counterterrorism Center "is now the authoritative government agency for the analysis of global terrorism. We believe that the NCTC should compile and publish the relevant data on that subject."

He didn't answer questions about whether the data would be made available to the public, saying, "We will be consulting (with Congress) ... on who should publish and in what form."

Another U.S. official said Rice's office was leery of the methodology the National Counterterrorism Center used to generate the data for 2004, believing that analysts anxious to avoid a repetition of last year's undercount included incidents that may not have been terrorist attacks.

But the U.S. intelligence officials said Rice's office decided to eliminate "Patterns of Global Terrorism" when the counterterrorism center declined to use alternative methodology that would have reported fewer significant attacks.

The officials said they interpreted Rice's action as an attempt to avoid releasing statistics that would contradict the administration's claims that it's winning the war against terrorism.

To read past "Patterns of Global Terrorism" reports online, go to www.mipt.org/Patterns-of-Global-Terrorism.asp

Reprinted from Knight Ridder Newspapers:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11407689.htm

You Have Your Lebanon and I Have My Lebanon

2005-04-08T14:52:00.000+03:00

(written after the first World War, in the 1920's) Khalil Gibran

You have your Lebanon and its dilemma. I have my Lebanon and its beauty.
Your Lebanon is an arena for men from the West and men from the East.

My Lebanon is a flock of birds fluttering in the early morning as shepherds lead their sheep into the meadow and rising in the evening as farmers Return from their fields and vineyards.

You have your Lebanon and its people. I have my Lebanon and its people.

Yours are those whose souls were born in the hospitals of the West; they Are as ship without rudder or sail upon a raging sea.... They are strong and eloquent among themselves but weak and dumb among Europeans.

They are brave, the liberators and the reformers, but only in their own area. But they are cowards, always led backwards by the Europeans. They are those who croak like frogs boasting that they have rid themselves of their ancient, tyrannical enemy, but the truth of the matter is that this tyrannical enemy still hides within their own souls. They are the slaves for whom time had exchanged rusty chains for shiny ones so that they thought themselves free. These are the children of your Lebanon. Is there anyone among them who represents the strength of the towering rocks of Lebanon, the purity of its water or the fragrance of its air? Who among them vouchsafes to say, "When I die I leave my country little better than when I was born"?

Who among them dare to say, "My life was a drop of blood in the veins of Lebanon, a tear in her eyes or a smile upon her lips"?

Those are the children of your Lebanon. They are, in your estimation, great;but insignificant in my estimation.

Let me tell you who are the children of my Lebanon.

They are farmers who would turn the fallow field into garden and grove.

They are the shepherds who lead their flocks through the valleys to be fattened for your table meat and your woolens.

They are the vine-pressers who press the grape to wine and boil it to syrup.

They are the parents who tend the nurseries, the mothers who spin the Silken yarn.

They are the husbands who harvest the wheat and the wives who gather the sheaves.

They are the builders, the potters, the weavers and the bell-casters.
They are the poets who pour their souls in new cups.

They are those who migrate with nothing but courage in their hearts and strength in their arms but who return with wealth in their hands and a wreath of glory upon their heads.

They are the victorious wherever they go and loved and respected wherever they settle.

They are the ones born in huts but who died in palaces of learning.

These are the children of Lebanon; they are the lamps that cannot be snuffed by the wind and the salt which remains unspoiled through the ages.
They are the ones who are steadily moving toward perfection, beauty, and truth.

What will remain of your Lebanon after a century? Tell me! Except bragging, lying and stupidity? Do you expect the ages to keep in its memory the traces of deceit and cheating and hypocrisy? Do you think the atmosphere will preserve in its pockets the shadows of death and the stench of graves?

Do you believe life will accept a patched garment for a dress? Verily, I Say to you that an olive plant in the hills of Lebanon will outlast all of your deeds and your works; that the wooden plow pulled by the oxen in the crannies of Lebanon is nobler than your dreams and aspirations.

I say to you, while the conscience of time listened to me, that the songs Of a maiden collecting herbs in the valleys of Lebanon will outlast all the uttering of the most exalted prattler among you. I say to you that you are achieving nothing. If you knew that you are accomplishing nothing, I would feel sorry for you, but you know it not.

You have your Lebanon and I have my Lebanon.

A Dedicated Iraqi fan in Jordan

2005-03-30T17:59:00.001+03:00

An Iraqi fan in Jordan

The Amman Crew

2005-03-30T17:59:00.000+03:00

Friends from Amman (Radney, Banan, Bayan, Faisal, and in the back Khalid)

Sagesse vs. Jordan (Sagesse won!!)

2005-03-30T17:57:00.000+03:00

Jordan vs. Sagesse (Lebanon)

Basketball in Jordan????

2005-03-30T17:55:00.000+03:00

Basketball in Jordan????

The Jordan River

2005-03-30T17:50:00.000+03:00

The Jordan River - This is the border between the West Bank and Jordan

Lawrence of Lebanon and Emir Radney claim Jordan in the name of Lebanon

2005-03-30T17:41:00.000+03:00

Lawrence of Lebanon and Emir Radney claim Jordan in the name of Lebanon

A native Beduin of Petra

2005-03-30T17:39:00.000+03:00

Petra, Jordan

'Behind Lebanon Upheaval, 2 Men's Fateful Clash'

2005-03-21T13:18:00.000+02:00

The New York Time has run a Beirut-datelined article by its Middle East correspondent Neil MacFarquhar about slain ex-Premier Hariri's clash with Syrian President Bashar Assad shortly before the extension of President Lahoud's term in the Baabda Palace by three years last September. Following is the text of the article that carried this headline: Behind Lebanon Upheaval, 2 Men's Fateful Clash
On an unseasonably mild day last August, a small group of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's closest political allies could tell from his flushed face and subdued manner that something awful had happened in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where he had been summoned to a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad.

The four men, all Lebanese Parliament members, recalled waiting for him at the Beirut mansion of the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, in the so-called garden, basically a carport paved with concrete bricks, plus one short orange tree in a faux terra cotta tub.

Mr. Hariri - wearing an expensive blue suit and a white shirt, his tie loosened - lumbered over mutely and flung himself onto one of a dozen white plastic chairs, his head lolling back and his arms dangling over the edges.

After a few moments, he leaned forward and described how the Syrian leader had threatened him, curtly ordering him to amend Lebanon's Constitution to give President Émile Lahoud, the man Syria used to block Mr. Hariri's every move, another three years in office.

"Bashar told him, 'Lahoud is me,' " Mr. Jumblatt recalled in an interview. "Bashar told Hariri: 'If you and Chirac want me out of Lebanon, I will break Lebanon.' " He was referring to the French president, Jacques Chirac.

In the month since Mr. Hariri was assassinated, members of Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition have pointed to that Aug. 26 encounter in Damascus as fateful. Although opposition leaders acknowledge that they lack firm evidence tying Syria or its Lebanese agents directly to Mr. Hariri's assassination, they link that day to his slaying on Feb. 14.

"To tell you the truth, when I heard him telling us those words, I knew that it was his condemnation of death," Mr. Jumblatt said.

It was after that meeting that Mr. Hariri, 60, a real estate tycoon turned politician who had run Lebanon for the better part of 12 years, decided that he had to join the movement to uproot both the Syrian Army and the ever more robust tentacles of its secret police from Lebanon.

Interviews with a dozen Lebanese involved, including the three other men at the garden and some of Mr. Hariri's closest aides, indicate that in the final six months of his life he was tormented by the predicament that Lebanon now faces - how to end Syria's headlock without reigniting the civil war that tore this country apart a generation ago.

Whether Mr. Hariri would have succeeded in his efforts cannot be known. Nonetheless, President Assad's decision to force Mr. Lahoud onto Lebanon again is now widely seen as an enormous political blunder, uniting many Lebanese communities in opposition and even managing to bringing together France and the United States in a concerted effort to push Syria out. Although Syria denies involvement in the assassination, Mr. Hariri's death eliminated the one man potentially able to muster the international and domestic pressure to force Damascus to release its grip.

For the moment, his killing has inspired that anyway. But the lingering question is whether he can accomplish in death a goal that eluded him while alive: keeping the notoriously bickering opposition united for long enough to see free elections and the end of Syrian control.

"What they are really missing is a leader, that is the key problem, someone to show them the way," said Timur Goksel, a longtime United Nations spokesman here who now teaches at the American University of Beirut. "That is a real void."

Orders from Damascus

Syria is used to acting with impunity in Lebanon.

But by 2004, the Lebanese were expecting something different from Mr. Assad, not least because the United States had signaled by invading Iraq that business as usual was unacceptable.

The 39-year-old Syrian leader seemed to have gotten the message, telling a Kuwaiti newspaper early last summer that Damascus would not interfere in Lebanon's presidential election in the fall. Months later, Mr. Hariri was ordered to Damascus for the ominous meeting. Mr. Assad advertised the fact that the meeting was remarkably short - 15 minutes in a country where most presidential encounters drag on for hours - to make it clear that Syria was issuing an order.

The Lebanese around Mr. Hariri were both appalled and exhilarated that the Syrians obviously failed to grasp the consequences of what was immediately condemned as a maladroit act.

"We knew Bashar had made a fatal error," said a close political adviser to Mr. Hariri, who, like several other people interviewed, asked not to be identified given the current tension and fear of reprisals in Lebanon. "Hariri said that we are all just gnats to them, he kept repeating that until his death."

The Americans and the French, alienated since Paris opposed the war in Iraq, reacted with rare simultaneous anger over Syria's move. Quietly urged on by Mr. Hariri, they pushed through Security Council Resolution 1559, which demanded a Syrian withdrawal and the disarming of Hezbollah. The Syrians were furious at what they took to be solely Mr. Hariri's handiwork.

The strain showed. Mr. Hariri, a burly, gregarious man who loved to make puns, became quiet and introspective. A friend since childhood said that at one point the prime minister put his hand on the friend's shoulder and wept, something he'd never done before.

The Syrians, acknowledging that Mr. Hariri might be able to defuse the gathering international storm, asked the prime minister to form a new government. Mr. Hariri started drawing up lists of potential ministers, but most were rejected by Damascus.

"He was like a boxer still reeling from a direct punch," said Patrick B. Renaud, the Beirut ambassador for the European Union. "He was shocked by the harshness of the message he received from the Syrian president."

An even harsher message followed.

As Marwan Hamade, the former minister of economy and trade and a Hariri ally, drove away from his seaside apartment building on Oct. 1, a roadside bomb flung his Mercedes into the air. He clambered from the flaming wreckage and collapsed to the ground at the very moment the car's fuel tank exploded, sending shrapnel flying in all directions. Mr. Hamade managed to survive with head injuries, severe burns and a broken leg.

He was one of four cabinet ministers who had voted against the Lahoud extension and then quit the government. He was also among the 29 Parliament members who voted against the constitutional amendment granting Mr. Lahoud three more years. The failed assassination was seen as a warning.

The Hamade bombing convinced Mr. Jumblatt that open defiance of Syria was the only route left to restore democracy to Lebanon. He began organizing a series of opposition meetings at the Bristol Hotel in Beirut. Mr. Hariri did not attend, but several members of his Future Movement did. After his assassination, it was this core group that organized the huge street demonstrations that pressured Syria to start withdrawing its forces.

In the days after the Hamade bombing, Mr. Hariri changed his security routine somewhat. Bassem Sebah, a Shiite member of Parliament from Mr. Hariri's bloc, said he used to drive the two of them to meetings in a black BMW while sending his usual convoy of armored limousines out as decoys.

He was confident that he would not be assassinated, though, aides and political allies recalled, particularly because Washington had publicly rebuked Damascus after the Hamade bombing, warning that it would hold Syria responsible for any similar attacks.

Slowly throughout September and October, Mr. Hariri edged closer to the opposition. Aides said he could no longer stomach another three years battling Mr. Lahoud, whom he considered not only a lightweight but also a Syrian pawn who was undermining Lebanese institutions by backing the encroachment of secret police agencies that mirrored the ones running Syria.

As Mr. Hamade put it in a speech after the assassination, Mr. Hariri had been subverted because "the role of the intelligence was no longer to keep up security, but to plant agents, generalize wiretapping, distribute newspaper articles, threaten judges, bind ministers and besiege members of Parliament."

A President as Insurance

Among Lebanese, Mr. Lahoud, 68, has a reputation for lounging through most afternoons in his Speedos by the pool at the Yarze country club, reading Paris-Match magazine and holding a tanning mirror. News accounts that he was swimming during Mr. Hariri's funeral reached such a crescendo that he felt compelled to deny them. "I swim every day - it's my workout - but on that specific day, I did not swim," he told a gathering of the Journalists' Union Council.

Opposition figures are convinced that one key reason Mr. Lahoud was extended was that his family had developed close business ties with the Assad clan in Damascus.

Foreign embassies suspect the same. "We have no solid evidence, but we believe there is a big link," said a senior Western diplomat. "His family seems to have done quite well for itself."

Mr. Lahoud rejected a request to be interviewed for this article. Ever since he assumed the presidency in 1998, Mr. Lahoud proved Syria's main insurance for keeping Mr. Hariri in check.

Syria considered Mr. Hariri a threat both because he was a Sunni Muslim figure admired in both countries and because he had important friends in the West. Syria's minority Alawite rulers deposed the once dominant Sunnis there, so an obviously independent Sunni leader in Lebanon might inspire unrest next door.

In fact, one reason Mr. Hariri was always reluctant to confront Damascus was that his Sunni Muslim constituency still viewed Syria as its portal to the wider world of Arab causes, and they did not particularly want to be allied with the Maronites, their traditional rivals.

Mr. Lahoud ignored the fact that the prime minister was supposed to lead all cabinet meetings. At one October meeting, he sat down and announced that items 1 through 15 on Mr. Hariri's agenda would not be discussed, one former minister recalled, sweeping away every substantial item.

Over the years Mr. Lahoud and roughly 18 ministers allied with Syria voted against any project Mr. Hariri proposed, from small items like buying land for new schools to economic reforms. At a 2002 meeting of international donors in Paris, the French president and Mr. Hariri managed to secure more than $4 billion in aid to Lebanon, which was heavily in debt, in exchange for economic reforms. Mr. Lahoud effectively torpedoed all the reforms.

"Every cabinet meeting was an ordeal," Mr. Hamade said.

New Hope, and a Sudden End

The end for Mr. Hariri as prime minister came in October after the Syrians sent him a message to step aside. He resigned on Oct. 20, somewhat relieved, his aides said.

The next months were consumed mostly with planning for parliamentary elections due in the spring and wrangling over the election law. The Syrians were trying to gerrymander districts around Beirut and the rest of the country to weaken the opposition. But the Christian-Sunni Muslim-Druse coalition appeared to grow ever more formidable.

During this period, while he was planning his comeback, Mr. Hariri seemed to become his old self again, friends and allies said. Mr. Renaud, the European Union ambassador, recalls visiting him at his combined office and mansion right after Christmas and seeing him emerge from behind his desk waving a sheaf of papers and grinning, saying, "We are going to win the elections!"

To test his Future Movement's popularity, Mr. Hariri announced that to celebrate the Muslim feast of Al Adha, he would receive visitors at his Beirut mansion on Jan. 10. The reaction was huge. Some 20,000 well-wishers poured through, said Ghattas Khoury, a member of his parliamentary bloc.

By late January, Mr. Hariri was feeling confident enough that he decided he would not accept any Syrian-nominated members on his election list, his advisers say. His 19-member bloc in Parliament included three men chosen by Rustom Ghazale, the head of Syrian intelligence based in Anjar in the Bekaa region, and the man Lebanese believe really ran their country, his aides said.

Mr. Hariri invited Mr. Ghazale to lunch in late January and told him about the decision.

"They were not happy," said Ghazi Aridi, a former minister of information who resigned in September over the Lahoud extension. He recalls Mr. Ghazale telling Mr. Hariri, "You have to think about it and we have to think about it."

It was beginning to look like the opposition could capture about 60 seats in the 128-seat Parliament, enough to elect a president other than Mr. Lahoud. Around this time, Mr. Hariri and Mr. Jumblatt, the Druse leader, had a meeting. Mr. Hariri's earlier confidence that he would not be assassinated had slipped; the two men figured one or the other would be killed soon.

"Any field where you challenge them, they get mad," Mr. Jumblatt said. "Such totalitarian regimes cannot understand that you can have the freedom to chose your own M.P.'s, or you choose your own local administrators or I don't know what."

Two weeks after that conversation, the huge bomb that rocked all of Beirut struck Mr. Hariri's motorcade. He, along with 18 other people, died.

"The goal of killing him was killing the political movement that could succeed in controlling Lebanon, particularly since it looked like the Syrians would have to leave," said Mr. Sebah, a member of Parliament from Mr. Hariri's bloc. "I think they killed him because they did not want a new political era in Lebanon."

Translated Article -- from L'Orient Le Jour

2005-03-15T05:59:00.000+02:00

(translated by the Google translation tool)
Thousands of lit candles place of the Martyrs, on the initiative of the Current of the future the "truth" in letters of light Of the young people light the candles which must form the words "the truth" and "Al-haqiqa" (Ramzi Haïdar/AFP) It is in letters of light that some 10 000 people wrote yesterday, on one of the quay levels of the place of the Martyrs, the word "Arabic and English Truth". Carrying their candles, they expressed once more, on the initiative of the Current of the Future, their claim relating to the elucidation of the mystery of the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and his companions. Twenty-four hours before the large gathering to which the forces of the opposition called the people today, the place of the Martyrs, which do not have désempli since the funeral of Hariri, was crammed. One needed some ten thousand people, according to organizers', to fill out the giant letters registered on sand, right in front of the mosque Mohammed el-Amine, where the victims of the attack of February were buried 14. But it much had gathered of it there on the place, as of 18 hours, retained by the cords of safety. Enthusiasm was such as the young organizers of the Current of the future had evil to contain crowd, and any difficulty at the proper time of filling out the letters of the two words. Crowd entonné the national anthem at the beginning of the event. The words of two songs dedicated to the memory of Rafic Hariri were distributed to the participants, so that they can the fredonner during the course of operation. Like all the organized activities place of the Martyrs, this one was characterized by the same climate of popular solidarity. "Abou Bahaa". The evocation of this nickname of the former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, transformed into slogan since its death, was continuous. On the podium as within crowd, her name remained omnipresent, just like its memory, still extreme since the terrible attack which cost him the life "Those which killed it do not know that there remains present of each one of us, in the heart of each young person who intends to continue the way that he traced", shouts a voice with the microphone. As usual, crowd was not tender outside towards Syria "Syria", stressed it, begun again in echo by interlocutors on the platform, who pointed out that "the fold already started". In addition, the deputy Ghazi Aridi as of other speakers commented on the term used Saturday by the president of the Republic, Emile Lahoud, who qualified the attack of "mean action". "These are the words which are mean actions", Aridi thundered. Whereas a member of the Current of the future was indignant qu ' "one can thus qualify such an abominable crime". Did all the participants present at this event yesterday show a great enthusiasm "If such a movement will not push me to move me, what could still move me? ", known as Thérèse. "We are there to show them that we exist, and that we are in 2005, not in 1975", Nour underlines. Another lady refuses to carry a candle and to join crowd "the truth, we know it, even if they make their possible to hide it", says it. John Orak is American and fact part of a group of three students who were in crowd "Since I am in Beirut for my research, I did not expect such significant demonstrations and also peaceful", it underlines. Before leaving the places, the participants planted their candles in sand so that the letters can remain illuminated all the night. S. B.

Des milliers de bougies allumées place des Martyrs, à l’initiative du Courant du futur

2005-03-14T22:54:00.000+02:00

Des milliers de bougies allumées place des Martyrs, à l’initiative du Courant du futur
La « vérité » en lettres de lumière

Des jeunes allument les bougies qui doivent former les mots
« the truth » et « al-haqiqa » .(Ramzi Haïdar/AFP)

C’est en lettres de lumière que quelque 10 000 personnes ont écrit hier, sur l’un des terre-pleins de la place des Martyrs, le mot « Vérité » en anglais et en arabe. Portant leurs bougies, ils ont exprimé une fois de plus, à l’initiative du Courant du Futur, leur revendication concernant l’élucidation du mystère de l’assassinat de l’ancien Premier ministre Rafic Hariri et de ses compagnons. Vingt-quatre heures avant le grand rassemblement auquel les forces de l’opposition ont appelé le peuple aujourd’hui, la place des Martyrs, qui n’a pas désempli depuis les funérailles de Hariri, était bondée.
Il fallait quelque dix mille personnes, selon les organisateurs, pour remplir les lettres géantes inscrites sur le sable, juste devant la mosquée Mohammed el-Amine, où ont été enterrés les victimes de l’attentat du 14 février. Mais il y en avait beaucoup plus rassemblés sur la place, dès 18 heures, retenus par les cordons de sécurité. L’enthousiasme était tel que les jeunes organisateurs du Courant du futur ont eu du mal à contenir la foule, et aucune difficulté à remplir les lettres des deux mots le moment venu.
La foule a entonné l’hymne national au début de l’événement. Les paroles de deux chansons dédiées à la mémoire de Rafic Hariri ont été distribuées aux participants, afin qu’ils puissent les fredonner durant le déroulement de l’opération. Comme toutes les activités organisées place des Martyrs, celle-ci s’est caractérisée par le même climat de solidarité populaire.
« Abou Bahaa ». L’évocation de ce surnom de l’ancien Premier ministre Rafic Hariri, transformé en slogan depuis sa mort, était continue. Sur le podium comme au sein de la foule, son nom restait omniprésent, tout comme son souvenir, encore brûlant depuis le terrible attentat qui lui a coûté la vie. « Ceux qui l’ont tué ne savent pas qu’il reste présent en chacun de nous, dans le cœur de chaque jeune personne qui compte poursuivre le chemin qu’il a tracé », crie une voix au micro.
Comme d’habitude, la foule n’était pas tendre envers la Syrie. « La Syrie dehors », scandait-elle, reprise en écho par des interlocuteurs sur la tribune, qui ont rappelé que « le repli a déjà commencé ». Par ailleurs, le député Ghazi Aridi ainsi que d’autres intervenants ont commenté le terme utilisé samedi par le président de la République, Émile Lahoud, qui a qualifié l’attentat de « vilenie». « Ce sont ses paroles qui sont des vilenies», a tonné Aridi. Alors qu’un membre du Courant du futur s’indignait qu’« on puisse ainsi qualifier un crime aussi abominable ».
Tous les participants présents à cet événement hier faisaient preuve d’un grand enthousiasme. « Si un tel mouvement ne va pas me pousser à me déplacer, qu’est-ce qui pourrait encore m’émouvoir ? », dit Thérèse. « Nous sommes là pour leur montrer que nous existons, et que nous sommes en 2005, pas en 1975 », souligne Nour. Une autre dame refuse de porter une bougie et de rejoindre la foule. « La vérité, nous la connaissons, même s’ils font leur possible pour la cacher », dit-elle. John Orak est américain et fait partie d’un groupe de trois étudiants qui se sont trouvés dans la foule. « Depuis que je suis à Beyrouth pour mes recherches, je ne m’attendais pas à des manifestations aussi importantes et aussi pacifiques », souligne-t-il.
Avant de quitter les lieux, les participants ont planté leurs bougies dans le sable afin que les lettres puissent rester illuminées toute la nuit.

S. B.

Pro-Syrian Rally

2005-03-09T21:18:00.000+02:00

Although the rally was very large in size, there were people at the rally that were paid off, such as many Palestinian refugees who were given $65 a vanload if they attended. Also, a majority of the schools in the south were closed and required to attend by Hizballah. Not to take away from the powerful display, but there are benefits to being a deep social movement, while the US only acknowledges Hizballah as a "terrorist group". It is important to know the extent that an extremely large percentage of the population relies on the charitable side of Hizballah.

Lebanese youth beaten by men sporting Syrian flags in Beirut

2005-03-09T15:16:00.000+02:00

Lebanese youth beaten by men sporting Syrian flags in Beirut

BEIRUT, March 8 (AFP) - A 21-year-old youth was taken to hospital Tuesday after being beaten by club-wielding men carrying Syrian flags in the latest incident between anti- and pro-Syrian followers, police said.

Bashir Daibess, 21, was admitted with head and back injuries as well as a fractured elbow which will necessitate surgery after the incident in the eastern Christian suburb of Furn el-Shebbak, the injured man and doctors told AFP.

In another incident in nearby Ain al-Remmaneh, men in cars bearing Syrian flags drove through the area honking their horns and insulting youths standing along the streets, police said.

Youths from both sides beat each other with clubs and stones before the cars sporting Syrian flags drove away and Lebanese army forces deployed in force in the area, they said.

"It is not the first time that men carrying Syrian flags pass by the neighborhood to provoke the youngsters here, and actually they have been also driving by and firing shots in the air at night," a police officer said.

Since Saturday, when Syrian president Bashar al-Assad harshly criticised the Lebanese opposition for calling for a Syrian troop pullout from Lebanon, young men with Syrian flags have been driving around the streets of Beirut and other cities and firing into the air.

A teenager was injured on Sunday in a shooting incident near an anti-Syrian opposition rally in Beirut. The Lebanese army later arrested three suspects.

At Mount Lebanon Hospital, Daibess said "I was driving around Furn el-Shebbak neighborhood with four of my friends, when a man insulted us from another car carrying seven people."

The car was decorated with a Syrian flag and portraits Assad and his Lebanese counterpart, Damascus protege Emile Lahoud, he told AFP from his hospital bed.

"Then, they got out of the car and we did too. My friends managed to escape, but I was beaten by a baseball bat on the head, the back and the elbow," he said.

"These are provocations that have been taking place every evening in the last few days, and we had been expecting this to happen today after the demonstration of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah," said witness Tufic Moawad.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah which maintains offices near the areas of the incidents, led a massive demonstration earlier Tuesday in downtown Beirut to express solidarity with Syria.

"These incidents are very dangerous, especially that they are targeting the residents of Ain al-Remmaneh where the war started," said Moawad, standing among dozens of young men vowing to remain on the streets to "protect our neighborhood."

The 15-year Lebanese civil war was sparked by an incident in the neighborhood when Christian militiamen fired on Palestinian civilian bus returning from a rally on April 13, 1975.

500,000 mass for Hizbullah in Beirut

2005-03-09T13:55:00.000+02:00

500,000 mass for Hizbullah in Beirut
Shia poor throw their weight behind status quo

Brian Whitaker in Beirut
Wednesday March 9, 2005

Guardian

Syria's supporters in Lebanon struck back against the "cedar revolution" yesterday with a show of strength which easily dwarfed anything their opponents have been able muster.
They drove into Beirut throughout the morning in cars waving Lebanese flags and battered buses decorated with pictures of the Syrian-backed president, Emile Lahoud.

They came from towns and villages all over Lebanon: from the Beka'a valley, the mountains, and the far south. Opponents claimed that some had come from Syria.

Half an hour before the rally was due to begin Riad al-Solh Square, one of the largest open spaces in Beirut, was already full but more kept coming, often several hundred at a time, and overflowed into side roads and on to flyovers.

In the city centre many shops closed and streets were almost deserted. Large numbers of troops stood by on the fringes of the demonstration.

Trying to estimate the number was futile, but half a million would be plausible and a million not unbelievable.

From a distance it resembled a larger version of Monday's opposition rally. As on Monday, they patriotically waved the red and white Lebanese flag and the national anthem blared out several times over the loudspeakers.

But they also waved pictures of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his Lebanese counterpart. There were even a few of President Bashar's late and largely unlamented father.

Much of the language, unless decoded, sounded similar too: one of the slogans was "Sovereignty, not foreign intervention". But the foreigners referred to were the Americans, the Israelis, the French: anyone but the brotherly Syrians.

Looked at more closely, this was a very different crowd.

The anti-Syrian protesters who have attracted worldwide attention are mostly Christians, plus Sunni Muslims and Druze, and they are generally from the better-off sections of Lebanese society. Yesterday's masses were overwhelmingly the poorer - and historically downtrodden - Shia, who form 40% of the population.

Armani sweaters and flashy sunglasses were not to be seen. Some of the women were clad from head to foot in black, Iranian style, a few cradling babies in their arms. Among the men there was more than a smattering of beards.

All, ostensibly, had turned out to show their gratitude to Syria for its efforts in Lebanon.

From a platform in front of the sea-green windows of the UN building the Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah denounced security council resolution 1559 as a "coup" against the Taif accord which ended the Lebanese civil war.

The accord is Syria's justification for its leisurely moves to withdraw troops; the UN, citing resolution 1559, is demanding swift action.

Hizbullah has grievances of its own against 1559, because the resolution also calls for all militias in Lebanon to be disbanded. Although Hizbullah functions nowadays mainly as a political movement, it is loth to abandon its guerrilla wing entirely.

Yesterday it flexed its political muscles with conviction - though the rally was not entirely its own. Other supporters included Amal (the other main Shia party), Nasserists, Ba'athists and a long list of obscure organisations.

What cannot be disputed is Hizbullah's ability to organise.

On Monday loudspeaker cars toured the streets of Nabatieh and other towns, calling on citizens to show their "opposition to foreign interference in Lebanese affairs, solidarity for the preservation of national unity and civil peace, objection to the UN resolution 1559, denunciation of the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri and appreciation for Syria's sacrifices in Lebanon".

What is less clear is how many of those who joined the demonstration yesterday had strong personal feelings about any of these matters, and how many were pressed into attending or simply fancied a day trip to Beirut.

Opposition supporters alleged that influential figures in some towns and villages had strongly encouraged attendance, and there were groups of youngsters at the demonstration who looked like entire school classes.

None of this may be enough to save the Hizbullah militia from eventual extinction, but it plainly has no intention of going quietly.

Syrian troops made further moves yesterday in their planned redeployment to the Beka'a valley, according to witnesses in a mountainous area east of Beirut.

Two senior Lebanese officials said a major redeployment of the Syrian army from central and northern Lebanon would begin late last night and would be completed by March 23.

The Lebanese defence minister, Abdul-Rahim Murad, told the Associated Press: "All the force in the [central] mountains and north will move to the Beka'a as of 10pm [20.00GMT] tonight."

He said that included the main Syrian intelligence offices in Beirut.

Under an agreement between the Syrian and Lebanese presidents on Monday the redeployment will be followed at an unspecified date by complete withdrawal of the 14,000 Syrian forces personnel in Lebanon.

The controversial intelligence agents will also leave, a Damascus official source told Reuters yesterday.

"The fact that security forces were not mentioned in the [withdrawal] statement is merely because they move along with the armed forces. It is a given. The withdrawal is of all Syrian forces," the source said.

One man, One Nation

2005-03-07T13:38:00.000+02:00

by R.H. Wood and J.P. Orak

February 14th 12:55pm, I was walking down the Old Damascus Highway, a road once known as the “Green Line” during the civil war; dividing Beirut into West (Muslim) and East (Christian). It all happened so fast. The brutal force of the explosion resounded through my chest. Startled, I searched for answers. The uncertainty settled in my stomach, a band of butterflies fighting within me. The streets flooded with the curious masses. All too familiar with such events, they seemed aware of things I could not comprehend. My first instinct was to look up to the sky for an Israeli F-15, a common pest to the Lebanese, but instead of the expected “sonic boom” a mushroom cloud of black smoke rose over the city. I will never be able to adequately express my sense of fear and frustration or the emotional response of the people.

To people of Lebanon St. Valentine’s day is forever changed; Transformed from a day of heart filled balloons to one of nightmarish despair. It only took a matter of seconds and the demons of Lebanon’s not too distant past emerged from their shallow slumber to claim yet another victim. Not just any victim. But Mr. Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri.

In a country still rebuilding from the dark days of civil war, a war which forever stained the hands of nearly every Lebanese politician with the blood of innocents, Hariri was the one exception. He had spent the war years, 1975-90, amassing his fortune in Saudi Arabia. However, unlike many of his fellow expatriates, Hariri did not make his money and leave. Instead he used his influence and fortune to help assuage the pain of his people. Eventually his efforts worked as he was the impetus behind the Ta’if Accord, the treatise signed in Saudi Arabia by the different Lebanese faction that ended the brutal 15 years of war.

After Ta’if he returned to his country of birth with a vision to rebuild the nation that he once new and to work for its collective future. In life he rebuilt the war torn neighborhoods, created charitable foundations, invited foreign investments, and brought an independent movement to politics. All the while he dreamed of an inescapable unity in Lebanon. In death that unity was realized. As the masses of Muslim, Christian, and Druze prayed at his grave, as they march in the street in his honor and protested the Syrian presence that was thought to have killed him, he brought them together. How long this unity will last and what it shall accomplish is still unknown, as is the truth behind Hariri’s murder.
Hariri’s assassination has ignited a plethora of conspiracies putting the blame on anyone and everyone possible. The most telling is a sample of what can be heard from the Lebanese directly. “It was Syria 100%” a woman from Baalbak claimed as she continued, “but I am sure that America was behind it somehow.” Others have said that they will not decide who was responsible until hearing the report from the international investigation. Some remain very pessimistic about the political instability, “the removal of the Syrian troops will open a power vacuum in Lebanon comparable to the expulsion of the PLO from West Beirut” explained a Palestinian resident of Beirut, alluding to an increase in violence that occurred during the early 80s of the Civil War.

Sifting through the conspiracies to find the truth is an act of futility which may never bring the truth to fruition. Hariri was a threat to many different elements of the Syrian-Lebanese relationship. The Lebanese have been subjected to a Syrian presence both through its military and intelligence apparatus since 1976. Any Lebanese will tell you that the Syrian mukhabarat (intelligence agents) are everywhere. “They are running the fruit stands, they drive the taxis, and even the beggars are mukhabarat,” a Lebanese woman explained to me. This leads to why most of the Lebanese believe that Syria must have been behind the brutal assassination. There is even debate as to whether the assassination was carried out by a car bombing or if the bombs were planted underground. This conspiracy incorporates the Lebanese pro-Syrian government as being involved in the assassination plot.
Regardless of the answer, the assassination of Hariri has mobilized the people of Lebanon. They have been taking to the streets daily. Even after the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami’s government, the people continue to gather in Martyr’s Square.

Hariri’s vision of Lebanon is being realized today. People from all regions and religions of Lebanon flooded to the burial site to pay respects to their fallen Martyr and his family. Side by side, in unison, they chanted the Muslim prayer for the dead and performed the fatiaha. Together they mourned; a collective tear of sorrow fell from their faces. Within that tear, the dream of one man and the hope of a nation, and as the world watches hopefully that tear will wash away the memories of war and irrigate the fields of unity and understanding.

Hariri's Funeral

2005-02-17T00:44:00.000+02:00

Today, I spent the day, walking through Beirut, a place I had felt I knew all so well, but looks so different after this horrific tragedy. The site of the bombing was worse then I imagined, and I originally imagined it to be devastating…The funeral began around 10am local time, but I didn’t make my way downtown until noon. There were massive crowds throughout the city; some gathered near the old theatre that was blown up during the war, some in the parking lot overlooking the mosque under construction…People with all sorts of backgrounds came to attend. You could see Junblatt’s Progressive Party flag being waved by so many of the young Lebanese in attendance. People, young and old, came to see the burial of the former prime minister. I felt touched both as an observer and as someone who supports Lebanon, and loves the country for its beautiful history, people, and culture... This love for Lebanon, which has become a mysterious relationship, especially with Beirut itself, is difficult to relay in words, especially to those who have not seen the country. I have renewed my security and safety after venturing around the city, to see what the atmosphere is, and if there was any reason to think that danger is lurking in the near future… I believe, on the contrary that the country is reaching a breaking point, which will hopefully push it into a more secure and free path… There is one feeling that echoes from all the Lebanese that I have spoken with, from Druze, Sunni, Shi’a, to Christian, is that the war was for nothing… and they are tired of the violence… The people want to reclaim their country… and in my humble opinion, they will. As a foreigner (ajnabi), I have my own respect for Rafik Hariri, and may he rest in peace…

I hope for peace for Lebanon….
For the people I have met and befriended….
For the most hospitable people I have encountered….
For those who cannot escape the tragedy when it erupts.

Syria is for sure to blame

2005-02-15T15:28:00.000+02:00

I am not really into conspiracy theory, and particularly the ones that come from the Middle East...but I am almost certain, that this assassination was a professional job, premeditated by the Syrian intelligence...Syria could only carry it out if they could pass off the blame on someone or something else...In this case, Al Qa3da, which would presumebly be an acceptable culprit would dismiss any ties to Syria..Conspiracy? or reality?

"Al Qaeda” denies involvement in Hariri killing

2005-02-15T15:25:00.000+02:00

A day following the attack in which former Lebanese premier Rafic al-Hariri was killed, a statement posted on the web Tuesday and attributed to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network denied any involvement in the incident. It said Lebanese, Syrian or Israeli intelligence were those behind the Beirut attack.

The statement, signed by an unknown group calling itself the Al Qaeda Organization in the Levant, was posted on an Islamist website often used by al Qaeda, a day after another unknown Islamist group claimed it was behind the massive blast that killed Hariri and eight others. Several hours after the attack, Al Jazeera TV broadcast a video tape from the unknown Islamist group which said it had killed Hariri because of his Saudi ties.

"Blaming the Jihadist and Salafist groups for what happened in Beirut is a complete fabrication," the statement said, according to Reuters. "The priorities of the jihadist groups in the Levant are supporting our brethren in Iraq and Palestine, not blowing up cars."

"This is clearly an operation that was planned by a state intelligence agency ... and we blame either the Mossad, the Syrian regime or the Lebanese regime."

© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

Hariri Assassination - thoughts, comments, feelings, accusations

2005-02-14T23:44:00.000+02:00

First of all, I want everyone to know, that i am obviously alive...and I do thank God for that, although it would have been unusual for me to be in that area around the time the explosion happened, you never know and I pass it all the time in a serveez (Lebanese taxi), to go to AUB to Hamra...It is a really beautiful and safe area...What was my day like?? well to start it off..I was feeling sick this morning..so I texted messaged one of my coworkers to tell him that i don't think that i was going to go in today, and then I felt better around noon, so I decided I would head in...It takes about 30-45 mins to get out of here, so I was heading down the Old Damascus Highway, just a normal day...and at 1pm almost perfectly, I heard an incredibly loud explosion..and felt it in my stomach..to the poin that i jumped and was freaked out...I looked towards downtown, and then I saw a dark dark mushroom cloud rise up from the buildings...I had no idea what had just happened, I looked to the sky for an Israeli jets, but I didn't hear any airplanes...and I saw the Lebanese scatter on the sidewalk and rush outside to see what was going on...There is nothing more frustrating then trying to find out what happened in Arabic...especially when I am not familiar with words concerning violence...I finally spoke with a man who told me sayara "boom"..sayara meaning car..and I knew...at first i thought it was just an attack on a hotel because everyone told me near St. Georges...so I had no idea... I went to meet my friend because we were going to check out an apartment that we might move into, and I found out that he was even more oblivious...I tried to call my friends, to see if they were ok, but the phone network was full and I couldn't get through to anyone....Finally, after looking at the apartment, just after witnessing a bombing, we headed back to the downtown office...we found broken glass all over the city because of the magnitude of the blast...I can't explain it any better....When I arrived at the office, I found that the car bomb was an attempted assassination...and it was targeting Hariri...We first were told he was alive and in the hospital, until CNN broke that Hariri was in fact killed in the attack...It has been a terrible experience, and a crazy shift in the atmosphere, for now, i am just staying inside my apartment in fear of any type of retaliation....these are my initial thoughts, and situation... I am in disbelief....and I am certain it involved syria....not 100% sure, but the timing, and the recent warnings...indicated that it just might be...don't automatically accept the group that claimed it as the ones responsible...I think there are definitely links to Syria... well as for now, i am going to stay indoors...I hope all clears up here peacefully, and there is no retaliation...as many of the Lebanese feel the same way.....well that is all for now...i will be sure and post more in the future...

Israel Seizes Palestinian Land in Jerusalem Cut Off by Barrier

2005-01-28T12:53:00.000+02:00

washingtonpost.com
JERUSALEM, Jan. 23 -- Israel has quietly seized large tracts of Jerusalem land owned by Palestinian residents of the West Bank after they were cut off from their property by Israel's separation barrier, attorneys for the landowners said.

The land was taken after the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided several months ago to enforce a long-dormant law that allows Israel to seize lands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out during the 1948-49 war that followed the establishment of the Jewish state.

The new policy, first reported in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, could affect hundreds of Palestinians who own property in Jerusalem and intensify the dispute over the city, which Israel and the Palestinians both claim as their capital.

The affected landowners live in the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jalla, just south of Jerusalem. Their land was taken in August, after the West Bank separation barrier cut them off from their land in the city.

The land was transferred to the Custodian of Absentee Property, a body formed by a 1950 law that allowed the seizure of property of Palestinians who had left Israel during the war, according to documents from Israel's Finance and Justice ministries.

Johnny Atik, a Bethlehem resident, said Sunday that he lost eight acres of olive groves within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries as a result of the new policy. The land is 100 yards from his home, which sits on the other side of an electronic fence and patrol road that are part of the separation barrier.

Atik said land belonging to 40 families in his neighborhood had been taken.

Hundreds of other Palestinians are now at risk of having land seized, according to Daniel Seidemann and Mohammed Dahla, attorneys representing several of the landowners.

Atik said he planned to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Finance Ministry declined to discuss the policy, and a spokesman insisted he would only respond to written questions. The ministry's written response did not address how much land had been taken and whether landowners would be compensated.

Israel's absentee land law was first used in the 1950s. At least 20,000 Arab homes in the western part of Jerusalem were taken under this law, said Moshe Amirav, a former member of the Jerusalem City Council.

In the 1967 Middle East war, Israel captured the eastern half of Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, then expanded Jerusalem's municipal boundaries and annexed the area.

Sharon's office declined to comment, except to confirm the government's decision that the Custodian of Absentee Property has the authority to "transfer, sell or lease" lands in East Jerusalem that belong to absentee owners.

The Finance Ministry said the properties of the Bethlehem-area landowners were transferred to state custody after the 1967 war. Asked what the state would do with the land, the ministry said the question was "not relevant."

UN envoy urges Israel to end "violations" of Lebanese airspace

2005-01-28T12:10:00.000+02:00

UN envoy urges Israel to end "violations" of Lebanese airspace
Beirut, 26 January: The United Nations Information Office in Beirut issued the following statement:

"The personal envoy of the UN secretary-general in South Lebanon, Staffan de Mistura, has expressed deep concern over the continuing numerous Israeli air violations of the Blue Line." The statement added: "At 1300 [1100 gmt] this afternoon, 11 Israeli military planes and an unmanned B-7 aircraft violated Lebanese airspace, in addition to six violations recorded yesterday by five military planes and one unmanned aircraft."

The UN envoy said that "the UN had on numerous occasions drawn attention to the continued violations of the Blue Line, as was recently reported in the secretary-general's report to the Security Council. The personal envoy of the UN secretary-general reiterates his calls to Israeli authorities to put an end to these violations, and reminds all parties concerned that one violation of the Blue Line does not justify another violation."

Israeli war planes conduct "mock" raids; fly over Beirut

2005-01-27T11:35:00.000+02:00

Source: Lebanese National News Agency web site, Beirut, in Arabic 1151 gmt 26 Jan 05

The correspondent of the Lebanese National News Agency in Bint Jbayl reported that "Israeli war planes flew over Bint Jbayl and the border villages at 1105 Wednesday." The correspondent added: "At 1140 [0940 gmt], enemy planes renewed their flights over Bint Jbayl and the western sector, and conducted mock raids."

The Guidance Directorate of the Army Command has issued the following statement:

"An Israeli reconnaissance plane coming from the direction of the sea opposite the city of Tyre violated the Lebanese airspace this morning at 0725 [0525 gmt]. The plane flew in circles between Tyre, Sidon and Al-Nabatiyah, and departed back over the sea opposite Al-Naqurah at 1000."

The Guidance Directorate of the Army Command also issued the following statement:

"Four Israeli war planes violated southern Lebanese airspace this morning at 1100 [0900 gmt]. Two of the planes headed north towards the city of Shaka and flew in circles between Shaka and Beirut and then returned south. The four planes departed towards the occupied territories at 1200."

Israeli Gunboats Rake Lebanese Fishing Harbors with Machinegun Fire

2005-01-12T13:38:00.000+02:00

Well the tensions are on the rise, but is this fair play????? US tax dollars going to Terrorism? Granted, there was a convoy attacked in the Sheb'a farms area of Golan, by Hizballah, but I don't think that targeting commercial boats in the south is very fair. Read it for yourself. I will post more at a later date.

Israeli Gunboats Rake Lebanese Fishing Harbors with Machinegun Fire

Israel's navy gunboats made repeated forays into South Lebanon's territorial waters overnight, raking fishing boats with machine-gun fire in the aftermath of Hizbullah's strike that killed an Israeli officer in the Shabaa farms over the weekend, the Beirut media reported on Wednesday.
Helicopter gunships provided air cover to the maritime incursions that were staged under the glare of parachute flares along the coastal strip stretching from Naqoura right on the borderline with Israel to the southern outskirts of Tyre, 10 miles north of the Jewish state..

There were no reports of casualties or serious damage. But Lebanese fishermen in the targeted area that houses the command headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force abstained from sailing out to earn their living early Wednesday morning, according to media reports.

An Nahar, which was the first to report the offshore tension, said a buildup of Israeli armor was spotted in the environs of the northern Jewish settlement of Zareit close to the U.N.-drawn blue line on the border of South Lebanon.

Earlier media reports said Israeli army tanks rolled up to hilltop positions facing south Lebanon in the aftermath of Hizbullah's Sunday attack, which provoked an Israeli retaliation of air strikes and field artillery barrages in which a French officer from a U.N. truce observer unit was killed along with a Hizbullah fighter.

The Frenchman, Major Jean-Louis Valet, a father of four children, was given a military sendoff at Beirut airport (as shown in photo). A cedar medal conferred by President Lahoud was pinned to Valet's flag-draped coffin before a French air-force plane carried the body to Paris.

Israel's naval belligerency came a few hours after the U.N. Security Council called on Lebanon, Israel and de facto irregular elements, meaning Hizbullah, to exercise "utmost restraint" to prevent the new wave of hostilities from spinning out of control.

The council statement, read by Argentina's U.N. Ambassador Cesar Mayoral, the current council president, paid tribute to the U.N. victims of the attack, extended sympathy to their families, and demanded respect for the security and safety of all U.N. personnel.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated their call on the parties to fulfill the commitments they have given to respect in its entirety the Blue Line and to exercise the utmost restraint," the statement said. (Naharnet-AP)

Beirut, Updated 12 Jan 05, 09:36

Lebanon the first day

2005-01-07T08:58:00.000+02:00

Hi to everyone out there, I am finally here in Beirut and getting ready to start my studies. I fought to stay awake yesterday and succeeded to stay up until 6:30pm. I woke up at 3am this morning and watched some Arabic and French television, it is quite a challenge after waking up......Anyway, here is a picture of my apartment in Sodeco and its view, I have a nice balcony, although the view isn't that wonderful... :) I still like it anyway

The Death of Arafat

2004-11-16T22:49:00.000+02:00

Arafat's death has come at an interesting point considering the policies of Israel and the United States. George W. Bush, the first US president to mention the two state solution in a formal speech, has been eager to make peace a possibility between the Israelis and the Palestinians. However, Bush is also the first president to validate the Israeli settlements in the West Bank which he articulated as the rightful land of the Israelis. One of the motivations behind Bush's and possibly Sharon's thinking is to create two portions of a Palestinian state that will ultimately fail, giving the Israeli government the upperhand to annex the territory for good. This in my opinion will ultimately be the only answer, not through the Israeli annexation method I described above, but the actual creation of a binational state that embraces the Palestinians and the Israelis. There is no way that the two groups can live independent and separate lives when they have historically worked together as intertwined communities. This conflict began in the 20th century when political zionism was created by Theodore Hertzl. Keep in mind the key word attached to zionism...POLITICAL. Most people who argue the conflict or at least the many people I have encountered rarely know anything about the Zionist movement and believe the word was created by Arabs who hate the Jews because of their exceptional status in the Bible, or the exact words from God. This is the breaking point for me when it comes to political discussions because of the complexities surrounding the issue, and once these points are made, the discussion usually turns into a history lesson, one that I am tired of giving. So the next question I ask myself is why are most Americans uneducated when it comes to the conflict itself??? Is it because they rely on 15 minute reports by mainstream American media??? Or do they form their opinions from reports of suicide bombings that took place in Israel and never hear of the daily deaths of Palestinians in the occupied territories? Lets just say that I am left puzzled everyday by the different arguments that I have encountered. As this forum is supposed to be dedicated to my trip in Lebanon, I am still interested in Middle Eastern events and this one happens to weigh heavily on most of the conflicts in the Middle East.
Now back to Arafat and his death, it will be interesting to see how Palestinians will restructure the Palestinian Authority (PA) in hopes of finding a credible successor. There has already been some internal struggle as former PM Abu Mazen was attacked while visiting some mourners in a tent after Arafat's burial service. The assailant shouted out that he is an agent for the Americans. These extreme parties spearheaded by HAMAS and ISLAMIC JIHAD need to be incorporated somehow into the government and done so delicately that more moderate elements will flourish within the organizations. The Hizb Allah can be seen as a model for this type of incorporation, or parliamentization. Hizb Allah, which has become more moderate these days, except in its fight against Israel, which people have to understand is provoked by Israel daily, has 7 members in parliament 1 of whom is Maronite Christian and 1 who is Sunni Muslim. The party does not require an ethnic identity to be a member, for the group was created to resist the Israeli occupation. This incorporation will prove to be a extremely crucial step to move towards peace.

A Reflection on Arafat

While Arafat will also be branded by the American media as a conniving terrorist who was never working for peace, the Palestinians will always remember him for be a strong willed leader who would not give up the cause of the Palestinian people. There are many different issues that Arafat held as important to the Palestinian people which included the right to return, a right that seemingly will never be granted to the Palestinians. Some of the conditions that were demanded by the Israelis, would mean defeat to Arafat and the Palestinian people, so while Americans and Westerners alike look at different offers Arafat was given and think rationally that Arafat was crazy to not accept what Israel was offering, they need to turn the table and see it as what the Palestinians have already given up. Putting aside ones religious belief, such as the issue of Israel belonging to the Jews because of God (Allah), the Palestinians have been making the most concessions out of the two parties. Just as a last comment, I want to remind anyone reading this, whether it be a friend of mine or not, that I am in no way inclined to one side or the other, while I am interested in Arab studies, I am a white American with a Catholic background. I have studied the Bible very well. I am talking a rational human being who are looking at two separate parties in conflict.

Solution to the Conflict?

I have said once before that the only true solution is the binational state, which may not be the most immediate step in the peace process, (look at it as a phase such as Marx's thinking of capitalism) the phase being the two state solution first. Finally, the binational state will take root after the two parties are willing to drop the violence and Israel becomes demilitarized. The United States will have to be a major player in pressuring the Israelis to give concessions to the Palestinians, or the conflict will remain with asymetric power distribution. Only time will tell.

Well that is enough for now, hope you have enjoyed this discussion, and it will generate a thirst in your mouth for more information.

2004-11-08T19:25:00.000+02:00

This is a village in Syria between two mountains.
American in Beirut

This is my first blog

2004-11-08T10:16:00.000+02:00

Here is my first blog, it feels so amazing that I will have the ability to publish my own thoughts, feelings, emotions, opinions, and share it with all of the world.......if there is anyone out there that is interested. Well I created this page so I will be able to keep everyone up to date with what i have been up to as well as post images so y'all can have a chance to see Lebanon as well, through my lens, that is....Well, that is all for now, currently I am working on planning my internship, and have a lot I need to prepare before this trip becomes a reality.

Bye for now,
John

2004-11-08T08:00:00.000+02:00

A mural I found when I climbed into a deserted and destroyed building in Hamra
American in Beirut