The war did not start on July 12, 2006. I have memories of war stashed away right next to the memory of my first electronic Spelling game that my parents got me to accelerate my learning of the alphabet in the pre-kindergarten years of the pre-Atari era. The war started in the year 12 b.h.n. (before Hassan Nasrallah) and it hasn’t ended yet. The July, Lebanon’s Second, or Sixth labels are just chapter titles to distinguish the 33 days of open military warfare as opposed to the covert military ops that preceded and continued after that period.
The problem is that Israel in its current version is not compatible with peace. Maybe version 2.0 will have that option programmed into it but until then it’ll be war. I will not start a dissertation on the topic of Israeli society being built by war for war. I don’t have the time or energy for the debate, but it is safe to say that 60 years of trying to force peace have been fruitless; except for a paper peace with an oppressive dictator here and a tea party there. Are the Arabs still begging for their peace initiative to be accepted? Well paper peace has accomplished the conditional release of 4 Jordanian captives, even if it was 12 years after said peace deal, and only so that Hamas and Hezbollah don’t get credit for their release but who’s counting.
The media is going crazy with the “anniversary” so I won’t bore you with more talk about it, but I will state that I have no problem with Lisa Goldman’s report for Israeli TV from Beirut. I shared a few minutes with Lisa last year on a TV debate during the war. Well it wasn’t much of a debate since we agreed on most points since she seemed to be part of that peaceful Israel 2.0 beta. She’s a journalist not an enemy combatant. Of course being a journalist did not vouch for Imad Ghanem who was used by the Israeli army for target practice as he laid on the ground pleading for help (Google for video of this incident). Anyhow spies and collaborators roaming the cities and mountains of the nation are a dime a dozen; a journalist roaming the pubs of Beirut (and she's Canadian to boot) and reporting that Hezbollah googles names a la potential daters is the last of my worries.
Back to the internal Lebanese political scene… well that’s if we can assume Paris is in Lebanon and that a gathering between Mahmoud Berri and Mirna El Murr constitutes a political scene. I am skeptical about any positive outcome coming of the Parisian Dhahieh as I do not see anyone stepping up to fill the void in the leadership of the round table with the absence of Elie Skaff. Although with Ahmad Fatfat out of town the army should be able to finish off what’s left of Fateh El Islam in Naher el Bared. I’m joking of course as there is no evidence of any recent involvement of Fatfat in Fateh El Islam’s activities.
Finally, Ahmad El Assaad launched the Lebanese Option Gathering as a Third option for Shiites in Lebanon. I won’t go into the sectarian aspect of this move as El Assaad is clearly nostalgic to his family’s Dynasty years. Some see that the problems in Lebanon are due to the lack of Shiite or Sunni or Maronite parties; and third, fourth, or seventeenth options would help. Fine, but El Assaad himself already heads at least one other political party: the Kafa’at party. So what does L.O.G. have that Kafa’at didn’t? See only a short sighted simpleton would ask that, El Assaad actually discovered a genial way of making up for the lack of popular support. The next time the sons of Kamel El Assaad and Sabri Hamadeh meet the headline would read “Heads of 37 Parties Gather at the Commodore in Support of Mufti Ali El Amin”, it sure beats “2 Loser Sons of Former feudal lords drown their sorrows at Hotel bar.”
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Excellent
The problem is that Israel in its current version is not compatible with peace... 60 years of trying to force peace have been fruitless
...On Israel's borders are four Arab countries. Israel has never had real trouble with Lebanon. Cows occasionally wander over the border from Lebanon and are sent back. Girls in the Israeli army may get lost and wander across the Lebanese border, but they are very politely returned. None of the incidents are serious...
Who said that? Why, Golda Meir to President Kennedy, in 1962.
Israel "not compatible with peace"? Next topic, please.
Hazbani talking, yes, many years go
the Jews of Hazbiya were kicked away and told to go to their own country, they did. Just look for the name Hazbani in the Israeli phone books.
Talking about computer programs, the Leb. people must decide if they want to act for ever in a computer program that placed them at the tip of the spear of Islam. Last summer they were realy like figures on a computer screen in a strange Persian computer game, they have had as much to say about their lives as some of these electronic jumping figures in some of the most bloody computer games.
Yes, Israel make paper peace with all kinds of Arab dictators. This is what the Arab computer programs are producing. While reading the various Leb. blogs I wonder about the Persian -American -Syrian computer game being now played in Lebanon. Can any Leb. please tell me what this program is preparing for Lebanon and Israel?
Demonising Israel will not help Lebanon or Lebanese or even Lebanese bloggers as can be seen from the last 60 years. And if Lebanon will get Shaba farms, as it should, what then? do you know what is stored for Leb. and Israel in some of the diskets of computer games prepared in Teheran?
No body used Imad Gahanem as a target. There was a war going on and people being shot at. If you are looking for one of the longest target practice ever please go to Nahar el Barid. The Israelies did not shoot him selectively and even did chop his head in front of the TV cameras as is the habbitual treatment of media people in some countries.
1) Following the Hizb. practice every unite of the Hamas and others includes a photographer. He was a part of a fighting force. Can you please tell us for what media he working at the time?
2) The man was not marked "press" and was in a pack of shooting people.
3) Media people are killed in Israel, Palestine, Iraq ect. Why pick on Israel?
Like I said demonizing Israel does not do much good for Leb. Every body in Israel & Lebanon will be much much better off if the relations between Lebanon and Israel will be like with the evil dictators in Jordan and Egypt. Many people who hate the guts of Israel (for some good reason) and do not think much about Jordan and Egypt either would have liked to trade tourists with them. But as I say being the tip of the spear of Islam is such a great job much better than serving tea to Imperialist tourists.
solo- sure Meir had no trouble with lebanon. It was the border villagers of Lebanon who were harrassed daily by izzie army trespassers in and before 1962; and not the other way around. I think i'll take mother's first hand accounts over golda on this one.
Hasbani- so the Hasbanis live in Hasbaya for hundreds of years, then uncle theo comes along and suddenly the Hasbanis and others around the globe feel the urge or need to relocate. Also when you're done with the phonebook check out izzie press.
every couple of weeks you'll find a feature on the israeli society's obsession over the past 60 years of IN versus OUT and how to lure more IN with compensation packages and/or fear tactics. relocating people is a priority for Israel 1.0, another one of the design flaws that should be taken care of.
Hatzbany to Jamal, please.
As for obsession with immigration and immigrants Lebanon is not very different from Israel. Look about the right, correct and justified issue of brain drain in Leb. press. As for locating or relocating people just look at Lebanon and the problem of population changes inside and out side, I do think that still there are some displacd Leb. people in Lebanon, Christians? who are asking to go back to their land, inside Lebanon. They were forced out in the same way as the Hatzbaya Jews. The Hatzbaya Jews went to their land south of Lebanon. Also just look at the arguments concerning the richest man in the world which live in Mexico, is he or is not he Lebanese?, Jews do the same all the time. I would say, to be safe, that 1/4 of the Lebanese on the Blogland are relocated people. Lebanese are not in a position to deprecate other countries about migrations and migrants. As for design flaws, some people in Teheran & Damasc think that Lebanon is badly designed, very badly. And as for redesigning countries and societies the Persian and the Syrians are even redesigning the structure of the Lebanese govenment, by several methods some more noisy than the others.
As for uncle Theo he did his best but he have had to get some local help. For example he did not do well in the USA or England or France. Even in Persia, Yemen, Morocco and Tunisia he did not do perfectly well, no real good local help. In 1940-1950 there were about 30.000-20.000 Jews in Lebanon. Ubcle Theo helpers took care of that and now there are? ten? all hiding and shaking with fear in free Liberal Lebanon while in evil Zionland Mahmud Darwish is performing in the biggest hall in Haifa (bombed by Lebanon last summer)and tourists are comming for Europe to hear him.
I repeat, 1) The love to Israel is not driving people mad in Egypt or Jordan 2) The wars with Israel cost more to these two than to Lebanon. 3)What is the reason that things that are permitted to Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania (of all places) Morocco and Tunisia( Hundreds of Israeli Tourists !)are not allowed to Lebanon? This is racial and even antisemics ( many Labanese are semites, what ever this is). 4) One should look for ways to live not to kill . Too long I stop
I think i'll take mother's first hand accounts over golda on this one.
Details, please.
IZ 1.0 ? forget it!IZ 2.0 ? will be even more backwards!
Jamal: I checked the other State Dept. records for 1962. I found no complaints from Lebanon of Israeli Army "harassment" or incursions. Lebanon's primary concern was to retain U.S. support for the Lebanese position of "no integration" of Palestinian Arabs, lest they upset Lebanon's delicate "confessional balance".
I suppose the repeated trespass of lost teenage Israeli girls could be considered harassment. Do you think the solution is to kill, kidnap, and rocket Israelis a generation later, or to put up a fence?
سولومون2 قَنْبَز بمناسبة مرور سنة على حرب تموز.
انت شايفو كيف بنط بيكتب وقال بينطر ردك وبروح قال يكتب شو سأل وشو رد عندو بالمدونة.
بيطلع فاتح عكّا آخر شي.
مظبوط. هني فتحو عكّا من زمان
لنشوف كيف بدو يترجمها هاي على غوغل
Sorry, hilal, I can't understand Arabic.
sol2- i don't want to open this can of worms of a debate, but since you seem to have a genuine interest in knowing what went on i'll share this.
Israeli military squads used to regularly patrol border villages. The beirut government at the time was to busy counting petro dollars to care. one of the israeli most common terror practices at the time was if they found out that people were listening to the "wrong" radio station,they would ask them to leave the house immediately and they would bring it down. that's just an example of things you won't find in the state department record but you'll find thousands of living witnesses to these incidents during the "truce" years..
Jamal, are you discussing 1962 or the period of the Israeli occupation? It's not like there was vast oil money around in the sixties.
I admit to instinctively distrusting most Arabs' memories on these matters. The ability of Arabs to believe in their own embroidery is proverbial, and more unique than they themselves realize; that's why it is an error for Arabs to ascribe like motives to non-Arabs' behavior that they naturally ascribe for themselves. The story you describe, almost certainly out of the context of the discussion, is an excellent example of this.
Solomon2 why do you ask for facts that you are not prepared to ever believe?
هالقد
الـarrogance والـself-righteousness
؟!!
مين مفكر حالو هيدا؟ وبدن يينا نطبع مع هيك أوادم! حتى يعلمونا عن نفسنا وعن ذاكرتنا؟... طز عا هيك جيران
وعاللي برافقهن
Note how ridiculously grandiose the superiority complex of these fascists can be!
It is completely unacceptable to publicly state something such as:
"I admit to instinctively distrusting most Jews' memories on these matters. The ability of Jews to believe in their own embroidery is proverbial, and more unique than they themselves realize; that's why it is an error for Jews to ascribe like motives to non-Jews' behavior that they naturally ascribe for themselves."
or,
"I admit to instinctively distrusting most Blacks' memories on these matters. The ability of Blacks to believe in their own embroidery is proverbial, and more unique than they themselves realize; that's why it is an error for Blacks to ascribe like motives to non-Blacks' behavior that they naturally ascribe for themselves."
Do the above words sound offensive??
Well, the above quotes are the words of Solomon the zionist, only with the word "Arabs" being replaced with the word "Jews" or the word "Blacks".
It has become completely acceptable in the West to denigrate the dignity of Arabs and Muslims as human beings, in a manner that is socially or politically intolerable to do to other people, to the point that a religious fascist thinks highly enough of himself that he feels it is his God-given right to come into someone's space and completely disregard an entire people's humanity, and attempt to erase their memories and history, not to mention insult their intelligence and skip over their right to self determination, all because God has supposedly chosen his group of people over all others! What a ridiculously childish notion. It’s like kindergarten! Believe me, I’m a school teacher, and to me this type of thinking is reminiscent of children: “Me!!! Me Me Me Me Me!”
This zionist religious fascism believes it has the prerogative to rule over others, by appropriating or eliminating their land, history, human rights, freedoms, language and cuisine.
All such inhumanity will perish in the end, and everyone will be judged based on what is in his heart and what his hands have brought forth.
kim: Facts exist independently of beliefs. The tale Jamal relates lacks internal consistency. For that reason alone what it relates is suspect.
ibj: "arrogance" and "self-righteousness" are similarly irrelevant when it comes to discerning facts - unless you are an artist, of course, in which case it is practically required when you portray them. That doesn't mean one doesn't have to be honest, however: the choice is up to you.
You missed my warning completely. I shouldn't have to quote the Arab proverbs (which have no Jewish counterparts) to you on these matters, as I feel you know them well enough.
It has become completely acceptable in the West to denigrate the dignity of Arabs and Muslims as human beings -
I think we can all tell what choices you have made, ibj: ideology and pride over truth. I do pity your students for having such a teacher. If this was your own blog we both know you would delete or modify my comments, as you have in the past; we may compare Jamal's integrity by his choice of whether or not to follow your example.
"The problem is that Israel in its current version is not compatible with peace. Maybe version 2.0 will have that option programmed into it but until then it’ll be war."
Hey Jamal, any idea when version 2.0 is coming out?
Jamal,
I think version 2 will not be compatible either, if we judge from Solomon2.
Sophia, will you be more specific, please?
solomon2, you're so nice when you feel left out, then when you are included you show your true (colorless) colors, all fangs.
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