Time and space
The night of
As it seems clear the war is now heading towards a new phase, one that will take too long a time for me to linger in this land. I find myself faced with a dilemma for which I know the answer; nonetheless I am still looking – naively – for another one. After all I will forsake my country and my dear ones. Life has to go on as we always repeat. But how can I go on when my heart and mind are trapped in a war that seems endless and soon to become far away?
I fear the distance. I fear the silence and tranquility to which I am going. Will I be able to survive without the sound of falling bombs? As we say, the bomb you do not hear is the one that will hit you. How will I sleep without hearing those explosions I got addicted to? How will I sleep knowing that someone I know is hearing them and even worse might not be hearing them?
Today i went to a travel agency to book a ticket out of the war; it will be perhaps the first time in my life that I see the war from far away – a scarier perspective than seeing it from a close distance. The destruction becomes abstract, the violence becomes linguistic and emotions are lost between physical intimacy and long distance preoccupation.
Am I running away? Is it a form of surrendering to the dark reality of life? Or is it simply what I am bound to do?
I sometimes think that the closer we are to danger the safer we feel – it is this physical relation that gives you an esthetic sense of safety, a direct knowledge of death and therefore life. The moment this physical relation is broken the sense of safety becomes bound to a mediated state that you cannot grasp.
Since yesterday a wave of pessimism has drowned the Lebanese state of mind. Everyone felt suddenly or not that this war is only in its beginning. The direct political reason for these speculations is clearly the UN stance. Again and again the ‘international community’ will inflict another war on us. It has become a ritual that the Lebanese people have gotten used to.
The absurdity and the flagrance of the situation are always translated by the common character specificity that distinguishes us: sarcasm. I cannot help myself thinking about what would have happened if we had kidnapped the Israeli chief of parliament or a couple of deputies from the Knesset or even some ministers. It is in a way ironic to see a country claiming self defense for the kidnapping of two of its soldiers while at the same time itself kidnapping elected deputies, a chief of parliament and some ministers from another country (the kidnapped chief of parliament of the Palestinian authority was taken to a hospital for what appears to be a ‘mistreatment’ by his captives) not to mention 5 Lebanese civilians. But of course how can one criticize
Tonight as it seems a larger land operation has been initiated by the Israeli army for the purpose of invading southern Lebanon until the Litany river (the same initial operation that got the Israeli army led by Sharon to Beirut in 1982) in order to ‘clean’ the region from Hezbollah presence (in 1982 it was to clean it from the PLO presence – both of course baptized as terrorists). How hygienic one should say. Buy many Lebanese would rather say: Let them come down from their safe murderous skies.
posted by walid @ 1:39 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Very good style of writing, very interesting. Keep on working!
Just to your relief: Critizising (?) Isreal is in fact possible without being marked as a terrorist or whatever. I witness it every day in the european media. In fact, it seems that whole Europe rather stand on the Lebanese side of this conflict. At least on the side of the Lebanese civilians, because supporting a terrorist movement like the Hisbollah certainly does not come to the mind of any reasonable human being.
Best wishes,
Notger.
Thank you for the encouragement but one thing I have to point out to you using some information that has been already mentioned in previous posts or comments. I certainly would not call the European media taking a stand with the lebanese civilians something surprising – in other words if they didn’t I don’t know what the world would be. However this does not mean at all that they do criticize Israel’s policy or even yet that they dare go further. But this is not the issue of my concern now (I would suggest that you see how the highly renowned French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ is being accused of bias to the Israeli viewpoint – very surprising for such a good newspaper). What really annoyed me in your comment is the last sentence which I have to say – with all respect – reflects this ignorance of the other that I often describe. The dangerous thing about this is that people who are ignorant about a certain issue can actually write generalizing comments and propose common facts like the one you promoted: “because supporting a terrorist movement like the Hisbollah certainly does not come to the mind of any reasonable human being.”
On this provoking sentence I would say first that the use of terrorism is not that simple a thing. Second that calling a movement you know nothing about except some pictures of bearded men and masked fighters with misleading and simplistic captions does not give you the authority to call them terrorist (by the way the Hezbollah is not recognized as a terrorist movement in Europe, it is only in the USA and Israel – that is if we consider that a terrorist is what some official authority says is a terrorist). As for supporting them and its relation with the reason of a human being, well that rules 1 billion Muslims and Arabs as unreasonable, and I am not only talking about masses and poor ignorant peasants I am counting most arab intellectuals in this number. But of course you know better than them – they just do not know what they are thinking, they are mislead by this powerful Hezbollah propaganda around the world that portrays them as descent, honourable, courageous freedom fighters. Aren’t they?
I again ask you and everyone else who will comment on this blog to stop using this ridiculous term ‘terrorist’ in such a light manner – whenever you want to use the term please present a definition that is more that anyone who kills civilians (because then Israel will be a terrorist state). Thank you and excuse my possibly offensive reply.
it depends how you define the term terrorist and what one means by 'propaganda'. because propaganda can de directed as one wishes towards a negative view of a certain object or subject (s) in a way that makes people think badly of this term everytime it appears. an appeal to unconscious learning of meanings and words. going even further any sort of propaganda determines clearly the way one thinks, the way ideas come to one's mind. it is exactly like brain washing or early phase learning, repeating the same sentences with clear messages then other messages that are abstract and then , the miracle of our memory happens: we deduce from the abstraction the clear original propagated message. also, propaganda can give messages like : hezbollah are freedom fighters. propaganda does not only come from the "Evil Empire" or Israel, propaganda can come from the Hezbollah as well.
did you think that hezbollah are an illegal army stronger than the state itself?
what does that show?
probably good will to protect the lebanese army??
anyway excuse my harsh words
hoping for a quick decision to stop this march towards a much greater war, that surely involves more than just lebanon and palestine.
Well, I am not offended, I am even positively surprised that you caught the bait an answered.
First of all, there is no natural law to take Lebanons side in this conflict. Isreal too has good reasons for its acting, so you can't blame 'Le Monde' for its stance. It is simply a question of how near you are to a certain matter.
Especially this conflict seems to have several levels of interpretation.
First and closest is the pain the war causes to Lebanese and Israeli civilians, the second level consists of the strategic question of disarming a threat for Israeli civilians, the third level is the political structure of the Lebanon and the fourth and last level are the strategic goals different Near East Nations pursue.
Concerning the term of 'terrorism': A movement that proclaims the destruction of another people as one major aim and is pursuing this aim by firing rockets at civilians is worth being called a terrorist movement. I do not like the word either, so here comes a proposition: Lets call them Would-be-Genociders (WBGs). In fact, the term 'terrorism' today mostly is associated with radical muslim movements but most Europeans know that these radical movements are only a small part of the peaceful and honored religion of Islam. There is a difference and I know it and I acknowledge it. As most people also know, terrorism has not been invented by radical Islamists but rather by radical Europeans (I.R.A. I guess, a lot other following).
Back to the WBGs: Proclaiming genocide is nothing any reasonable human being will ever support. Any supporter of genocide or mass murder automatically qualifies himself as an inhumane liar who does not adhere to the moral standards his religion or his philosophy dictate. The Talmud, the Bible and the Koran, as well as any other big religion in the world condemn murder and praise tolerance and peace.
Then, you claim that most arab intellectuals and 1 billion Muslims support the Hezbollah. If this would be true, the other Arab nations would come to your help. But they do not. Why?
Because this conflict is not about killing Lebanese. The Israeli have no interest in that. It is about killing of a WBG before it begins killing a lot of people with gas bombs or whatever. And not even that is the full truth, maybe nearer to the truth is, that the Hezbollah is supported by Iran who wants to get a foothold to the mediterranean and to expand its influence, which Israel has to prevent.
Where are all your supporters? Where are the Egyptians, where are the Saudis? Where are the Syrians or the Turkish? Why are they keeping quiet and sitting still?
It is because Israel is doing their job and is fighting the Iran, who became too powerful in the region? In fact, it is not about religion, it is all about power. If it comes to power, everyone is fighting for himself.
It is sad that the beautiful Lebanon become the battle-field of foreign powers and it is said that a lot of Lebanese civilians die because of a wrong/honorless style of fighting from both sides: Hezbollah hiding in urban areas, Israel bombing nevertheless. Both are guilty and no side is really right in this war.
Now, I have one question, that really kept me awake: How come I never heard of the Lebanese army partaking in the fighting? What did they do in this war up to now? Did they fight at all? Who controls the Lebanese army?
I do not know if you are deliberately insulting me or if you are seriously arguing with your WBG theory. When I wrote the reply to your comment it was to tell you that what you assume as right and upon which you build your theory (far worse than I expected with this WBG prejudicial dogma) has nothing to do with reality, to be using soft terms.
Let me first pass quickly on this provoking WBG term you chose to use instead of terrorist. First for your personal information the Hezbollah does not call for a genocide nor the killing of the Jews (they actually like these orthodox Jews who call for the destruction of Israel as well – they often bring them to Lebanon to make seminars – and another thing what is left of the Jewish population in Lebanon partly lives in the Hezbollah quarters and under their protection), it indeed calls for the destruction of Israel which is not something that is related to killing Israeli civilians (please notice 2 things in this war, first that the Hezbollah rockets started hitting civilians only after the first civilian massacre in Merwahine in Lebanon which was done by the Israeli army, before that they were launching their missiles on army quarters – second that the number of soldiers killed by the Hezbollah is far more than the number of civilians) but something that calls for the creation of the state of Palestine in the land that belongs to the Palestinians (in other terms in Israel). Another thing is that the Hezbollah was not created for this target, it was created in 1982 when Israel was occupying Lebanon from south till north of Beirut – their target was to liberate their country not to kill the Jews (of course rhetoric use of Jews is sometimes found in some speeches – but they usually use the Zionists as a key term not the Jewish), they were defending themselves not attacking Israel (or shouldn’t one fight Israel if it is occupying one’s country and killing its people?). This is for this common bullshit of seeing the Hezbollah as this army that was created by the Iranians to destroy Israel – please revise history.
Otherwise these are not radical Islamists, in the sense that they oppress their people and make them muslims by force or that they preach radicalism, in fact their political discourse in Lebanon is one of the most open ones to other communities (their strongest alliance is with the biggest Christian force in Lebanon the general Aoun – apart from the fact that they are calling for political secularism in the country, and a reform of the election law) – but of course they remain a religious party. These are just some of the facts people who preach justice without knowing anything about the case they are preaching about do not know – and just few things that because of, your dogmatic, insulting, simplistic, and provoking WBG theory seems another pretentious judgment that seeks to see this conflict as Israel’s defense and not as an Israeli attack. My dear just to give you another perspective Israel is the biggest military force in the region, it can wipe Lebanon out in a week (which is what they already did) – until now they managed to kill 1100 civilians at least more than 30% kids of under 12 and destroy all the infrastructure of the country which is not related to Hezbollah. And just so that you know these urban places where the Hezbollah are hiding as the Israelis claim are far from hiding Hezbollah fighters (these are Shiite districts where normal people live, however these people are those who voted Hezbollah in the last elections – just like Israel is doing for those who voted Hamas) – if they did wouldn’t they find at least weapons or cadavers of fighters among the women and children that are killed? I do not want to go further into this specific claim because I can see how easy it to say they escaped – if you want to understand you should be more aware about the culture of fighting in the Shiite culture. Basically when a certain force is killing people from a certain religion (all of whom are civilians) and bombing their houses (in the suburbs 2 friends of mine until now have lost their homes – they are very far from being Hezbollah fighters, to say the least, and thousands of households I do not know have been grounded) along with the factories that are in their regions in a systematic manner I think this qualifies more into the Geneva convention’s definition of genocide.
Now this gets us to your beautiful reality : “Because this conflict is not about killing Lebanese. The Israeli have no interest in that. It is about killing of a WBG before it begins killing a lot of people with gas bombs or whatever.”
So we are back to this ‘preventive war’ – to kill people because for some reason we assume that they will kill us one day, this is called Iraq. Are you telling me that Israelis have no interest in killing Lebanese when everyday there is at least 2 massacres of whole families? Do you really want this statement to qualify as a fact? Who are these 1000 murdered people? Why are they carpet bombing civilian quarters? If they want to kill the Hezbollah why don’t they go on the ground instead of bombing with 2 or 3 tons warplane missiles in urban quarters? Do you really expect to kill guerrilla fighters with warplanes? I really do not see the logic behind such a misleading and ridiculous statement. My dear the Hezbollah are defending, they are not attacking (they are launching missiles every time Israel makes an air raid not the opposite – they even said the moment Israel stops its air raids the Hezbollah rockets will stop falling on Israel), they do not have gas bombs, this is the argument that got the USA into Iraq and was later found as simply bullshit. The Hezbollah is not simply an armed force, it is the biggest political party in Lebanon it is not a barbaric group of armed people, it is a party with a social and political plan which I believe as a leftist atheist is one of the best ones in the country (even though I do have a personal problem with religiosity – however to your surprise their plans do not include anything about turning Lebanon into a Muslim country). I am not a Muslim and still I support the Hezbollah because they are a party that is defending my country. Yes it is stronger than the Army and yes it actually works with the army because the Lebanese army is a very very weak one, if they were the ones who will defend Lebanon against Israel we would not stand a chance (and Israel did invade Lebanon before the Hezbollah was created). They are not illegal because you should know they are recognized by the government as a resistance force therefore they are perfectly legal (they have been recognized long before they were in the government).
As for my billion muslims and arabs, this my dear is not related to the arab nations coming to our aid. As you should know the arab countries are not what we call democratic, which makes the stand of the governments very different than that of its people. The latest opinion poll around the arab world gave the Hezbollah 93% of support among arabs. All the intellectual groups in the arab world have rallied for the support of the resistance and attacked their governments for not taking a stand (you can probably find their statements translated into English on the internet – try the Egyptian ones from example). The Egyptians and the Saoudis are where they have always been, in Washington, the Syrians are waiting for someone to give them money (besides they are too scared of Israel to do anything foolish), and the Turkish are waiting to become European. When I talk about support I am talking about people support not governmental one.
Well, I was just arguing, I was not offending you. I did not call your arguments stupid and simplistic, like you did. Why do you freak out and become personally insulting? Oh, I already know you answer: You think I am yet another stupid f***-head mislead by a jewish-biased media. Well, it is nice to have scape-goat at hand, if you need one.
1. Attacking civilians because the own civilians were attacked is no way to fight and is clearly wrong.
Wether Israel behaves in a criminal way or not does not change the fact of the Hezbollah acting criminally or not.
2. There is enough video footage on the web showing the tactics of using civilian houses as shelter and rocket-launching sites.
3. I clearly recall open anti-Israel Hezbollah demonstrations during the years before this war. And, by the way, who boasted to have rockets to hit Israels cities long before the war started? Well, it is your beloved party of peace and self-defence.
4. I never wrote that the Hezbollah was created by Iran. Read the post. I said it is being bolstered by them.
5. The Lebanon has not been - as you state - completely wiped out. You own Secretary of Infrastructur, or whatever it is called, said a few days ago that the damage amounts to yaddayadda billions and will be repaired quite fast.
6. Yes, Israel is committing murder and should be internationally sued and punished. But it does not carpet-bomb civilians. That is plainly wrong, to say the least. Do you really think that weeks of carpet-bombing would amount to some hundred casualties (other hundreds are from 'precision strikes')? Come on, carpet bombing would kill tens of thousands in the course of a few days. (THIS is carpet-bombing: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Wesel_1945.jpg,
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Koeln_1945.jpg)
7. You are handing out information that suits you very well, but you are not considering information that might question your belief. That is unreasonable and unfair. That way you will only get to know what you already know.
8. You do not name you information sources. I fear there is lot of propaganda and misinformation going on, especially since the case of Mr. Hajj (the photographer who got fired by Reuters because he manipulated war pictures to look more drastic). If you give out numbers, give out the source, too. 30% of the 1000 dead were children? How high is the rate of under-12-aged children?
Really, I liked to learn more about this conflict and your view, but I did not want to be abused and yelled at. I rather prefer a solid discussion. So lets get back to normality.
Who said the Hezbollah was a party of peace and who denied anti-Israeli demonstrations? (I am proud to have participated in them – I wish everyday an anti-Israeli demonstration took place) these demonstrations are not a trademark of the Hezbollah, long before the Hezbollah was created legitimate anti-Israeli sentiments were expressed by the people of Lebanon and the Arab world this has nothing to do with terrorism – on the contrary it is our way of fighting what we regard as terrorism or to use a more convenient word, occupation and systematic killing. The Hezbollah is partly a resistance guerilla, how can they be a party of peace? It is not very realistic to expect people to fight violence with diplomacy especially if they are a poor peasant society that has no lobbying capacity in the international community.
For the infrastructure I am glad you are optimistic and that you reassure me that 10 years of cleaning up the beach is not a problem and 6 billion dollars of direct infrastructure damage and 5 years of reconstruction is quite fast (the only thing our minister said would be repaired quite fast is the airport and some main bridges – these will not be repaired they will be replaced with temporary metal bridges to make the transportation possible between the regions – please read carefully – by the way the lebanese gross product is not more than 2 billion a year and the economy is already in deficit, so 6 billion is not a very small sum counting the 40 billion dollars of dept already there from the last reconstruction).
And of course 1000 killed civilians is not so much, after all they are only Lebanese – we should not complain before the number reaches tens of thousands should we? Only the 40 or so killed Israelis are victims of murderous rocket attacks and should be mourned. You are actually right Israel could have killed the whole Lebanese population but they were nice enough to kill only 1000 – we should be grateful for their merciful nature and their precision bombs (by the way the southern suburbs of Beirut which comprise some half a million inhabitants were nearly empty before the strikes – not many people died there but some thousands of households were completely wiped out, this is not carpet bombing since only empty buildings were destroyed no? however those who didn’t die are now homeless but this is not a big problem since we do not see them as individuals whose lives have been destroyed and whose memories, belongings and homes are no longer there for them to get back to).
I am handing out information I do not get from media but from my life among the people I describe, I know what I see every day with my own eyes and what I hear with my own ears. I have studied journalism not to be using indirect references to describe reality – but to be using my own testimonies to talk about them. I know what I know yes, not more not less. If you care to check the 30% of less than 12 years olds you can either check the Red Cross counts or the Lebanese government statements (which I myself do not always trust of course) or you can do it by yourself and check the daily Lebanese body count where the ages appear (try some lebanese media where they put the names and ages I hope these are available in English). To help you out here are some links:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34075
http://lebanon2006.awardspace.com/#civilians
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/
(as I am writing a convoy of refugees that were supposedly given safe passage out of the town of Marjeyoun by the Israeli army has just been hit by an Israeli air strike, until now the initial body count is 5 dead and 11 wounded – was it an accident too? The convoy was under the protection of the UN forces).
I just wish if everyone who wanted to take a position and judge something was here – in Lebanon – to know and see what Israeli self defense means. I wish everyone who wants to judge the Hezbollah had ever been to southern Lebanon. I wish if everyone who wants to “discuss” the Middle East had been to Beirut. I wish if everyone who wants to accuse the Hezbollah had ever met a Hezbollah fighter. I wish if everyone who wants to talk about war and power had ever seen and heard a 2 ton missile falling some hundred meters from him. I wish if everyone who wants to talk about freedom and rights had ever experienced occupation. In short like the Pink Floyd song says – ‘wish you were here’.
Normality here I come.
Should I sign as another ‘would be genocider’, or leave it simple and sign it as another terrorist?
Believe me, I would like to visit the war zone and make my own picture, rather depend on the media.
I did do some research on the Hezbollah, on Nasrallah and some other things, and here are my findings:
1. The Hezbollah is NOT rated as a terrorist party, neither by the USA, the UN or any European officials.
2. The aggression seemed to have been started by Israel with a murder of two Hezbollah-leaders. The killing of Israeli civilians started afther the killing of Lebanese civilians.
3. Nasrallah accepts the existence of Isreal and would even accept Jerusalem solely under Israeli rule.
4. Any numbers given in war-time are manipulated by someone. There is a saying by a german secretary of economy which went that he would never trust statistics he did not manipulate by himself.
5. The Lebanese gross nation product is approximately 18-19 billion dollars, not only 2 billions.
(Please excuse the numbering thing ... it helps me sort my thoughts.)
So all in all, I now think somewhat different about this conflict. The argument with you was part of this process, so thank you.
I understand that the Hezbollah is just retaliating what has been done to them. That is morally wrong to do, but understandable. I furthermore understand that the Hezbollah is a defense force and not a terrorist party. Sorry for my claiming that, that was a mistake.
P.S.: You can mourn every dead and I did never say that 1.000 Lebanese are worth nothing. Implying that is an insult which you should step back from.
I was just commenting your word of the 'carpet-bombing'.
In fact, the number of 30 dead Lebanese every day is not high. Every day, 24.000 Lebanese die of diseases, old age or accidents (2005). (And about 72.000 are born, BTW.)
The main damage of most wars (not applicable to genocidal wars) is a cultural and economic one.
I read about the end of the hostilities.
Congratulations, maybe it is over now. Or for now.
Obviously, the numbers given were wrong. Here are the right ones (it's stupid if one is too stupid to use a calculator):
It should have said 24.000 per year (without infant death). That makes up for roughly 65 per day. Sorry for that.
I am glad to have been able to show you another reality - and if i have insulted you i am sorry for that (i have a tendency to do that often when i am arguing - it is a character problem or hopefully a wartime issue).
The war is unfortunatly not over yet - in Lebanon we know better than trusting an Israeli seize fire - just tonight another massacre was commited in the town of Britel in eastern Lebanon more then 45 civilians are dead or wounded in a shelter that was bombed by Israeli warplanes.
Resistance is a right to every occupied people and it does not come without a bloody price.
I am not very optimisitc about the UN resolution that calls for the end of the hostilities and i still foresee a bloody struggle that is yet to come.
Anyway i have a personal trust in the Hezbollah to prove themselves as a respectful party (like they have done until now - at least since Nasrallah took over the leadership), i have only one hope and it is to see Lebanon an independant and sovereign nation.
regards
That's a great story. Waiting for more. » »
This is very interesting site... » » »
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