[Reader-list] from beirut
Jeebesh Bagchi
jeebesh at sarai.net
Wed Jul 26 22:44:08 IST 2006
From: anandpat at gmail.com
Subject: [vikalp] from beirut
Date: 26 July 2006 7:45:39 PM GMT+05:30
To: vikalp at yahoogroups.com, vikalpmum at yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: vikalp at yahoogroups.com
Dear all
Sometimes the words of a single witness can reach through and touch
you like no statistics ever can. These are a series of ongoing mails
from Beirut. They were forwarded to me by Avi Mograbi an Israeli docu
maker who was supposed to come to Delhi and Bombay last week but
cancelled his trip to stay back and do his bit to bring sanity and
humanity to the people of Israel and to all those who still do not
grasp what is actually going on in the Middle East.
We've shown Avi's films in Vikalp. Avi's son is a refusenik who
refused to fight in the Israeli army and was jailed for it.
I know this is primarily a film related space and what is below goes
far beyond film, but please do read this. Anand
----- Original Message -----
From: Oz Shelach
To: Yael Lerer ; Sami S. Chetrit ; nawaf
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 7:32 PM
Subject: fwd: letter from beirut
From: Rasha
Date: 10:37:28 GMT-04:00 14 July 2006
Dear All,
I am writing now from a cafe, in West Beirut's Hamra district. It is
filled with people who are trying to escape the pull of 24 hour news
reporting. Like me. The electricity has been cut off for a while now,
and the city has been surviving on generators. The old system that
was so familiar at the time of the war, where generators were allowed
a lull to rest is back. The cafe is dark, hot and humid. Espresso
machines and blenders are silenced. Conversations, rumors,
frustrations waft through the room. I am better off here than at
home, following the news, live, on the spot documentation of our
plight in sound bites. The sound of Israeli warplanes overwhelms the
air on occasion. They drop leaflets to conduct a "psychological" war.
Yesterday, their sensitivity training urged them to advise
inhabitants of the southern suburbs to flee because the night
promised to be "hot". Today, the leaflets warn that they plan to bomb
all other bridges and tunnels in Beirut. People are flocking to
supermarkets to stock up on food.
This morning, I wrote in my emails to people inquiring about my well-
being that I was safe, and that the targets seem to be strictly
Hezbollah sites and their constituencies, now, I regret typing that.
They will escalate. Until a few hours ago, they had only bombed the
runways of the airport, as if to "limit" the damage. A few hours ago,
four shells were dropped on the buildings of our brand new shining
airport.
The night was harrowing. The southern suburbs and the airport were
bombed, from air and sea. The apartment where I am living has a
magnificient view of the bay of Beirut. I could see the Israeli
warships firing at their leisure. It is astounding how comfortable
they are in our skies, in our waters, they just travel around, and
deliver their violence and congratulate themselves.
The cute French-speaking and English-speaking bourgeoisie has fled to
the Christian mountains. A long-standing conviction that the Israelis
will not target Lebanon's Christian "populated" mountains. Maybe this
time they will be proven wrong? The Gulfies, Saudis, Kuwaities and
other expatriates have all fled out of the country,
in Pullman buses via Damascus, before the road was bombed. They were
supposed to be the economic lifeblood of this country. The contrast
in their sense of panic as opposed to the defiance of the inhabitants
of the southern suburbs was almost comical. This time, however, I
have to admit, I am tired of defying whatever for whatever cause.
There is no cause really. There are only sinister post-Kissingerian
type negotiations. I can
almost hear his hateful voice rationalizing laconically as he does
the destruction of a country, the deaths of families, people with
dreams and ambitions for the Israelis to win something more, always
more.
Although I am unable to see it, I am told left, right and center that
there is a rhyme and reason, grand design, and strategy. The short-
term military strategy seems to be to cripple transport and
communications. And power stations. The southern region has now been
reconfigured into small enclaves that cannot communicate between one
another. Most have enough fuel, food and supplies to last them until
tomorrow, but after that the
isolation of each enclave will lead to tragedy. Mayors and governors
have been screaming for help on the TV.
This is all bringing back echoes of 1982, the Israeli siege of
Beirut. My living nightmare, well one of my living nightmares. It was
summer then as well. The Israeli army marched through the south and
besieged Beirut. For 3 months, the US administration kept dispatching
urges for the Israeli military to act with restraint. And the
Israelis assured them they were acting appropriately. We had the PLO
command in West Beirut then. I felt safe with the handsome fighters.
How I miss them. Between Hezbollah and the Lebanese army I don't feel
safe. We are exposed, defenseless, pathetic. And I am older, more
aware of danger. I am 37 years old and actually scared. The sound of
the warplanes scares me. I am not defiant, there is no more fight
left in me. And there is no solidarity, no real cause.
I am furthermore pissed off because no one knows how hard the postwar
reconstruction was to all of us. Hariri did not make miracles. People
work hard and sacrifice a lot and things get done. No one knows
except us how expensive, how arduous that reconstruction was. Every
single bridge and tunnel and highway, the runways of that airport,
all of these things were built from our sweat and brow, at 3 times
the real cost of their construction because every member of
government, because every character in the ruling Syrian junta,
because the big players in the Hariri administration and beyond, were
all thieves. We accepted the thievery and banditry just to get things
done and get it over with. Everyone one of us had two jobs (I am not
referring to the ruling elite, obviously), paid backbreaking taxes
and wages to feed the "social covenant". We fought and fought that
neoliberal onslaught, the arrogance of economic consultants and the
greed of creditors just to have a nice country that functioned at a
minimum, where things got done, that stood on its feet, more or less.
A thriving Arab civil society. Public schools were sacrificed for
roads to service neglected rural areas and a couple Syrian officers
to get richer, and we accepted, that road was desperately needed, and
there was the
"precarious national consensus" to protect. Social safety nets were
given up, healthcare for all, unions were broken and coopted, public
spaces taken over, and we bowed our heads and agreed. Palestinian
refugees were pushed deeper and deeper into forgetting, hidden from
sight and consciousness, "for the preservation of their identity" we
were told, and we accepted. In exchange we had a secular country
where the Hezbollah
and the Lebanese Forces could co-exist and fight their fights in
parliament not with bullets. We bit hard on our tongues and stiffened
our upper lip, we protested and were defeated, we took the streets,
defied army-imposed curfews, time after time, to protect that modicum
of civil rights, that modicum of a semblance of democracy, and it
takes one air raid for all our sacrifices and tolls to be blown to
smithereens. It's not about the airport, it's what we built during
that postwar.
As per the usual of Lebanon, it's not only about Lebanon, the country
haparadigmatically been the terrain for regional conflicts to lash
out violently.. Off course speculations abound. There is rhetoric,
and a lot of it, but there are also Theories.
1) Theory Number One.
This is about Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah negotiating an upper hand in
the negotiations with Israel. Hezbollah have indicated from the
moment they captured the Israeli soldiers that they were willing to
negotiate in conjunction with Hamas for the release of all Arab
prisoners in Israeli jails. Iran is merely providing a back support
for Syria + Hamas.
2) Theory Number Two.
This is not about solidarity with Gaza or strengthening the hand of
the Palestinians in negotiating the release of the prisoners in
Israeli jails. This is about Iran's nuclear bomb and negotiations
with the Europeans/US. The Iranian negotiator left Brussels after the
end of negotiations and instead of returning to Tehran, he landed in
Damascus. Two days later, Hezbollah kidnapped the Israeli soldiers.
The G8 Meeting is on Saturday, Iran is
supposed to have some sort of an answer for the G8 by then. In the
meantime, they are showing to the world that they have a wide sphere
of control in the region: Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. In Lebanon
they pose a real threat to Israel. The "new" longer-reaching missiles
that Hezbollah fired on Haifa are the message. The kings of Jordan
and Saudi Arabia issued statements holding Hezbollah solely
responsible for bringing on this
escalation, and that is understood as a message to Iran. Iran on the
other hand promised to pay for the reconstruction of destroyed homes
and infrastructures in the south. And threatened Israel with "hell"
if they hit Syria.
3) Theory Number Three.
This is about Lebanon, Hezbollah and 1559 (the UN resolution
demanding the disarmement of Hezbollah and deployment of the Lebanese
army in the southern territory). It stipulates that this is no more
than a secret conspiracy between Syria, Iran and the US to close the
Hezbollah file for good, and resolve the pending Lebanese crisis
since the assassination of Hariri. Evidence for this conspiracy is
Israel leaving Syria so far unharmed. Holders of this theory claim
that Israel will deliver a harsh blow to Hezbollah and cripple the
Lebanese economy to the brink of creating an internal political
crisis. The resolution would then result in Hezbollah giving up arms,
and a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon under the control of the
Lebanese army in Lebanon and the Israeli army in the north of
Galilee. More evidence for this Theory are the Saudi Arabia and
Jordan statements condemning Hezbollah and holding them responsible
for all the
horrors inflicted on the Lebanese people.
There are more theories... There is also the Israeli government
reaching an impasse and feeling a little worried out by Hezbollah and
Hamas, and the Israeli military taking the upper hand with Olmert.
The land of conspiracies... Fun? I can't make heads or tails. But I
am tired of spending days and nights waiting not to die from a shell,
on target or astray. Watching poor people bludgeoned, homeless and
preparing to mourn. I am so weary...
Rasha.
(DAY 2 of siege)
from Rasha in Beirut
Dear All,
It is now night time in Beirut. The day was heavy, busy with shelling
from the air and sea, but so far the night has been quiet in Beirut.
We are advised to be bracing ourselves for a bad night, although most
analysis is more reading tea leaves at this stage.
I received a wide array of comments regarding my email yesterday. The
comments stayed with me all day. I visited friends this morning at
their house, people now gather in homes, most cafes In "West Beirut"
are closed, streets are quiet. In times like these, the city huddles
on its neighborhoods, main thoroughfares are avoided, side roads and
back streets are trekked. Gatherings shift to the house of the member
of the group whose neighborhood has electricity, whose elevator
works, and who has elusive enough familial obligations to house an
antsy crowd eager for social exchange.
Amongst that group, I was the only one who seemed to have experienced
the weariness, to be genuinely frustrated with having to face another
round of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Everyone seemd resigned to endure
this dark and sinister moment. Everyone was busying themselves with
analysis, speculation. Mind games, fictions, chimeras. I regretted
expressing my weariness with the fight, with having to summon the
energy to face Israel and defy the destruction of Lebanon. I felt I
betrayed a principle, a value, disrespected people's pain and
suffering. I know a great great number of people in Lebanon share my
sentiments, and the political debates on TV seem to return to the
question tirelessly. But still, I felt "smaller" than the historical
moment demanded.
I wanted to write this, I needed to come clean to you all. I need to
let you know that if you were intrigued/discomforted by the pettiness
of my spirit. The cause of this is partly my refusal to acknowledge
the gravity of the moment. I don't feel I am strong or courageous
enough to face it, to take it all in.
Last night something quite fantastical happened. By this morning, the
mood in the country and city was palpably changed. Sometimes it is
hard for me to believe that the leadership of Hezbollah are not
acquainted with "The Society of the Spectacle".
Last night was a turning point in the confrontation between Hezbollah
and the Israeli army. I ought to have drafted a note right after that
moment, but I could not find the mental energy to do it. I was so
scared and anxious that I became sucked into the pull of minute by
minute news reporting and finally succumbed to exhaustion.
You probably all heard about the Israeli warship that was drowned. I
am convinced that all of you not privvy to Arab media missed the
spectacular staging of the drowning of that warship.
The "showcase" began with Israeli shells targetting Hassan
Nasrallah's home in the southern suburbs. As soon as the shells
exploded, the media reported them and waited to confirm that he and
his family had survived. About half an hour later, the newscaster
announced that Hassan Nasrallah planned to adress the nation and the
Arab world by phone.
I never thought he was charismatic. A huge majority of people do.
He's very young to hold the position of leadership that he does. He's
a straight talker, not particularly eloquent, but speaks in an idiom
that appeals to his immediate constituency in Lebanon but is also
compelling to a constituency in the Arab world that harbors
disillusionment, despondency and powerlessness with the failed
promises of Arab nationalism to defeat Israel and restore dignity. He
is not corrupt, he lives simply, and displays a bent on spartan
ascetism. Although he's neither charismatic nor captivating, he has
cultivated an aura of sorts, particularly since his son was martyred
at age 18 in a commando operation in south Lebanon when it was
occupied by the Israeli military. He survived the Israeli attempt on
his life last night, and addressed the nation by phone, thirty
minutes later. His speech was pragmatic, again spoken in his habitual
simple (almost simplistic) idiom from within the Hezbollah rhetoric,
obviosuly. The speech was intended to deliver a number of specific
messages, answer back to pronouncements by regional leaders and
clarify Hezbollah's strategy in the face of the unexpectedly barbaric
Israeli attack.
He began by declaring an open war to Israel's assault. He summoned
the Lebanese people to unite in this moment of confrontation,
transcend petty divisions and rise to the occasion. He promised to
deliver victory, based on the long record of victories by Hezbollah.
Most powerful and compelling was his response to the Saudi, Jordanian
and Egyptian statements issued earlier that day, blaming Hezbollah
for bringing the tragedy on Lebanon. The Saudi statement had referred
to Hezbollah's actions as "adventurous", the Jordanian as
"irresponsible" and the Egyptian as something in both these veins.
All three had invoked the pressing need to act reasonably.
Nasrallah's response basically said that he is the leader of the only
Arab and Muslim political movement to have defeated Israel militarily
and forced it to withdraw, the only Arab leader to have been able to
shell Israel and pose a serious military threat from without its
borders. If his actions were "adventurous" he argued, they were
certainly reasonable, but they did not comply to the reason that
guides Arab leaders and Arab regimes, rather the reason that animates
the common folk on the streets, the reason that defies defeat, the
reason that brings victories, saves dignity and does not fear the
enemy no matter how powerful his arsenal and allies. He called onto
the Arab and Muslim world to stand in solidarity with the Lebanese as
they faced, once more, the savagery of the Zionist machine.
His third message was to the "Zionist enemy". He reiterated that
Hezbollah did not fear an open war. That they have long been prepared
for this confrontation. Interestingly, he claimed that they possessed
missiles that could reach Haifa, and "far beyond Haifa, beyond,
beyond Haifa", thereby admitting that it was Hezbollah that fired the
missile fired to Haifa (until then they denied having fired them). It
is not clear what he meant by "far beyond Haifa". Did he mean Tel
Aviv? It is not THAT far from Haifa. Did he mean Israeli interests
and missions abroad? It was not clear. More terrains for speculators.
His conclusion was all about the showcase... In his message to the
Zionist entity, he reminded his audience that he had promised to
deliver many "suprises". And now the time has come for the first of
the many surprises they have in store for the Zionist enemy, namely
the warship that had bombed the southern suburb the night before and
was casually sailing in the bay of Beirut was now in flames and its
personel was drowning. "Look at it!", he said, this is one of the
many surprises we have saved for the Zionist army... And he fell silent.
There is no film footage of the warship being hit because all the
cameras had their lenses directed inland, focused on scouting for
shells, destruction, victims and tragedy writ large. By the time he
had spoken his words, it was too late to catch sight of the warship
being hit, all that cameras captured was a huge ball of fire in the
open sea, but not much else was clear. Rescue flares flew into the
sky from around the ship. Ultimately, it would turn out that all
except for 4 from the crew would be rescued/recovered.
The Israeli media began by denying the report, then confirming the
warship had been hit, then claiming there were no losses, then
admitting four sailors were missing, then claiming the ship was towed
to the Haifa port, then admitting it had sunk in the sea where it was
hit. This morning one of the three bodies was uncovered by Hezbollah.
The news of the downed warship spread fear in our hearts. We were
sure the retaliation would be numbing in violence. Then Hezbollah
fired rockets on some settlements in the Galilee and we were all
bracing ourselves for a night of hell. Nothing happened in Beirut.
The south was shelled, the north was shelled the Beqaa was shelled.
Surgical assaults on roads, bridges and the communication network.
Slowly but surely, in cold blood the country was being dismembered,
ligament after ligament, inland, on the coast, and in the mountains.
In Beirut, the night was quiet. I could not understand how one downed
Israeli warship could throw disarray into a military as powerful as
the Israeli military.
Nasrallah's calls for solidarity resonnated loudly the next day.
Immediately after the spectacular showcase, Hezbollah television was
showered with phone calls from Saudi Arabia expressing their support.
There were protests supporting him and his mission in almost every
Arab city. They contrasted sharply with the reactions from Arab
officialdom. He had won his first round against Israel and against
the slothful, debilitated and stunted Arab leaderships
(Day 3 of the Siege)
Today was a bad day. The shelling started from the morning
countrywide and has not let until now. It was particularly brutal in
the south. Marwaheen, a village in the south that had been under
siege was showered with leafets from airplanes urging its inhabitants
to flee because it would be bombed to the ground two hours later. As
people gathered up stuff and began to flee, a few were not spared
from the shelling, 12 children perished, burned alive on the road
walking out of the village. A group amongst the fleeing villagers
panicked and saught refuge at a UNIFIL (UN peacekeeping force) base
on their road out of the village run by French army volunteers, but
they were refused shelter and turned back. I don't know how
unprecedented this is but it is certainly shocking.
Nearly all Lebanese ports were shelled today, Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon,
Tyre, Amshit and Jounieh. Christian areas are not being spared. The
alternative road to Syria (via Tripoli and Homs) was shelled. Bridges
in the north of the country and the south of the country were shelled
and rendered unusable.
Tonight the shelling is again focused on the southern suburbs, Haret
Hreyk and Bir el-Abed. The first neighborhood is where the
headquarters of Hezbollah are located. They have been targetted
several times and there is extensive damage. The leadership has not
been harmed. A great number of the inhabitants have been evacuated,
but the afternoon shelling targetted residential areas. I am up,
anxious, writing. As if it served a purpose of sorts.
Foreign diplomatic missions are making plans to evacuate their
nationals. They had planned to evacuate people by sea, but after
today's shelling of the ports, they may have to rethink their
strategy. Should I evacuate? Does one turn their back on a "historic"
station in the Arab-Israeli conflict? If there is no cause that
animates me, how do I endure this? (I could not give two rats' ass
about the Iranian nuclear bomb or Hezbollah's negotiating power). I
was shamed this morning for having these thoughts... And now, at 1:30
am, as the Israeli airplanes fill up my sky, I am writing them again.
There was much diplomatic activity today, almost all of it secured
moral high ground for Israel to proceed with "scorched earth" policy,
re-occupy the south to secure its own borders, and disarm Hezbollah
after a fatal blow. The meeting at the UN security council yesterday
provided Israel with a green light to pretty much do whatever it
wished in this country. (My favorite was Bolton, who was focused on
the necessity to "take down" Khaled Masha'al -Hamas representative-
in Damascus.)
Then there was an emergency Arab League meeting that pretty much
determined that the peace plan of the Quartet was defunct and the
region was at the brink of an explosion and that they will call for a
UN security council meeting at once. If international law was not
respected, then the Arab League would resort to other means (and
"arms" was not eliminated as an option). Did the Arabs declare war?
We don't know, did they intimate war? It would be the most prudish,
skiddish, repressed intimation ever in the history of wars.
For now it seems that the battle will take about two to three weeks
to wane.. There are stated aims and they are within the paradigm of
1559, namely that Hezbollah should give up its arms, and the southern
Lebanese border with Israel be secured by the Lebanese army.
Hezbollah are not suicidal, unlike the Bin Ladens of the world and
other radicals, they want to negotiate a bigger share of the pie in
Lebanon. They are aware that in the final count, they will have to
give up something, so until a cease-fire seems like an amenable
solution to them, they need to register as many victories as
possible. The rockets that can reach Haifa is one such victory,
because Haifa is an important petro-chemical base in Israel. The
Israeli Patriot missiles planted on Haifa that seem not to work are
also another small victory for Hezbollah. The drowned warship is
another victory.
Israel's strategy is not only to dismember this country and cripple
communication, but also to challenge internal support for Hezbollah.
People like me for example, complaining about how my life is a small
hell and I can't take it anymore, yesterday and maybe a little bit
today, well I was an agent of Israel. I was executing the Israeli
strategy to break the spirit of the valiant Arabs. In fact the
Israeli ambassador to the UN quoted two Lebanese MPs citing how
little support for Hezbollah there is in Lebanon. This is the
rhetoric. But in point of fact it is true, that Israel has not spared
an area at this stage, whether Hezbollah stronghold or not and they
want to make us pay for housing Hezbollah in our parliament. Maybe
they prefer an Iraqi scenario?
Forgive me if I am losing my mind. I need to end this long diary
entry. I would like to end it by congratulating the president of
Iran, to whom a nuclear bomb (like the president of Pakistan) is by
far more important than his people walking barefoot, illiterate and
hungry. But the kind and generous president of Iran "assured" the
world that if Israel hit Syria, Iran would show them hell. Never mind
Lebanon burning!
Until Day 4 of the Siege.
Love, R.
(DAY 4 of siege)
another account from Rasha in Beirut
Dear All,
Things seem to heating up. Missiles hit Haifa and the shelling on the
south and southern suburbs is unrelenting.
Scorched Earth Policy
Ehud Olmert promised scorched earth in South Lebanon after missiles
hit Haifa. Warnings have been sent to inhabitants of the south to
evacuate their villages, because the Israeli response to Hezbollah
will be "scorched Earth".. As major roads are destroyed and the south
has been remapped into enclaves, it is not clear how these people are
supposed to evacuate. And where to. It seems the "sensitivity
training" that the IDF went through for evacuating the settlers from
Gaza is really paying off, even on the "civilians" because Ehud
Olmert offered the hapless inhabitants of the south shelter in
Israel. Now that's leadership! Will they be sprayed by DDT as did the
jewish populations shuttled from Iraq, Morocco and Egypt in the 1950s
and 1960s? Will there be Maabarot (transit camps) ready for them?
They want the 20 kilometers buffer zone and they will burn, destroy
and maime to get it. Maybe they should build another wall?
Video-Clip
Al-Manar TV has a video-clip of possible, potential hits to Haifa.
Impressive. A missile is loaded, the camera travels over arial views
of occupied Palestine and stops at Haifa. The port. Zoom on the petro-
chemical reservoirs.. Cut to a hand pressing on a green button. The
images are accompanied with text in Arabic and in Hebrew. They are
conducting their war in images and video-clips.
Proud to be an Arab
I am still in awe with the response from Arab regimes, how utterly
proud I am to be an Arab. From Abou Mazen, to the several moral and
physical dwarf kings and queens (the Abdullahs and whatevers) to the
un-democratically elected representatives, "chapeau"...
I think of all the streets, those who are watching Gaza, Iraq, and
now us. Do we not deserve their outrage? Do we not deserve mass
mobilizations? Should not Moubarak, and his band of bandits and
thieves deserve to be put to shame for their endorsement of the
Israeli response.
How does it feel, my beloved friends, Arabs and non-Arabs to watch
Beirut go up in flames?
Meanwhile wall-to-wall coverage is only from al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya
and the Lebanese TV stations. The "war" is only a news item on Abou
Dhabi, MBC, and the other Arab stations...
The Lebanese predicament
So Hezbollah dragged us without asking our opinion into this hell. We
are in this hell, caught in this cross-fire together. We need to
survive and save as many lives as possible. The Israelis are now
betting on the implosion of Lebanon. It will not happen. There is
UNANIMITY that Israel's response is entirely, entirey, UNJUSTIFIED.
We will show the Arab leadership that it is possible to have internal
dissent and national unity, pluralism, divergence of opinion and face
this new sinister chapter of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Dictatorships produce mute sheep and sheepherders and radical
ideologies.
Rasha.
From: Rasha
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 3:01 PM
Subject: Day 5 of the Siege- part 1 (it's gonna be a long one...)
Dear All,
A quiet night in Beirut, more or less, compared to what the
inhabitants of Tyre and the south and the Beqaa and Tripoli
experienced. They were shelled from the air and sea with little
respite. Tyre is in tragically dire situation. 30,000 displaced, the
mayor was on TV screaming for help, his voice choking with despair.
They are out of supplies, they have more wounded than they can handle
and the city's reserves in fuel and other basic amenities are pretty
much depleted.
(The IDF wants to "clear" three provinces in the South: Tyre,
Marja'uyun and Bin Jbeil, in preparation for the "20 km buffer zone")
The port of Tripoli was bombed, the port of Beirut was bombed. The
range of targets has expanded to new zones of hurt: civilians,
civilians, civilians, and reservoirs of fuel (Jiyyeh, power station
feeding the south, and the airport again), storage facilities of
vegetables and fruits in Taanayel (Beqaa) and in the south, and
Lebanese army barracks. The roster of martyrs of this war now
includes poor soldiers, reservists who were stationed in their posts,
watching idly the country go up in flames.
The intention? Probably to cripple the population even further, to
make survival harder and harder and to corner the Lebanese army.
The promise of "scorched earth" did not really happen yesterday, I
mean the inhabitants of the south were served a good dose of Israeli
virility, but not to the level of "shock and awe". Maybe it will come
in small calculated doses (The IDF are a "calculating" military, not
like us, rogues, we don't calculate). Who knows? Who the fuck knows?
What makes sense anymore...
Dementia is slowly creeping in... Slowly, surreptitiously. At the
rate of news flashes. This is how we live now, from "breaking news"
to "breaking news". A sampling: I have been in the cafe for one hour
now. (The cafe is an escape from home, but in itself another island
of insanity... will get to that later at some point).
OK, I have been in the cafe for one hour now. This is what I have
heard so far:
1) A text message traveled to my friend's cell phone: A
breaking news item from Israeli military command. If Hezbollah does
not stop shelling Galilee and northern towns, Israel will hit the
entire electricity network of Lebanon.
2) Hezbollah shells Haifa, Safad, and colonies in south Golan.
3) A text message traveled to my other friend's cell phone,
from an expat who left to Damascus and is catching a flight back to
London. "All flights out of Damascus are cancelled. Do you know
anything?"
4) Israeli shell fell near the house of the bartender, his
family is stranded in the middle of rubbble in Hadath. He leaps out
of the cafe and frantically calls to secure passage for them to the
mountains.
5) Hezbollah down an F-16 Israeli plane into Kfarshima (near
Hadath). Slight jubilation in a cafe that thrives on denial.
Does the world make sense to anyone? It's not supposed to, I know,
but these "surgical" military tactics are supposed to make sense to
at least 15 people. And out of these 15 people, at least 14
disseminate the news, and since the world is about 6 degrees of
separation removed, at some point, somebody has to know something...
I started writing these diary notes to friends outside Lebanon to
remain sane and give them my news. I was candid and transparent with
all my emotions.. The ones I had and the ones I did not have. They
were more intended to fight dementia at home, in my home and in my
mind, to bridge the isolation in this siege, than to fight the media
black-out, racism, prejudice and break the seal of silence. Friends
began to circulate them (with my approval). By the third diary note,
I was getting replies, applause and rebuke from people I did not know
who had read them. It's great to converse with the world at large,
but I realize now that candor and transparency come with a price.. A
price I am more than happy to pay. However, these diary notes are
becoming something else, and I realize now that I am no longer
writing to the intimate society of people I love and cherish, but to
an opaque blogosphere of people who want "alternative" news. I am
more than ever conscious of a sense of responsibility in drafting
them, they have a public life, an echo that I was not aware of that I
experience now as some sort of a burden. I have been tortured about
the implications of that public echo. Should I remain candid,
critical, spiteful, cowardly, or should I transform into an activist
and write in a wholly different idiom? There is off course a happy
medium between both positions, but I don't have the mental
wherewithalls to find it now. And I don't want to sacrifice candor,
transparency and skepticism at the risk of having my notes distorted
to serve some ill-intentioned purpose, or in the vocabulary of
official rhetoric, "give aid and comfort to the enemy". The enemy
does well without the aid of my rantings (they have a nuclear bomb, a
hero soccer player form Ghana, the gift of democracy, fantabulous
drag queens, and a right wing freak whose first name is BiBi). Notes
from a hapless stranded thirty-something caged in Ras Beirut (ie the
privileged of the privileged), I believe, will not really make a
difference.
I am reminded of the many, many, many e-diaries that Palestinians
send when the Israelis want to secure peace and give them a virile
dose of justice with sieges, shelling, checkpoints, sniping, maiming,
beating, and all that Israel has developped in the vein of practices
to strengthen its democracy and territory and off course contribute
to the blossoming of the peace process. Well my rantings are far from
the emails of my Palestinian brethren. They are charged with
ambivalence and anti-heroics. In Palestine things are less complex,
less dirty, more starkly contrasted and clear. What Israel is now
administering to Lebanon is a small dose of what it delivers to
Palestinians. Intense, condensed, but a small dose. However the
complications of Lebanon's internal politics and the very, very
complicated imbrications of Lebanon with regional politics renders
enduring, witnessing, documenting this war more confusing. So bear
with me. It's lonely being an anti-hero.
My Palestinian friends are protesting that the Israeli campaign in
Gaza has been eclipsed from the world's attention and concern. Beirut
is now attracting attention. Don't look away from Gaza. The same
canons are firing. The same children are orphaned, the same people
are being displaced, shoved outside history and the attributes of
humanity, rendered to integers in the logs of NGOs for donations of
bags of flour and sugar. The same.
By Day 5 of the Siege, a new routine has set in. "Breaking news"
becomes the clock that marks the passage of time. You find yourself
engaging in the strangest of activities: you catch a piece of
breaking news, you leap to another room to annoounce it to family
although they heard it too, and then you txt-message it to others. At
some point in the line-up, you become yourself the messenger of
"breaking news". Along the way you collect other pieces of "breaking
news" which you deliver back. Between two sets of breaking news, you
gather up facts and try to add them up to fit a scenario. Then you
recall previously mapped scenarios. Then you realize none works. Then
you exhale. And zap. Until the next piece of breaking news comes. It
just gets uglier. You fear night-time. For some reason, you believe
the shelling will get worse at night. When vision is impaired, when
darkness envelops everything. But it's not true. Shelling is as
intense during the day as it is during the night.
There has been "intense" diplomatic activity between yesterday and
today. UN envoys, ambassadors, EU envoys, all kinds of men and women
coming and going carrying messages to the Lebanese government from
the "international community" and the "Israeli counterpart".
Officially they have led to nothing. But we are told, officially on
the news, that the "secret" channels have started working, and these
are the ones that work. The secret channels were launched when the
Lebanese Prime Minister met with the US ambassador and the Lebanese
head of parliament in a closed door meeting at the head of
parliament's home. There is supposed to be some sort of press
conference after that. And Jacques Chirac (Lebanon holds a special
place in his heart) is sending handsome Dominique de Villepin to
Lebanon this afternoon. He is scheduled to arrive at 5:00 pm. He's
the genius who created the CPE, the genius who finally "listened" to
the dark-skinned and maladjusted children of France during the last
round of riots. I guess we should be glad he's not sending Sarkoczy?
Or is the ugly Pole going to Israel? In the final count, we are a
"banlieue" of France, the bad boys are at it again, burning cars and
breaking the "fragile" status quo in the region. When de Villepin is
here, we could have a lull in the shelling. Maybe. Maybe that's when
they'll evacuate the "foreign nationals".
The foreign nationals are a new issue now. With so many expats
visiting for the summer, and with so many Lebanese holding dual
nationality, it's been tough for the G8 to plan their evacuations.
Two hundred thousand Canadians (8 of whom perished yesterday in the
south)! Fifty thousand Frenchmen... What to do with all these bi-
nationals? Create categories. Category A are the real, genuine, white-
skinned, tax-paying valuable natives, Category B are the recently
integrated, recently assimilated, brown-skinned, tax-paying not so
valuable natives.
The best evacuation plan is the American. They are directing their
"nationals" to a website (ha! with electricty power cuts it's kinda
funny) where they promise an airlift from the airport (although the
air strips have been destroyed) to Cyprus. But the seriously unfunny
part is that there is an evacuation fee. And for those with no money,
the US government generously offers a loan. Isn't that brilliant?
Loans and fees are processed in Cyprus.
There are ultra-secret channeling mediated by the Germans too. The
Germans negotiated the last round of prisoner exchange between
Hezbollah and Israel.. "The Germans know their way with Hezbollah"
noted a newscaster. Isn't it funny how these conflicts find their
interlocutors and negotiators.
I am obsessively thinking about these negotiators and diplomats. How
they go through their day. How they initiate conversations, how they
end them. Top on my list is Amr Moussa, Egypt's star diplomat and
gift to the Arab League. His handling of the Lebanese crisis is
stellar, and comes after his handling of the assault on Gaza and
perhaps his crowning achievement is his handling of Darfur. How do
these people receive dispatches that hundreds of people are dead and
decide not to act? I am fascinated by how they structure their
consciousness. Not conscience, consciousness. I guess they become
numb. I guess they believe that the sweep of history spares them.
They probably see the world in a different way, that some people are
condemned to be in Gaza or in Tyre and they are supposed to live
meaningless lives and die anonymous deaths. They don't. They believe
they fashion history writ large. They go through their day, enjoying
sleep and meals. Air-conditioned cars, private jets, tailored suits,
who's coming to dinner, where to spend summer vacation. They are
never to be held accountable for whatever they say or do.
How did Amr Moussa go through the conversation with the Saudi envoy,
for example? The tall Saudi minister of foreign affairs was firm,
emboldened with an unusual surge of virility, he must have said to
him, "Screw the Lebanese, the Hezbollah have to pay. We support the
Lebanese government but we should publically condemn Hezbollah and
demand a cease-fire. And Amr Moussa said what? "I agree with you."
And felt good about agreeing with the Saudis. Did his stomach not
writhe with a hint of an ulcer when he hung up? Did he not press on
and say, "But the Arab League should take a vanguard role in ending
this crisis as soon as possible and impose a cease-fire?" Off course
his president, Hosni Moubarak had his own pep talk with the press.
And it was inspiring. I think it's easier being Hosni Mobarak because
he's senile. Senility is his understanding of freedom. He's a few
inches away from absolute freedom. Egypt is waiting with abated
breath when he comes out and dsiplays the joys of having absolutely
not a single hint of remembrance or cognitive perception of the world
around him.
Meanwhile Lebanon was being shelled to rubble. And Amr Moussa must
have felt "pressured" to offer something to the "Arab street" (aaah
that elusive demon). The foreign ministers agreed in unanimity that
the best course of action would be to raise the question at the UN
security council meeting in September. To the embarassingly weepy
mother of the decapitated child, to the embarassingly nagging child
of the charred mother, to the "steadfastly valiant" Palestinians in
Gaza and the "hapless" Lebanese in the south, they figured they owed
them something, a statement to relieve them from their grief. And the
groundbreaking insight said that "the Arab league officially deemed
the "peace process to be dead." No one, no one expected such
enlightening wisdom from the council of foreign ministers. I am still
enraptured in its profundity.
Breaking News: It's not clear Hezbollah downed a plane. The al-Manar
TV is now describing it as a "foreign body". Will the Israelis add it
to their list of casualties?
Day 5 of the Siege is promising to be more enthralling. More mad
ramblings tonight...
Love to all, Rasha.
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 10:08 AM
Subject: Day 6 of the Siege
(Dear All,
The generator shut down before I could end this entry. It's noon the
next day now...)
Dear All,
I am drafting this entry in this unusual diary at 11:30 pm, I have
about half an hour before the generator shuts down. Most of Beirut is
in the dark. I dare not imagine what the country is like. Today was a
relatively calm day, but like most calm days that come immediately
after tumultuous days, it was a sinister day of taking stock of
damage, pulling bodies from under destroyed buildings, shuttling
injured to hospitals that have the capacity to tend to their wounds
more adequately.
The relative calm allowed journalists to visit the sites of shelling
and violence. The images from Tyre, and villages in the south are
shocking. Images from Haret Hreyk (the neighborhood in the southern
suburb that received the most "focused" shelling) are also astounding.
The number of deaths is yet uncertain, it increases by the hour as
bodies are pulled from the landscape of destruction. In the southern
suburbs, some people may be trapped in underground shelters under the
vestiges of their homes and apartment buildings. And yes, there is a
problem of space in morgues in the south and the Beqaa, because none
of the towns and villages are equipped to handle these numbers of
deaths.
The IDF has destroyed almost entirely the village of 'Aytaroun. Some
of the surviving wounded are Canadian citizens. Like the 8 Canadians
who died in the building in Tyre (a building that housed the red
cross and civil rescue), the Canadian government has had very little
regard for them.
Evacuations, Privilege, Solidarity
Today was a particularly strange day for me because I was granted an
opportunity to leave tomorrow morning. I hold a Canadian passport, I
was born in Toronto when my parents were students there. I left at
age two. I have never gone back, for lack of opportunity and
occasion, no other reason. I have the choice to sign up for the
evacuation, but the European and North American governments have been
so despicable, so racist that I don't want to subject myself to a
discrimination of that sort. The Swedes, the Danes and the Germans
have evacuated their patriots with blond hair and blue eyes. The
immigrants that were given shelter to their countries "out of the
kindness" of their governments have been systematically left behind;
and the guest workers who stayed to enliven their economies and their
babies who adjust the dynamism of their demographies, were left
behind to fend for shelter under the shells. But I digress. The point
I set out to make is that I refuse to be evacuated as a second tier
denizen.
I had the opportunity to leave tomorrow by car to Syria, then to
Jordan and from there by plane to wherever I am supposed to be right
now. For days I have been itching to leave because I want to pursue
my professional commitments, meet deadlines and continue with my
life. For days I have been battling ambivalence towards this war,
estranged from the passions it has roused around me and from
engagement in a cause. And yet when the phone call came informing me
that I had to be ready at 7:00 am the next morning, I asked for a
pause to think. I was torn. The landscape of the human and physical
ravages of Israel's genial strategy at implementing UN Resolution
1559, the depth of destruction, the toll of nearly 250 deaths, more
than 800 injured and 400,000 displaced, had bound me to a sense of
duty. It was not even patriotism, it was actually the will to defy
Israel. They cannot do this and drive me away. They will not drive me
away.
This is one of the most recurring mistakes that the IDF makes, this
is how we see things: THEY have destroyed this country, THEY are
taking an opportunity to turn it to rubble and to usher us into
oblivion, if there is ambivalence vis-a-vis the wisdom of Hezbollah's
capture of the two soldiers, there is unambiguous, unanimous
solidarity to stand in the face of Israel's barbaric arrogance. Some
people see more in this war, some people see a moment of where the
logic/values of the policies of the Moubaraks, the Abdullahs of the
Arab world, i.e. the defeatist, pragmatic corrupt sell-outs will be
humiliated as well. And I am sure, other people see other things as
well.
The roads to Damascus are not safe. Its many different ways are
shelled everyday. Drivers know what "calculated" risks to take, I am
assured, but one never knows. Everyday the way out becomes more
difficult. I decided to stay, I don't know when I will have another
opportunity to leave.
The first contingent of Britons was evacuated early this evening.
There are two ships, but the evacuation will take place over 3 days.
Same for the French and Americans, their evacuations will last for 2
days. While the evacuations are taking place, there was relative
quiet. A welcome lull. There was activity in the street, even on the
Corniche along the seaside. Refugees from the south, displaced from
their homes and provided shelter in public schools strolled in Hamra,
looking for a breath of fresh air. A break from the confinement in
schools and other makeshift shelters.
Imagine the horror, the sad, sad horror: we are on borrowed time and
the only reason we are not under threat, under any serious threat is
because the passport holders of some of the G8 countries are
evacuating safely to safer harbors. With this relative calm, the
sense of impending doom becomes almost palpable, time, space, light
and movement are subsumed in an eerie stillness. It feels vaporous
and fills the air. As it wafts from room to room, from apartment to
apartment, as it turns a corner and moves to another neighborhood,
every gesture, every act is a little delayed, slowed, surreptitiously
lethargic, every thought lingers too long in the unfinished or
inchoate state. This eerie stillness numbs the passage of time and
the cognitive perception of things material. Objects seem both
familiar and unfamiliar. They are familiar in that they were there
the day before and seem not to have moved from their place. They are
unfamiliar because they seem to belong to another time, another life.
There was another life, I had another life that seems distant and
foreign now. The morning is different, noon is different, sunset is
different. Another Beirut has emerged. War time Beirut. War time
Lebanon. War time mornings, war time noons. Siege time Beirut, siege
time morning, siege time sunsets. Everyone else in the world is going
about their day as they had planned it or as it was planned for them.
The shakers and movers of this world, the fledgling middle classes of
the developping world, the 11 million children workers in India, the
good-doers and the evil-doers. We are in a different geography of
time, of agency, we are besieged, captive, hostage. No chance of
Stockholm syndrome this time. Our every move is monitored: every
moving vehicle delivering food, fuel, or medicines is monitored,
every phone call is listened on, every email read, every dream
snarled at, every desire crushed. Israel has the right to explode it
to smithereens.
The shelling has not really let, don't get me wrong. It still goes on
but it's more occasional, there are more "blank spaces" in between now.
Hezbollah
These "siege notes" have been receiving a number of reponses from
Israelis. I have to say that most are of the annoying sort. First,
they always begin by noting that I am intelligent and I get commended
for my intelligence like Colin Powell gets commended for his English
language speaking skills and you wonder what those making these
observations expect from you and the world in the first place.
Second, they systematically mistake expression of dissent and
critique with Arab regimes and official discourse as some sort of a
favorable disposition towards Israel. In other words there is,
falsely, a tautology between regarding Israel as an enemy country and
endorsing radical ideologies of Islamic fundamentalism or rabid
nationalism. As if being a democrat, an egalitarian and a feminist
implied that one could not have even more profound grounds for being
critical of Israel and regarding that country as an enemy country
that has sponsored and produced nothing but war, violence,
wretchedness, misery, banditry and usurpation. And so heartened by my
ambivalence towards this war they recommend that more conversations
should take place between Israelis and I. Off course most propose
that I make the effort to seek those Israeli interlocutors out. This
extreme form of Habermas-mania, that assumes that deep conflicts can
be "talked through" is the sumum of hubris. The experience of the
peace process is telling: it is clear that Israelis cannot cannot
cannot accept Palestinians as human beings whose humanity is of equal
value as their own. This is the bottom line. And until that bottom
line is changed, there is nothing that a member of a society that
builds walls around itself to shut itself off from the world and shut
the world from itself can tell me. Punto final.
One of my impromptu (Israeli) commentators warned of my candor,
despaired at my position vis-a-vis Israel, and took generously time
and space to explain to me that Hezbollah he/she must be crushed
because if they were to win, they would destroy Israel and me,
because of my values and lifestyle. This view, along with other views
salient in western media (particularly American) of Hezbollah betrays
ignorance. It is fatal ignorance.
The most gross miscalculation Israeli strategists are making is based
on the assumption that Hezbollah is a) not a legitimate political
entity in this country, b) its base is made up of extremists and c)
its "elimination" would leave the Lebanese construct unscathed. In
point of fact, pushing the Lebanese population to "rise up" against
Hezbollah, or the scenario of a Lebanese implosion is the worst case
scenario for all regional "parties", because the country would then
become the jungle of violence and killing that Iraq is today.
Because I am a staunch secular democrat, I have never endorsed
Hezbollah, but I do not question their legitimacy as a political
actor on the Lebanese scene, I believe they are just as much a
product of Lebanon's contemporary history, its war and postwar as are
all other parties. If one were to evaluate the situation in vulgar
sectarian terms, when it comes to representing the interests of their
constituency they certainly do a better job than all the political
representatives presently and in the past.
It would be utter folly (in fact it would be murderous folly) to
regard Hezbollah as another radical Islamist terrorist organization,
at least in the ideological and idiomatic vein of the American
intelligentsia and punditry. (There is something about a stubbornness
to misunderstand that betrays an intent to see a crisis linger or
even escalate in the US. If Americans feel better being misguided
idiots, Israelis should know better. If the Israeli intelligentsia
wants to play deaf like Americans the only outcome will be an Iraq
scenario, although I reiterate that Lebanon is not Iraq and the
Lebanese are not and will not be Iraqi and will not be manipulated
into the barbaric sectarian horror. We've tried that before and it
does not work, and we are tired of fighting each other.)
Hezbollah is a mature political organization (that has matured
organically within the evolution of Lebanese politics) with an
Islamist ideology, that has learned (very quickly) to co-exist with
other political agents in this country, as well as other sects. If
Lebanese politics was a representation of short-sighted petty
sectarian calculations, the lived social experience of postwar
Lebanon was different. Sectarian segregation was extremely difficult
to implement in the conduct of everyday social transactions, in the
conduct of business, employment and all other avenues of commonplace
life. And that is a capital we all carry within ourselves, there are
exceptional moments when the country came together willingly and
spontaneously (as with the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but
there are other smaller, less spectacular moments that punctuate the
lived experience of the postwar that every single Lebanese can recall
where sectarian prejudice was utterly meaningless, experienced as
meaningless.
When former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated, the country
seemed divided into two camps, the consensus was overwhelming however
that we will not revert to fighting one another, to eliminating one
another.
If Israel plans to annihilate Hezbollah, it will annihilate Lebanon.
Hezbollah and its constituency are not only Lebanese in the
perception of all, they are also a key, essential element of
contemporary Lebanon. Moreover the specifics of UN Resolution 1559
may have regional implications, but at heart and in essence they can
only be resolved within the Lebanese consensus. Israel CANNOT take it
upon itself to implement that UN resolution. There is off course
sinister folly that Israel should implement any UN resolution
considering its stellar record of snarling, snickering and shrugging
at every single UN resolution that did not suit its sensibilities.
Hezbollah are not al-Qaeda, Israeli and US propaganda will portray
them as much, and that is the downfall of public opinion, that is the
tragedy at the root of the consensus that agrees to watching Lebanon
burn. In more ways than can be counted they are different political
ideologies, groups and movements. First, they are not suicidal.
Second, they are not anti-historical. Third, they are a full-fledged
political agent at the center of a dynamic polity. Their ideology is
not an ideology of doom, they represent as much petty interests of
their constituency as they are imbricated in the fabric of regional
politics.
Israel, and Channel 2
I was watching Lise Doucet on the BBC interview one of Olmert's
underlings yesterday after the speech. This is the folly of the
Israelis, and I believe it will be their downfall, ultimately. He was
lamenting that Hezbollah hit the "peaceful" city of Haifa, an Israeli
city that he described as exemplar of coexistence between Jews,
Christians and Muslims. Haifa! An Israeli city? Haifa? The name is
Arabic. The jewel in the crown of Palestinian cities... A peaceful
haven of coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians? My God! It
took DECADES for Christians and Muslims to appear on the roster of
"human beings" in the ledgers of the Israeli government. Decades of
struggle, riots, pain and suffering. And they are still second class
citizen, and they are still unwelcome, pushed out, day after day,
crushed by the Israeli machine.
This eloquent underling was making the argument that Hezbollah wanted
to destroy the city of "coexistence". Off course, he does not care
that the city the IDF has currently under siege, the city they are
bombing to rubble, the city where the red cross and civil rescue
headquarters were shelled to the ground, Tyre, is itself a gorgeous
jewel on the Lebanese coast. That it is a GENUINE city of coexistence
amongst Christians, Shi'ites and Sunnis. And the delightful town of
Marja'yun is also a city where sects and religions co-exist, and
Zahleh... and so on and so forth... But no matter, the Israelis have
always done this, and eventually, it catches up with them, and in the
end, they realize that their narrative is so far removed from reality
they have to back track. The key to understanding Israeli's
relationship to our humanity lies in a text by David Grossman, one of
Israel's foremost novelists, essayists and writers. He wrote it
around the time of the First Intifada. Israel was then beginning to
come into reckoning that the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was
no longer tenable or sound strategy for the well-being of its democracy.
By the second or third of these "siege notes", the emails reached
Israel and Israeli blogs. A journalist from Israel's Channel 2
contacted me by email and asked for an interview. I was uncomfortable
with the idea at first, for fear that my words be distorted and my
genuine, candid sentiments quoted to serve arguments I do not
endorse. Exposing oneself with transparency has its charm and price.
That journalist seems like a nice person, but I have no reason to
trust her and she understands my misgivings. My only defense is
transparency. She sent me the set of questions below for me to answer
so she can air them on TV or use them for some report. I decided to
share them with you all.
1. How your day looks like from the morning. What you did today? did
you have coffee? how do you get the news - television? radio? internet?
The routine of our days is totally changed. We now live under a
regimen of survival under siege. Those of us still not wounded and
not stranded do whatever needs to be done to survive until the next
day. Coffee, yes, I have coffee in the morning, and at noon and in
the afternoon. Perhaps I have too much coffee. The passage of time is
all about monitoring news, checking everyone's OK, and figuring out
what has to be done to help those in distress. News are on all the
time. All the time, whatever media works.
There is a great need for volunteers to tend to the hundreds of
thousands displaced now.
2. Can you describe the neighborhood you live in?
So it will be bombed? No thank you. I live in a very, very privileged
neighborhood, far from the southern suburbs. After the evacuation of
foreign nationals (and bi-nationals) is complete, everyone is
expecting doom and if Israelis decide to give us a dose of tough love
as they did in the southern suburbs my life will probably be in
serious danger as my family's and everyone who has decided to stay here.
3. Can you say something about yourself - like what you do for
living, if you can say.
I organize cultural events and I am a free-lance writer. I used to
live in New York city and moved to Beirut Tuesday July 11th. I have
no life at the present moment. I try to do a few things over the
internet, but that's increasingly difficult.
4. Are you Lebanese or Palestinian?
Both and it gets more complicated I have Syrian blood too. And
Turkish and Bosnian. I am the product of the Ottoman empire, and I
say it with pride. I know it ires a lot of people. But I am VERY
proud to claim my lineage. My father was expelled from Jerusalem in
1948, he and his family lived in a gorgeous home in Talbiyeh. I think
it is a day care school now. We own property in old Jerusalem as well
and the Atlantic Hotel which was bombed by your "valiant"
paramilitary pre-national militias in 1946.
5. In Israel our leaders think that by targeting Hezbollah and other
places in Lebanon will make the rest of the local population against
them. Is this true?
It is pure folly, but even if it were true it is a terrible strategy,
an imploded Lebanon is a nightmare to all, not only the Lebanese but
to everyone, does Israel want an Iraq at its doorstep? There seems to
be consensus now in Israel over the military campaign. It is because
Israelis are not yet pressing their leadership and military the smart
questions. Do you actually believe it would be possible to eliminate
the Shi'i sect from Lebanon, and that it would go down easy in the
region? If the Americans are advising you, duck for cover or move.
Need I list their record of wisdom and foresight recently? Vietnam,
Central America, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq. If you need to listen to
imperialists, find less idiotic ones, at least who have a sense of
history. Gold help us all if Rumsfeld is also in charge of your well-
being. This war will bring doom to all. Stop, cut everybody's losses.
Wars can be stopped before the body count is "intolerable" or an
entire country has been reduced to rubble.
6. What is the atmosphere in the streets of Beirut, if you can tell.
Beirut is quiet, dormant, huddled. We are caged, but there is
tenacious solidarity. You have to understand that we see ourselves
under an unwarranted attack from Israel. The capture of two soldiers
DOES NOT justify Israel's response. There has been a status quo for
the past 6 years that was well managed. Hezbollah was not in an
impasse, the Olmert government was in an impasse. He ran on a
campaign to solidify the "new" (illegitimate) borders, finish the
wall and finalize the enclave and withdraw into the boundaries of
that enclave. The Olmert government did not have the maturity or
intelligence to know how to deal with the Hamas government. Your
government was guided by arrogance. We, you and us, are here today
because your political class is not up to the challenge. I am sorry,
but the Hamas government was elected democratically, and there were
myriad ways to deal with them. MYRIAD. But this is the stage of your
destiny that you have reached, you build walls around yourselves (you
to whom the Massada is a foundational trauma/myth!), and you chase
barefoot, toohtless, illiterate, hungry people with state of the art
military arsenal. And you insist that you are victims, and you insist
that you are on the right side of history. All this bulllshit will
catch up with you.
7. What is the atmosphere among your friends?
The consensus is solidarity. Our country is under attack. Otherwise,
we are an exceedingly plural society every one has a theory and a
point of view, and we co-exist. Humoring one another. What do you do
when you are under siege? Do you eat one another, cannibalize on one
another, or stand in solidarity to weather the storm?
8. Can you go to work, or do you have to stay home? (because some of
the workers in the north of Israel did not go to work today)
The largest, largest majority do not go to work. Although it is a
form of resilience. If the war goes on for longer, life will have to
evolve a different routine. A large part of the work force is
impaired from movement. And then there is the random shelling, it's
also dangerous to go out. This has gone on from the first day of the
siege. The south is now sinking in a humanitarian crisis. Beirut will
soon.
(The new regulation by your glorious IDF this morning is to shoot at
all moving vehicles larger than SUVs. One was just shelled in
Ashrafieh. New danger, new things to look out for.)
9. Whatever crosses your mind.
Let's not go there... It's dark now, and I am too traumatized. I just
want this to be over. I am waiting for a ceasefire. Are you? Is that
too unmanly for your society? What do you need to see before you
cease your fire? You want to hear me expire? You take down Hezbollah,
and I am going down with them. Do you know when Hezbollah was born?
1982. Where were you? Was it an exciting summer for you?
10. I, for example, went to my gym class this morning. I am at home
now, listening to the radio on one side, writing mails on the other
side. Air-condition is on, since it is extremely hot and humid in Tel
Aviv. I live in the center of the city. Later I will go to the
office. I think life in my city continues but in a lower volume.
Life as it were, or as previously understood, in my city has stopped.
No gym classes, and I am accumulating cellulite, hence chances of
finding second husband are lessened (can I make the IDF pay for
that?). Air-conditioning is dependent on electricity or generator
working. Power cuts are the rule now and the generator works only on
a schedule. I like it when Israelis report their weather, it ought to
have some cathartic virtue, because it's like a reality check one of
the few reminders they are in this region and not in Europe. So yes,
without air-conditioning and with power cuts, my "semitic" curls
produce unruly coiffe and I have to admit, I am enduring siege with
bad hair.
I am on email, but that's intermittant between two bouts of "breaking
news"..
I hope you will wake up to the nightmare you have dragged us into. I
hope you will want to have fire ceased as soon as possible. I hope
you will deem our humanity as valuable as your own.
Best, Rasha.
To: fouadas at gmail.com
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 2:27 PM
Subject: Day 8 of the Siege
Dear All,
I have to confess that writing is becoming increasingly difficult.
Writing, putting words together to make sentences to convey meaning,
like the small gestures and rituals that make-up the commonplace acts
of everyday life, has begun to lose its meaning and its cathartic
power. I am consumed with grief, there is another me trapped inside
me that cries all the time. And crying over the death of someone is a
very particular cry. It has a different sound, a different music and
feels different. I dare not cry out in the open, tears have flowed,
time and time again, but I have repressed the release of pain and
grief. My body feels like a container of tears and grief. I am sure
it shows in the way I walk.
Writing is not pointless per se, but it is not longer an activity
that gives me relief. The world outside this siege seems increasingly
far, as if it had evacuated with the bi-national passport holders and
foreigners.
The past few days have been MURDEROUS in the south and the Beqaa
Valley. The death toll has been increasing in a horrific exponential
envigorated with the White House giving a green light for the
military assault to persist. Beirut has been spared so far, but not
the southern suburbs. Today is Day 12 of the war, the Israeli
military has conducted 3,000 air raids on Lebanon in 12 days. Out of
the total deaths so far, which range close to 400 (numbers are not
definitive), almost 170 are children. The numbers of the displaced
are increasing by the hour. Have you seen the pictures of the deaths?
The mourners in Tyre? Have you seen the coffins lined up? And the
grieving mothers.
It is impossible not to grieve with them, it is impossible to shut
one's ears to their wailing. It haunts me, it echoes the walls of the
city, it bounces off the concrete of destroyed bridges and buildings.
In trying to explain what drove Mohammad Atta to fly an airplane into
one of the towers of the World Trade Center, someone (I forget whom-
sorry facts-checkers) once said to me that Atta must have felt that
"his scream was bigger than his chest". That description stayed with
me, I don't know if I agree with it, or if that's how Atta felt in
reality, but it comes back to me now because I feel that my grief is
bigger than my chest and I have no idea how to dissipate it.
The Southern Suburbs
I accompanied journalists to Haret Hreyk two days ago. I suspect I am
still shell-shocked from the sight of the destruction. I have never,
ever seen destruction in that fashion. Western journalists kept
talking about a "post-apocalyptic" landscape. The American
journalists were reminded of Ground Zero. There are no gaping holes
in the ground, just an entire neighborhood flattened into rubble.
Mounds, and mounds of smoldering rubble. Blocks of concrete, metal
rods, mixed with furnishings, and the stuff that made up the lives of
residents: photographs, clothes, dishes, CD-roms, computer monitors,
knives and forks, books, notebooks, tapes, alarm clocks. The contents
of hundreds of families stacked amidst smoking rubble. A couple of
buildings had been hit earlier that morning and were still smoking,
buildings were still collapsing slowly.
I was frightened to death and I could hear my own wailing deep, deep
within me.
I stopped in front of one of the buildings that housed clinics and
offices that provide social services, there seemed to be a sea of CD-
Roms and DVDs all over. I picked up one, expecting to find something
that had to do with the Hezbollah propaganda machine (and it is
pretty awesome). The first one read "Sahh el-Nom 1", the second "Sahh
el-Nom 17". "Sahh el-Nom" was a very popular sit-com (way, way before
the concept was even identified) produced by Syrian TV in the 1960s.
It was centered on the character of "Ghawwar el-Tosheh", who has
become a salient figure in popular Arab culture. I smiled mournfully,
at the irony. Around the corner passport photos and film negatives
covered the rubble.
Haret Hreyk was a residential area. The residents, I was told by our
driver who lived a few blocks away, were evacuated by Hezbollah to
other places before the shelling began. Those who refused to leave
then, left after the first round of shelling. Haret Hreyk is eerily
ghostly, there are practically no people left in that neighborhood.
In the two hundred meters radius removed however, life is on-going.
Residents testified that Hezbollah was securing food, electricity and
medicines to all those who stayed.
Haret Hreyk is also where Hezbollah had a number of their offices. Al-
Manar TV station is located in the block that has come to be known as
the "security compound" (or "security square"), the office of their
research and policy studies center, and other institutions attached
the party. It is said that in that heavily inhabited square of
blocks, more than 35 buildings were destroyed entirely.
Hezbollah had organized a visit for journalists that day, as they had
the day before. They provided security cover for the area for the
international media cameras to document the destruction. There was a
spokesperson greeting journalists. A small rotund man, dressed in a
track suit, fancy sunglasses, a two-day old stubble carrying two
state of the art cell phones. He spoke in concise soundbites and was
affable. There was nothing menacing about his demeanor, in fact were
it not for the destruction around him he looked more like he would be
an assistant to Scolari (similar dress code and portend) than part of
the media team of a "terrorist organization".
The security apparatus of Hezbollah was also impressive, underscoring
the identity of Hezbollah. They were all affable, welcoming, dressed
casually and unarmed. They all held walkie-talkies, and when looming
danger of another Israeli air strike seemed tangible, they all
ushered the group of some 30 (and more) journalists to clear the
area. They issued their warnings calmly and confidently.
One of the buildings was still burning. It had been shelled earlier
that day at dawn. Clouds of smoke were exhaling from amidst the
ravages. The rubble was very warm, as I stepped on concrete and
metal, my feet felt the heat.
Israeli Warfare Mystery
Doctors in hospitals in the south have testified on television that
they a number of bodies that have reached them have an unusual,
unfamiliar skin color. Some of surviving injured exhibit a pattern of
burns that doctors have also never seen before. The question is
beginning to get attention for the world community of physicians and
human rights organization. Israel is suspected of loading its
missiles with toxic chemicals. The fear, in addition to their
toxicity being immediately lethal on its victims, is that the waters
and earth may now be poisoned. The inhabitants of the south may have
to suffer from Israel's wrath for a very, very long time, in chilling
cold blood.
The as-Safir newspaper, the second largest running daily in Lebanon,
has taken up the task to investigate the question.
Beyond the crime of toxic poisoning, the type of shells and bombs
used is also astounding. I met a woman who was displaced from the
borderig village of Yater. She is a native American, blue blood and
apple pie, but with a hijab. She, her husband, her three babies and
her husband's family, a total of 14 people were trapped in one room
in their house in Yater. On the 6th or 7th day of shelling, she
cracked and her kids could not longer handle the violence. Risking
their lives, they jumped into their car, and decided to take their
chance. They drove straight without stopping, taking circuitous ways
when the main roads were impossible to tread. They expected to die on
the road. After 14 hours of driving they made their way to the US
embassy in the northeastern suburbs of Beirut. They were not aware of
evacuations. They were lost on the way, and someone stole her
husband's wallet with the 400$ in cash they carried (the totality of
their fortune), his green card and her US passport. I came across her
at the US embassy compound. She was trembling. She could barely tell
her story coherently. She repeated over and over that she had seen
houses fly, that the shells made the houses fly in the air and then
collapse on the ground. She repeated that she ought not to have gone
to the window, but she could not help it, she was curious, and she
saw the houses fly.
As a holder of US passport (and real native) she had been allowed
into the embassy. Her husband, only a green card holder, was not. The
US embassy changed their policy, I was later told by people and
journalists, but at various stages in the evacuation, green-card
holders were not included in the evacuations plan. Pardon me, in the
plans for "assisted departures".
I don't know what happened to the American mother from Portland
Oregon and Yater south Lebanon. I know her babies are lactose
intolerant and their only food was the stock of soy milk she had with
her. She was very young, a face earnest, her skin transluscent white.
In her pale blue eyes there was despair and fright that she will not
recover from for a very long time.
The Displaced
The displaced have been dispersed in the country. They have been
placed in schools, universities, government owned buildings. Aid is
arriving, but still in chaotic manner. Volunteers are beginning to
get tired. However nothing compares to the distress of the displaced.
They are in a state of complete emotional upheaval. Their presence
has already changed the habits and rituals of the neighborhoods where
they have been placed.
As the sun begins to set and the harshness of its rays begins to dim,
you find families strolling on Hamra street (a main commercial
thoroughfare in West Beirut). Shops are closed, sandwich shops are
closed, cafes are intermittantly open, but the sidewalk provides an
opportunity to escape the confinement from the shelter where they
been relocated. You can see it in their walk, their body language.
Their pace searches for peace of mind, not for a destination, their
lungs expand drawing in oxygen to inspire quietude and calm, not for
cardiovascular pressure. They have a deep, mournful, sorrowful gaze.
They left behind their entire lives, maybe even their beloved.
In Ras Beirut, small backstreets have come to life. To escape the
heat of indoor confinement, displaced families relocated to old homes
or government-owned buildings, have grown in the habit of placing
plastic chairs and their narguiles on small front porches or entrance
hallways of buildings. I had to walk home after a long day of working
with journalists, two nights ago, and as I zigzagged through these
back streets, I was comforted by their gentle presence. They chatted,
softly, quietly, huddled in groups, watching the night unfold,
fearful of the sound of Israeli warplanes.
The ceaseless newscast from a radio kept everyone informed. It too
sounded softly. It was a gentle summer night, and the families
dispersed and uprooted surrendered to the gentleness of the night.
On the next block, three young woman stood in line, queuing for
access to a public payphone. That too has become a familiar sight in
Beirut. People lining at public payphones. They stood, clearly tired
but resilient. To my "good evening", I was greeted back with smiles
and another "good evening". I was relieved to see that they felt
safe, that they roamed the city at night without qualms. How long can
they afford to pay for these phone calls is another question. There
is a definite need for a long term plan. This emergency solution will
soon reach a crisis, and state structures need to be prepared to face
the anger and frustration of nearly 500,000 people.
On the next block, a Mercedes car packed with people was parked at a
corner, in front of the entrance of a building. The car's doors were
flung open and the radio broadcast news. It was a visit. Two
displaced families on a nightly visit. Everyone was gentle, and a
soft breeze blew with clemency.
---- Original Message -----
From: RASHA
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 2:02 PM
Subject: Notes from the Siege 9&10
Dear All,
My siege notes are beginning to disperse. I write disjointed
paragraphs but I cannot discipline myself to write everyday. Despair
overwhelms me. A profoundly debilitating sense of uselessness and
helplessness. Writing does not always help, communicating is not
always easy, finding the words, deciding which stories should be
included, and which should not. The experience of this siege is so
emotionally and psychically draining, the situation is so politically
tenuous...
I miss the world. I miss life. I miss myself. People around me also
go through these ups and downs, but I find them generally to be more
resilient, more steadfast, more courageous than I. I am consumed by
other people's despair. It's not very smart, I mean for a strategy of
survival.
My day started today (in effect it is Day 13 of the War, but just
another morning under siege in my personal experience) with news from
Bint Jbeil, reported on al-Jazira. Ghassan Ben Jeddo, the director of
the Beirut office was analyzing the situation on the southern front
in Bint Jbeil. He announced flatly that Hezbollah had conceded to the
military surrender of Bint Jbeil, that the IDF had besieged the town,
and that the town had been almost entirely flattened to rubble. My
breathing became tight. I knew well, and had been told for days, that
military defeats and victories were very tricky to determine in this
type of unusual warfare, because a conventional army has clear
retreats and advances whereas a band of guerrillas behaves in an
entirely different way. The military defeat in itself did not really
matter enough to cause tightness in my chest, although I was a little
worried about the IDF feeling empowered to proceed with "scorched
earth" plans or some other nightmarish fantasy. My breathing became
tight because I immediately thought about some 1,500 people, making
up some 400 families whom I had heard the day before were trapped in
Bint Jbeil. Some were displaced from villages around Bint Jbeil. They
were trapped there in two buildings, one of which was a government
school. I could not imagine what they were living. As the al-Jazira
showed footage from around Bint Jbeil, there was a continuous
soundtrack of pounding from Israeli tanks. I could only see them and
hear that pounding: were they huddled together? Were they laid down
on the floor, their hands over their heads? How does one survive 2
days of continuous shelling like that? Had they any hope of fleeing?
They stayed with me, 1500 souls in Bint Jbeil. I went to the public
garden where displaced people were now living, I went to the
cooperative supermarket in Sabra, I went to an air-conditioned cafe
with WiFi, and the 1500 souls were with me. I had lunch, tried to
write, still with me. Until after sunset, a journalist friend told me
he had interviewed the mayor of Bint Jbeil in the afternoon. The man
had suffered a stroke this past Sunday and had been evacuated for
treatment. By today he had recovered and was struggling to find a way
to get the remaining 40 Lebanese-Americans trapped in Bint Jbeil. My
friend allowed me to sigh with some relief, the trapped souls were
400 not 1,500 today... (Most of the residents of Bint Jbeil are
Lebanese-Americans from Dearborn and Detroit Michigan.)
Is there a point to relaying on to you the events of the past few
days? I am still stuck to the television. I am still living from
breaking news to breaking news. I now get things from the second-tier
horse's mouth, so to speak, journalists whom I have taken to hovering
around.
Khiyam shall soon be rubble. As is Bint Jbeil. After Khiyam will be
Tyre. The Beqaa has received pounding. Israelis targetted factories,
some operational, others under construction. None were Hezbollah
fortresses off course. They also hit a UNIFIL outpost last night
killing UN international observers.
This will be a long note because it is a cluster from the past few
days. It will most likely be a tedious read. It reflects my
encounters these past few days, conversations and discussions with
friends journalists and analysts as well as vignettes from Beirut
under siege. As I attempt to tie all of these sections together, I am
back at the Cafe with WiFi. Yesterday they played the soundtrack from
Lawrence of Arabia. I don't know if they were aware of the "post-
colonial" and "postpost-colonial" dimension. Condi was in Jerusalem.
The Bedouins were firing rockets at Haifa. And Faisal spoke late into
the night, promising the rockets would go further than Haifa.
Today, they have a Charles Aznavour playlist. Somebody with executive
power in this cafe is a shameless sentimental. This is the first sign
of a return to normalcy in my experience so far. I, an unrepentant
sentimental as well, am very fond of Aznavour, this playlist has been
the soundtrack to my convalescence from amorous setbacks, it is a
first tangibe reminder that I had once a different life.
Hezbollah, now the symbol
It took a few days into this war for Hezbollah to acquire a new power
of signification. The semiologists, the political sociologists, and
hords of regional experts and policy advisors have to watch this
carefully, they better at least, if they are to understand this
moment and the new political idiom. And they have quite something to
contend with, Hassan Nasrallah's pronouncements, al-Manar TV, the
video productions, the manufacture of image and meaning.
Hezbollah have now become the only Arab force to have refused to
accomodate, even slightly, Israel's missives and caprices. They are
undaunted by the military might of the IDF, its awesome ability to
bring wretchedness to a people and a country and its ability to shrug
at international laws regulating warfare, conflict and non-
aggression. They are also undaunted by the moral highground provided
by the US, and presently the Arab League and the International
Community (whoever this construct stands for). In that, they have won
the hearts and minds of Arab masses. The so-called Arab street (that
vague beguiling force at once vociferous and inept that the western
media have reified into a pressure valve of the potential/appetite
for Terror â?"or anti-western sentiment) has been won in heart and
mind by Hezbollah's retaliation to the Israeli assault. The Arab
world is mesmerized by this movement that has developped the ability
to fight back, inflict pain and for the first time in the history of
the Arab-Israeli conflict pause a real threat to Israel. Hezbollah
does not have the ability to defeat the Israeli army. No one in the
region can and none of the Arab states is willing, in gest or merely
using the power of suggestion, to challenge Israel's absolute
hegemony. (I don't know whether Iran can or not, but in principle
Israel's military abilities are superior to the Islamic Republic's
conventional army.)
In its careful study of a military strategy for defense, conducted in
full cognizance of the movement's weakness and strength and of
Israel's weakness and strength, Hezbollah has achieved what all Arab
states have failed to achieve. Since the war broke out, Hassan
Nasrallah has displayed a persona and public behavior also to the
exact opposite of Arab heads of states, he may be in the
"underground" for security reasons, but he is not discheveled, he
speaks in a cautious, calculated calm, a quiet dignity. His adresses
have been punctuated with key notions that have long lapsed from the
everyday political vocabulary in the Arab world: responsibility (for
defeat, victory and the toll on Lebanon), dignity, justice,
compassion (for the suffering inflicted on people and for the
Palestinian Israeli victims of Hezbollah shelling in Nazareth and
Haifa). A stark contrast with the political class in the Arab world
that speaks of "calculated retreats", "compromises for peace", and
the real politik convictions that induce Amr Moussa to cast himself
as the gesticulating pantomime for the Saudis and the Americans. In
an interview with al-Jazira, Ahmad Fouad Najm, the famous Egyptian
popular poet quoted a Cairene street sweeper who said to him that
Hassan Nasrallah brought back to life the dead man buried inside him.
This is the "pulse" of the much-dreaded Arab street. This too is a
measure of Israel's miscalculation. Moreover, at the moment when
Sunnis and Shi'as have been blinded in murderous rage in Iraq, when
Idiot-King Abdullah of Jordan and a handful Barbaric Wahabi pundits
babbled on about the dangerous emergence of a "Shi'i crescent" in the
region, Israel's assault has brought to the fore a solidarity that
transcends the Sunni-Shi'a divide in the Arab world, and consolidated
a front of those who reject Israeli hegemony and those who cower to
it in fear.
This new symbolic power beyond the boundaries of Lebanon was willed
by Hezbollah in the postwar, it peeked in 1996, when Israel conducted
its notorious "Operation Grapes of Wrath". After the Israeli
withdrawal from south Lebanon, Hezbollah claimed the credit for
liberation. Some analysts saw the Israeli withdrawal from the
occupied south as a strategic move to end the "Lebanon" file, and
deprive Syria from a crucial hand in its negotiations with Israel
(Hafez el-Assad died shortly after). Other analysts saw the Israeli
withdrawal as Hezbollah's defeat of the IDF in a long, long war of
attrition. Nevertheless, Hezbollah represented itself in its
propaganda machine as the only armed force in the Arab and Muslim
world to have in fact defeated Israel.
In this present crisis, and from Hassan Nasrallah's first
pronouncement (the radio/audio adress he delivered), the "open"
belligerance that Israel is conducting on Lebanon has been
represented as a turning point battle in the saga of the Arab-Israeli
conflict. A saga replete with humiliating defeats for Arab armies, a
turning point because Hezbollah promised to deliver a victory (as it
has achieved many victories in the past). In other words, he
transformed this present conflict from a "Lebanese" question into an
Arab and regional conflict.
The significance of defeat and victory is bearing a deep impact far
and beyond the boundaries of Lebanon. This is one of the reasons
Condoleeza Rice's notion of a "New Middle East" smacks of first rate
hubris. The "New Middle East" is taking shape elsewhere, or the real
new Middle East is here, and there is little the White House, Ehud
Olmert, 23-ton shells autographed by the beautiful children of Israel
(the pictures are quite astounding) dropped in the middle of refugee
camps to unearth underground bunkers of "terrorism", can do about it.
In the first few days of the Israeli assault on Lebanon, there was
barely any movement in Arab capitals. The Arab world seemed content
watching us burn on TV, our fate seemed sealed with the Arab League
meeting. I remember writing my rage in one of these dispatches.
However, after Nasrallah's first adress, which ended with the
spectacularly staged shelling of the Israeli warship, Hezbollah's
sustained ability to hold its fort and to shell cities as far as
Haifa and Nazareth, in addition to the sight of Israel's sustained
massacres of civilians and destruction of Lebanon, turned the tide.
Hezbollah's position in the region and in Arab consciousness is
etched with an empowering, envigorating significance.
The New Middle East, Conspiracy and Hassan Nasrallah's televised adress
Condoleezza Rice showed up in Beirut two days ago. The message she
carries is that the US will not enforce a ceasfire. Israel estimates
it needs an additional week before the atmosphere is "conducive" to a
ceasefire. This means they need a week to achieve their aims. Their
aims have changed over the past two weeks, although they have
formulated a set of demands to the White House and the G8.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora on his way to the Rome
conference said he did not expect the meeting to produce a ceasefire.
Only Kofi Anan seems to expect that from this high-profile meeting.
She did not speak of a New Middle East in Lebanon, in fact there were
no public pronouncements made in Lebanon, but she did hold several
press conferences in Israel, where reference was made to this new
map. The "New Middle East" has not been officially unveiled by the
Americans.
It emerges at a moment when Israel has failed at undermining Hamas
with all the means the world has afforded to support it: diplomatic
pressure from the US and EU, an effective paralysis of Hamas' ability
to govern, an internal conflict between Hamas and Fateh, the
incarceration of cabinet members and parliamentarians, a humanitarian
siege, and a full scale military assault on Gaza. The Palestinian
population has yet to unseat Hamas or question the legitimacy of its
position.
This moment is also when Iraq seems to have effectively slipped into
a civil war and the US and UK occupation forces are neck-deep in a
quagmire with violence escalating to frightful scale. Civil conflicts
and violence develop a momentum and logic of their own that create
their own hell, and Iraq seems to be teetering at the precipice of
this hell with no sign of decisive and effective intervention to
bring it to a halt. This moment is also when the negotiations with
Iran over the development of nuclear weapons are taking baby steps
and in circles.
With the war in Lebanon, the "moment" in which the "New Middle East"
is unveiled is a moment where Hezbollah has emerged as a force that
is able to humiliate the Israeli military on the field of battle, and
represent the Israeli civilan leadership as reckless, confused and
bloodthirsty. Hezbollah define their victory as maintaining their
ability to deter Israel from assaulting Lebanon, namely, deterring a
ground attack (the battle in a cluster of villages has been going on
for 5 days now) but mostly firing rockets and missiles into the
Israeli interior. In that regard, they are so far victorious.
So the question is on what grounds are the US, Israel and the EU
imagining the "New Middle East"? And how do they imagine its
implementation?
Past midnight last night, al-Manar television announced they would
broadcast a pre-recorded adress by Hassan Nasrallah. He wanted to
present his views and reactions to the diplomatic activity that has
been taking place in the past few days. He also wanted to send a
message to the nation, Israel and the wider world regarding
Hezbollah's strategy in this conflict. For Nasrallah the "New Middle
East" was the final indication that Israel's assault was premeditated
(and part of a greater US plan) and that Hezbollah's victory would be
the principal bullwark to thwarting the conspiracy of this "New
Middle East". He also revealed that Hezbollah had now received
information that Israel had planned the assault on Lebanon and
Hezbollah for September or October. Israel planned to roll a massive
ground force across the borders, with a cover from the air targetting
Hezbollah leadership and roads and bridges that aimed at crippling
the movement from responding. The element of surprise was key to the
success of that military strategy. With the present conflict, Israel
had proceeded with its plans, but without the element of surprise.
And that is one of the reasons Hezbollah have the upper hand so far.
And finally, he reiterated the "surprises" that Hezbollah had
delivered to Israel thus far: the warship, hitting as far into
Israeli territory as Tabariya, hitting as far as Haifa. He announced
that Hezbollah was now ready to hit targets "beyond Haifa", at a time
of their choosing. Did he mean Tel Aviv? Would he hit Tel Aviv? Was
it his retaliation at psychological warfare?
This morning, Olmert's office announced they had heard Nasrallah's
threat and would respond accordingly.
More on Being a Proud Arab
Saudi Arabia pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and
whatever to help Lebanon in these tragic times. I wish the political
class of this country had the spine and intelligence to reject this
fortune or negotiate its political cost from the position of the
empowered. Hezbollah is changing the terms, and unfortunately the
cabinet of Fouad Saniora, as well as the Hariri movement is still
behaving in total subservience to Saudi Arabia, protecting Saudi
hegemony in this country and the region.
The Jordanians sent us a plane load of emergency relief supplies. It
just landed in our destroyed airport. The Israelis gave the Jordanian
plane the security cover. Jordan and Kuwait are sending environmental
experts to help us clean the sea from the oil and fuel spills that
Israelis dumped. Did I mention this? Did I mention that after their
warships retreated to a distance safe from Hezbollah's firepower,
they spilled enough oil to cause an environmental disaster on our
coastline? Did I mention that no one has been to fish a fish and that
the shores are now pitch black?
This said, I still cannot get over, or forgive the Saudi, Egyptian
and Jordanian actions vis-a-vis the Israeli war on Lebanon. There was
a chance to stand upright, to redress from the hunch of servility.
For a moment there was an opportunity to salvage dignity and turn the
tables for good. They chose to cower, to protect US and Israeli
interest and extend moral cover for Israel to destroy this country.
The Arab League is complicit in the destruction of this country.
Fawwaz Traboulsi said it time and time again on television stations,
they have a myriad means at their disposal to shake Israel and the US
if only to impose red lines, to defend a notion of sovereignty. They
could have withdrawn their ambassadors from Israel, they could have
suspended the peace accords with Israel, they could have threatened a
regional escalation during the Arab League meeting. Saudi Arabia
could have used its hegemony over the oil market or its deposits in
US banks. Instead, Amr Moussa opined that the road map for peace was
defunct. This is servile complicity.
Imagine how much they would have gained in the eyes of their
societies and as regional actors, had they simply stood in one line-
up in the face of Israel. Obviously, it is hubris on my part to
imagine these heads of states capable of any action beyond
humiliating subservience. This is one of the meanings of defeat. The
total relinquishing of agency and dignity.
The political culture that prevails in the Arab world has a very
select cast of roles for officials (whether elected or not), at heart
they are variations on three main roles: taxidermists, court-jesters
and kitchen undercooks (the more accurate word is in French,
"marmitons"). They resurrect dead effigies, brandish defunct
ideologies, they gesticulate and throw fits to soothe, distract, and
deter, or they slice and dice, pick-up the peels and clean-up in the
"big kitchen" of regional politics. This too is a face of defeat.
There has been much, much ink spilled on the impact of "defeat" on
Arab societies, identity, political culture, etc. The other meaning
of defeat is the inability to imagine political alternatives beyond
the debilitating bi-polar pathology (and I use the metaphor with the
psychic disorder in mind) of US/Israel vs. fundamentalist political
Islam. These simply cannot be the two options for citizenship,
identity, governance and political representation. (Perhaps it is
impossible in Palestine because occupation is war, and war creates
situations in extremis â?"and yet the Palestinians, Moslems and
Christians, did not cower from electing Hamas into government, in
cognizance of the costs). And so far, that "third" option (obviously
not Blair's "Third Way") is not yet clear or cogent.
In the present conflict, a secular egalitarian democrat such as I,
has no real place for representation or maneuver. Neither have I and
my ilk succeeded in carving a space for ourselves, nor have the
prevailing forces (the two poles) agreed to making allocations for
us. That is our defeat and our failure. In Lebanon, we are caught in
the stampede and the cross-fire. As I noted in one of these siege
notes, I am not a supporter of Hezbollah, but this has become a war
with Israel. In the war with Israel, there is no force in the world
that will have me stand side by side with the IDF or the Israeli state.
It was my foolhardy hope, that the Lebanese front that emerged after
the mass mobilization on March 14th would rehabilitate its nearly
depleted political capital (depleted down to its most base and vulgar
sectarian constituencies) and refuse to meet with Condoleeza Rice.
Out of principle that the US and Israel are waging a war on one of
the chief agents in Lebanon's political landscape. Instead, all these
handsome men and women showed up at the US embassy, smiling, wearing
their Sunday suits, aping the display of servility that the Idiot-
Kings and Senile-Presidents-for-Life display at the Arab league
meetings. She showed up at the embassy and enjoyed this band of court-
jesters and taxidermists society while the Depleted Uranium Smart
Bombs were delivered from the US military base in Qatar to Israel.
Was I foolhardy to have once seen an opportunity for change when the
March 14th mobilization swept the capital? Surely now, in light of
this war. And you would think that by reading newspapers, this band
of brothers (and sisters) would learn something. You would think that
by watching what happened to their equivalent band of brothers in
Fateh would inspire another behavior. To no avail. Look at the
pathetic story of Mohammad Dahlan. Once a proud young man from Gaza,
once a hero of the Palestinian resistance, once a prisoner in
Israel's gaols, once a popular leader in the streets of Gaza. He was
so corrupted by power, he became the US Foreign Secretary's Boy Toy.
His street smarts became thuggery, his humble origins fed his
appetite for cheap thrills: nice suits that he never hung well on his
shoulders, fancy cars that he never had a chance to drive on decent
roads, fine cuisine that he never knew how to order and first class
tickets to capitals where he flew to surrender more and more and more
servility. The story of Dahlan, although small and borderline
insignificant should be told to children. I look forward to the day
when he will not be able to walk in the streets of Palestine.. Why do
I single out Dahlan when so many others like him roam the unpaved
roads of Palestine, because for a brief moment I believed he was a
man. A time long ago that I cannot recall now.
In Lebanon, the Displaced, the Schizophrenia
Within Lebanon, the situation is different. The White House and
Israel are hedging their bets on an internal rift. The most dangerous
would be a Sunni-Shi'i divide. So far the country has been united,
but warning signs are let out everyday. The sectarian polarization is
still cut grossly along the lines of the pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian
camps, they cut across the conventional sectarian rifts that
polarized the country during the civil war, and to some extent in the
postwar. In every speech, Hassan Nasrallah has hailed and expressed
gratitude for the fantastic popular support that has rallied around
the resistance. The council for sunni religious associations met
yesterday, reiterating their support for the resistance and
condemning the silence and cowardice of the Arab world.
It is compelling to see the hords of volunteers tend to the
displaced. There are two main organizations channeling emergency aid
and resources to the NGOs tending to the displaced, they are the
Hariri Foundation and the National Relief agency. The management of
relocating and lodging the displaced has been less than ideal, and I
am of the opinion that the government has not really galavanized its
full abilities to face up to the crisis. The Ministry of Social
Affairs, the Ministry of Health and other concerned public agencies
are coordinating efforts to bring some order into the chaos. However,
there is increasing critique that they are not marshalled as they
were in the past. True the scale of displacement is harrowing and
keeps increasing everyday and the government has never had to contend
with a challenge so tremendous. We now count 800,000 people who are
displaced. Access to shelters, schools and other sites of relocation
has been uneven. Problems have begun to emerge. I have made an effort
to collect as many anecdotes as possible, to get an overall sense of
the situation. So far, I have not been able to. The overwhelming
question seems to be managing the distress and frustration of the
displaced and the exhaustion of volunteers. The crisis seems to drag,
and longer term solutions will have to be implemented because
immediate emergency solutions are usually not sustainable over time.
The anecdotes tell stories of everyday heroes and everyday greed and
sectarian prejudice. It's a mixed bag. Unanimously however, the work
that Bahia Hariri, sister of slain former Prime Minister Rafic
Hariri, and parliamentarian from Sidon (the northernmost first city
in south Lebanon), has been stellar. Using the arm of the Hariri
Foundation in Sidon, she is housing 12,500 displaced from the south
(mostly Shi'ites) and tending to all their needs.. There are ironic
anecdotes too, for example schools in the Palestinian refugee camp of
Ain el-Helweh have been opened to house Lebanese refugees.
The brunt of this war are felt unevenly in the country. The eastern
suburb of the city and significant areas in the mountains have been
more or less spared from shelling and violence. Occasional Israeli
air raids spread fear. The targetting of the broadcast tower for the
major Lebanese television stations that claimed the life of an
employee at the LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation) was a
poignant reminder, but the astounding wretchedness inflicted on the
South and the Beqa'a have not been inflicted elsewhere.
This is not atypical of Lebanon's exprience of its civil war and of
the postwar occupation of south Lebanon. This dysynchrony in
"experiencing" the Israeli assault translates sometimes to a
schizophrenia. There are people sun-tanning, partying, taking it easy
while others are displaced. This too is part of the political class's
engagement in the war. They could inspire a different mindset.
In the Israeli invasion of 1982, I was in West Beirut. I was 13 years
old. All my friends and classmates fled the siege of West Beirut. The
political rifts were different then, but I remember that when I
returned to school after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces that
fall, I carried the burden of the trauma of the siege while my
classmates had memories of fun and games of that summer spent in the
mountains. While they recalled witnessing shells fall on Beirut from
a distance, I recalled their sound as they exploded. I resented all
the stories they told of that summer. They were all happy stories. I
shut my ears when they recalled them. Until now, there are a set of
songs that were popular then, that I cannot hear without feeling a
pinch of anxiety in my stomach. It's the impact of that trauma. Part
of the reason I cannot leave Beirut is that I don't want to become
like them. It's like a pledge I made to myself. But this is happening
again, on a smaller scale, because the shelling has reached beyond
the southern suburbs of Beirut and the south.
These distances that separate the people of this country have to be
bridged somehow. The "united" front has to find a more cogent gel. We
have everything to win if we are able to meet that challenge. We have
our country to win. If we remain hapless victims who beg, and who
remain beholden to the "charity" of Arabs we will never have full
sovereignty... Hezbollah's victory can be articulated to become
Lebanon's victory (this too might be naive folly on my part, but I
need to believe this, at least for the next few days, so just humor
me). Particularly now that the Syrians are making noises about plans
to roll their rusted tanks and army of underfed and illiterate
soldiers with its thuggish command back in the country.
I am so weary of the return of Syrian control over Lebanon. The
Syrian people, all those pictured cursing the Lebanese for their
arrogance and lack of gratitude should protest against a re-entry of
the Syrian military into Lebanon. And if the self-described "last
fort of dignity of the Arabs" are inspired to fight Israel, they have
the entire front of the Golan to do so. The Lebanese will not
liberate the Golan, the Syrians will have to. You don't subcontract
liberation. Moreover, Hezbollah has claimed time and time again that
they are prepared for the long haul and don't need a bullet from any
of the Arab states.This is another reason for the Lebanese political
forces to band around the resistance and shield the country.We might
have a chance to rebuild this country without owing a percentage of
every contract to a thug from the Syrian junta, and that feels like
humane relief.
I will end this siege note with another of the obsessions that taunt
me. People caught under rubble. In describing the surreptitious
commonplace horror of the civil war in a televised interview perhaps
ten years ago, the famous Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury drew the
following scene. While everyday life was taking place, traffic,
transactions, just the mundane stuff of life, and as you walked
passed buildings, you knew that in the underground of that
commonplace building, there might be someone kidnapped, waiting to be
traded or simply held in custody for money or whatever reasons
militias kidnapped for. And you walked by that building.
I am haunted by the nameless and faceless caught under rubble. In the
undergrounds of destroyed buildings or simply in the midst of its
ravages. Awaiting to be given a proper burial.
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