neurotic Iraqi wife
July 16, 2006
The New Age Democracy...
My younger sister is stuck in Lebanon...She went there to visit a friend of hers there and now she is stranded...I spoke to her today and she said they moved to her friends house in the mountains...She seemed really exhausted...Said she heard a few bombs on Beirut today when they went down to get their belongings...I asked her if she was scared since my sister has never been in a war zone before...She ofcourse said no...Actually she had a nice philosophy...She said and I quote "I dont get why people are freaking out, look at Iraq, people go on living their lives each day while mortars hail down on them, and here, the place is haunted"...Little does she know and I dont blame her...
Apparantely, on the first day when all this started, my sis had a hair cut appointment, being always prompt on time, she actually went to her appointment to find that the beauty salon was empty, all the clients have cancelled and all the hairdressers didnt bother coming in, except for the manager, who was shocked to see my sister actually making it to the appointment...He was so surprised that apparentely he gave her a voucher for a spa treatment for her bravery...I was in shock when I found out she actually went amid this mayhem...She said "I didnt think things were serious and I didnt wanna miss the appointment"... My naive little sister....
We are trying to figure a way for her and her friend to get out, but now I think its too late, the Israelis have bombed the road to Syria...This is outrageous...Im not sure who to blame, but first and foremost, I believe that Israel has no right what so ever to bomb Lebanon because of the 2 Israeli soldiers...This really is atrocious... This is against all human rights... Not that Im surprised... At the same time I blame Hezballah for not taking any consideration the safety of their people...Didnt Nasrallah know what his action will trigger??? And the Arab leaders are just watching, they met at an emergency summit, saying that they are not happy about the situation...Is that all??? Not happy??? Words...WORDS...WORDS...Big Deal, you aint happy do something about it...Intervene, be the peacekeeper...Dont just sit there and play the blame game ...Try and put out the fire that has errupted...The damn thing happened...People are getting killed... someone must do something about it...King Abdullah of Jordan and Mobarak of Egypt are blaming Nasrallah...yeah and so??? Arent you gonna intervene???The BS of politicians is really beyond me...
Now my only fear is my sister's safety...My mom is in panic and as time goes by, and as we watch whats happening on the news, the whole family is getting worried...A friend of my mom's was on her way to chtoora when bombs were dropped on the way and she freaked out, crying...She usually is one strong woman...This aint easy for people who have been living somewhere other than a war zone...I also cannot fathom how Bush is defending Israel's position...Yet I aint surprised nor shocked... I never understood that special relationship between Israel and the US....TWO soldiers, TWO soldiers were kidnapped and a whole country gets bombed...
Why did they bomb the airport??? Why bomb bridges and roads...How can people get away...There are tens of thousands of tourists...What kind of tactic is this??? Did the airport have terrorists too??? or the roads???or the bridges??? Is this fair??? Oh I forgot Life aint fair nor is politics...
Im not sure if people in Europe and the States have the same exposure of news that we get here, are you guys watching the corpses that are being pulled out from the rubble??? The innocent children that are being injured for the sake of two soldiers who are held in captivity...Couldnt Israel make a deal with Hezballah for the exchange of these soldiers than wage a war on a whole country...on a whole nation...Is the Arab blood that cheap??? This is the New Age...The New Age Democracy....
Apparantely, on the first day when all this started, my sis had a hair cut appointment, being always prompt on time, she actually went to her appointment to find that the beauty salon was empty, all the clients have cancelled and all the hairdressers didnt bother coming in, except for the manager, who was shocked to see my sister actually making it to the appointment...He was so surprised that apparentely he gave her a voucher for a spa treatment for her bravery...I was in shock when I found out she actually went amid this mayhem...She said "I didnt think things were serious and I didnt wanna miss the appointment"... My naive little sister....
We are trying to figure a way for her and her friend to get out, but now I think its too late, the Israelis have bombed the road to Syria...This is outrageous...Im not sure who to blame, but first and foremost, I believe that Israel has no right what so ever to bomb Lebanon because of the 2 Israeli soldiers...This really is atrocious... This is against all human rights... Not that Im surprised... At the same time I blame Hezballah for not taking any consideration the safety of their people...Didnt Nasrallah know what his action will trigger??? And the Arab leaders are just watching, they met at an emergency summit, saying that they are not happy about the situation...Is that all??? Not happy??? Words...WORDS...WORDS...Big Deal, you aint happy do something about it...Intervene, be the peacekeeper...Dont just sit there and play the blame game ...Try and put out the fire that has errupted...The damn thing happened...People are getting killed... someone must do something about it...King Abdullah of Jordan and Mobarak of Egypt are blaming Nasrallah...yeah and so??? Arent you gonna intervene???The BS of politicians is really beyond me...
Now my only fear is my sister's safety...My mom is in panic and as time goes by, and as we watch whats happening on the news, the whole family is getting worried...A friend of my mom's was on her way to chtoora when bombs were dropped on the way and she freaked out, crying...She usually is one strong woman...This aint easy for people who have been living somewhere other than a war zone...I also cannot fathom how Bush is defending Israel's position...Yet I aint surprised nor shocked... I never understood that special relationship between Israel and the US....TWO soldiers, TWO soldiers were kidnapped and a whole country gets bombed...
Why did they bomb the airport??? Why bomb bridges and roads...How can people get away...There are tens of thousands of tourists...What kind of tactic is this??? Did the airport have terrorists too??? or the roads???or the bridges??? Is this fair??? Oh I forgot Life aint fair nor is politics...
Im not sure if people in Europe and the States have the same exposure of news that we get here, are you guys watching the corpses that are being pulled out from the rubble??? The innocent children that are being injured for the sake of two soldiers who are held in captivity...Couldnt Israel make a deal with Hezballah for the exchange of these soldiers than wage a war on a whole country...on a whole nation...Is the Arab blood that cheap??? This is the New Age...The New Age Democracy....
15 Comments:
To answer your question, no, we do not see the real horrors of war. Our media is highly censored ... we can't have a war look messy.
I'll pray for your sister's safe return.
I just found out that the Hezbollah television station is banned in the United States. I knew that our own media are heavily "self censored", but banning a television station came as a big surprise to me. Because we don't know the horrors of war here, we continue to supply and support Israel regardless of the oppression and aggression. I'm so sorry. I do work to bring about change, but it is a long time coming.
This is not really about kidnapped soldiers. That is just a pretense for Israel, backed by the U.S., to do what they have long been intending to do. They will cleanse Palestine of all non-Jews in the next twenty years unless the muslims can fight them back.
another americsn woman here
(north-eastern USA)I'll also pray for your sisters safe return - blessings and be well. I am sorry for our harm to you and yours, through letting a fake "president" get away with stealing the past two elections. I hope that we will not all burn in hell for allowing this, but we sure might.
"Flase Flag"
I pray your sister is OK, but I must respond to the previous posts. Israel could wipe out all "non-Jews" in a few seconds if they so choose. They should be commended for their restrain and consideration for innocent life. Hezbollah does not have the same restraint. They would kill every single Jew if they had the ability. If innocents are killed by Israel it is only because the cowardly terrorist hide among women and children. All anger and denouncement should be directed to the terrorists.
Israel is surrounded by countries and peoples who have sworn to annihalate them. For many the intent is not just the destruction of the state of Israel but of the Jewish people themselves. You don't have to look far in the Arab world to find this thought expressed. Best place to look--with the Muslim religious!
Gaza was turned over to the Palestinians to govern--look at the result. The IDF left Lebanon 6 years ago--look at the result. Israel is finding out Hezbollah's capabilities, capabilities they were allowed to develop under the nose of the Lebanese government. Don't say it was too tough for the Lebanese to act like a sovereign nation and tackle Hezbollah. Hard? Yes. Impossible? No. And, of course, if Lebanon cannot or will not, what choice does that leave Israel?
What other country would endure the presence of a massively armed terrorist force on their borders? Israel did. Up to a point.
an american and american woman and anon, thats a shame...Inorder for people not to be biased, I think they should have the right to view all sides of the story, no matter how gory it is...But in hindsight, for your own sanity and health, I also believe its a blessing that you dont see the daily horrific images of dead children that were murdered in the most brutal way...But you still have the internet and the blogs for you to know whats really happening around the world....
Don, But why cant Israelis and Arabs live together peacefuly???Is it that difficult???
level headed thinker and anon...Yes I agree that the terrorists are cowards...They hide between women and children...very true...at the same time Israel is no innocent party either...You call them a democracy???well they hate arabs, its a two way thing...It goes both ways...I for one, dont hate Jews, infact inorder for me to be a muslim I must believe in all religeons existence...but at the same time I cannot stand zionism...Zionists to me are as bad as Bin Laden and the Nazis and the Baathists...They are terrorists!!!
I don't doubt some Israelis "hate Arabs". But wouldn't you if your neighbors vowed to drive you into the sea and sent their children out as homicide bombers. The Zionist issue is way over blown by the hateful teachings in the radical Muslim world. The vast vast majority of Jew would have no problem living side-by-side with peaceful Muslims. Plus the hardcore Zionist are condemned by the Israeli government and when they break the law and harm Arabs they are punished. You cannot say the same thing about the majority of Arabs and Arab governments.
Yup, the zionist issue is way overblown. In fact, zionists don't actually exist !! They are just a figment of the fevered imaginations of terrorist arabs. !!
Neurotica,
Arabs and Jews and Christians can live side by side in peace as soon as all of the groups want peace. Israel has tried a dozen ways to live in peace with their neighbors. In return for their attempts, they have suffered bombs exploding on buses, rockets fired into towns, soldiers kidnapped, etc. for decades. What you describe as life with terrorists in Iraq has been the life of the average Israeli for decades. Obviously the attacks haven't been as intense or frequent in Israel, but nobody in Israel has been able to ride a bus for 2 decades without fearing for their life each time somebody in a heavy coat steps on board. Nobody sitting in a downtown cafe in Israel has felt safe for 2 decades when they see somebody standing around with a backpack on. The Israelis have offered land, freedom, economic assistance, self-governance, sovereignty for Palestine, etc over the course of the last 2 decades, yet none of it was good enough. The Palestinians turned them down and the terrorists continued to attack.
Then the unthinkable happened. Elections were held in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories...and the people elected terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to represent them in the government. Think about it...what would you feel if Iraq allowed Al Qaeda in Iraq to run in elections and put their representatives as part of the ruling coalition in the government? What if Al Qaeda in Iraq won the elections and was allowed to form the government (as Hamas did in the PA)? How then to you separate the terrorists from the people? The people elected terrorists to represent them. They elected terrorists to be their face and their voice to the world. The people of southern Lebanon elected terrorist to represent them in a democratic government, and that same group launched an attack on Israel unprovoked, kidnapped soldiers, and began firing rockets into Israeli towns. How is Israel supposed to respond? Hezbollah IS the elected representatives for souther Lebanon. They put their offices in the middle of towns. They live in residential neighborhoods. They fire their rockets from the playing fields behind schools. This is not like Iraq where Al Qaeda hides among the people and the people don't know who they are. Hezbollah has their name on the front of their offices. Their representatives and members are known to everybody. How is Israel supposed to respond to being attacked after they have left Lebanon and allowed Lebanon to decide their own fate through elections (elections that would not have occurred if America had not demanded that Syria get out of Lebanon)? How can Israel fight back if they don't attack Hezbollah where they live and where they fight from? If everybody knows that Hezbollah is armed and funded by Iran and Syria, then how can Israel cut them off from supplies and safety unless they cut off routes to Syria (roads) and routes to Iran (airport and ports). They received credible information very early on that Hezbollah wanted to take the soldiers out of the country. The only way to stop that is to cut off ways out of the country.
I know it is tragic. I hate to see anybody die and wish they could all live in peace. But the people of Lebanon (especially southern Lebanon) and the PA cannot elect groups whose stated objective is the destruction of Israel by any means (including terrorist acts against civilians) and then pretend to be innocent when those groups attack Israel unprovoked and force Israel to respond. Many of the same people crying and wailing as they pull bodies of loved ones out of buildings in southern Lebanon are the same ones who would celebrate and congratulate the family of a suicide bomber who killed dozens of Israelis on a bus or in a cafe.
The real problem in the middle east (and it has been for several decades) is that the issue of the Palestinians has been allowed to continue by governments throughout the ME as a way to give their people somebody to direct anger and frustration at. Over time, people have come to excuse terrorist groups and governments that sponsor them for atrocious acts against humanity with rationalizations that continue to blame all their troubles on Israel. Most people in southern Lebanon see Israel as their enemy and Hezbollah as their friend, when in fact, the biggest thing keeping Lebanon from returning to its former beauty and economic vitality for the last 2 decades has been the presence of Hezbollah and their ongoing attacks on Israel. Without Hezbollah, what quarrel would Israel have with Lebanon? Yet people continue to paint Israel as the problem and take a sympathetic view of groups like Hezbollah.
Lets take another example. In the 1990s, Yasser Arafat was offered free elections for the PA, return Gaza and the West Bank to the PA, renewed access and economic cooperation between Israel and the PA, and the possibility of sharing Jerusalem as the eventual capital of a sovereign Palestine. All Arafat had to do in return was to recognize the right of Israel to exist, stop his terrorist group (Fatah) from attacking Israel, and to disarm the terrorists. He refused. He eventually made an agreement and recognized Israel, but on the rest, he almost immediately failed to live up to his end of the bargain and the attacks went on. Israel tried and tried to find a way to find something they could give Arafat, and after him Abbas short of their own destruction that would convince the Palestinians to lay down their weapons and live together in peace. And even after pulling out of Gaza and while making plans to pull out of the West Bank, they are still being attacked by Hamas...the newly elected governing body of the PA. They have given everything they have to give except their own annihiliation to try to find peace with the Palestinians. It is not enough. Faced with the need to destroy Hezbollah in order to secure their own peace, they are doing what they have to do. it is tragic how it has to happen, but such is the way when people choose murderers and terrorists to be their leaders as southern Lebanon and the PA have done.
To the anon. coward who made the first comment: http://democracyfrontline.org/blog/?p=179
Dear Bill.
If Israel insists on a Palestinian negotiating partner who will give up control over land, water, borders, roads, freedom of movement, economy, then it will indeed have no Palestinian partner for peace. Palestinians voted for Hamas because they are sick of puppets who suck up to Israel and the United States and get nothing in return.
Here is how Israelis can live in peace:
Go back to the pre-1967 boders in exchange for full normalization of relations with the Arab world, and reparations for Palestinian refugees. That is what the Arab League offered in 2002, and it's still on the table.
And as for "terrorists", well, in my opinoion, Israel is a bigger terroirst than Hamas or Hizbollah. There is no question that it is intentionally killing Shiite (and Sunni and Chirsitan) civilians. Just go to any of the Lebanese bloggers.
Peter,
If I came to your house and shot your wife...and then when you chased after me, I hid behind my wife and kids, who is responsible for their deaths if they are hit when you try to shoot me? Is it the person who fired the first shot and then hid behind the civilians? Or is it the person trying to get at the person who fired the first shot amid a bunch of civilians who actively support the original shooter? Israel is targeting Hezbollah. That Hezbollah chooses to hide their weapons and their key positions in areas surrounded by civlians is not Israel's fault. So long as Hezbollah keeps firing unguided rockets into civilian areas and the people of Lebanon keep supporting them in doing so, Israel has every right to return fire. If that return fire kills civilians who have chosen to stay in areas where Hezbollah is active, their blood is on Hezbollah's hands.
If the arab countries want Israel to return to the 1967 borders, they should start by doing everything possible to reassure Israel that they would be safe if they did so. That means abandoning support for terrorist groups that attack Israel from those areas, recognizing Israel's right to exist, and stopping the use of their lands as staging areas for terrorist attacks into Israel. As it is, Israel's only experiences with giving land back have reinforced to them how doing so only results in bringing their enemies closer and allowing them a better platform from which to launch attacks. Israel has taken many steps in the very recent past to show good faith in solving this problem, such as allowing the PA to rule the occupied lands, giving back Gaza and the West Bank, pulling out of Lebanon, etc. What good faith has been shown to Israel by Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Hamas to encourage them to continue? Nothing! They have attacked Israel at every opportunity, reinforcing Israel's feeling that nobody in the PA or Syria or Lebanon is an honest negotiator interested in peace. Everbody likes to ask what Israel will do to solve the problem and stop the violence. I want to know what the arabs will do! What have they done in 30 years to try to bring peace?
Peter, in 2000 Clintion had Israel and Arafat agree agreee to 98% of what you suggest and Arafats response was the daily waves of suidcide bombings, much like what Iraq is experiencing now.
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