Monday, July 24, 2006
Noon, Haifa Quiet
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is still in Haifa. Up until now, he said that Haifa has been quiet. There haven't been any alarms or katyushot since yesterday. Let's hope the quiet will last. If it doesn't, he and his wife will also come to stay in Tel Aviv for a while.
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Not anymore. Some 2 hours ago Hizballah started bombing Haifa again with Katyusha rockets. 5 people have been wounded, including in Akko (Acre) which is a mixed town of Jewish and Arab population who live harmonically together.
Don't worry..... at least for the Muslims that are killed in Israel, Nassralah and Hizabola will make sure to state that "he greatly apologizes and that they are Shahids and Holly Warriors" like the 4 and 6 years old Muslim kids that got killed by his missiles the other day in Nazareth. I can't believe anyone will buy into his garbage. The only ones he thinks about his himself, he does not care about Lebanon or any others.
Wake Up from Canada
i like the sound of living harmonically together, hearing about children dying is wrong on so many levels.
Can we send Hezbollah and the state of Israel to Mars?
Can we send USA as well?
Carmia, I'm so glad you left Haifa. I have an update for people in the North: There are several offers of free places to stay, just now posted on my blog. I would really appreciate it if you would let people know about it, in the event that they don't have anywhere safe to go. My blog is: www.aliyahonmymind.blogspot.com I'll leave this comment on a few other blogs as well.
Thanks!
It would be interesting to see if Arabs are admitted in the bomb shelters of the so called "harmonious communities".
"It would be interesting to see if Arabs are admitted in the bomb shelters"
It just annoys bigots when something demonstrates that their own bigotry is unjustified.
carmia, amos, noah(s),
i have been reading your blog over the last couple days after a friend at berkeley mentioned it to me, and i have really found your experiences and commentary helpful for making sense of the current mess. i have a very different view of the war because i am currently living and studying in damascus, where the news, conversations, worries, and anger are obviously quite different than in either haifa or beirut. i am not sure whether this is an appropriate forum for my thoughts and observations, but from here i primarily see a humanitarian disaster: damascus is full to the brim with lebanese traffic; the red crescent is trying to sustain the 10,000 poorer refugees who are arriving daily (!), and a rather large contingent of upset saudis have had their summer resort vacations abruptly ended. i do not mean to be glib with such demographic contrast, but it seems that very different kinds of people from various nations and religions are increasingly in (dangerous) and radical agreement. there are hezbollah flags everywhere in damascus. photos of assad and nasrallah have suddently appeared on car windows and shop doors. two weeks ago, and after a month in syria, i had not seen even one hezbollah flag. the idf and israeli decision makers argue that the goal of this mission is to take major steps toward ending hezbollah, and at the very least to cease its ability to fire missles into israel. yet it seems that moderate muslims, lebanese christians, liberals at large, and just about every other possible conversation partner with israel are increasingly supporting hezbollah, rather than calling for an end to its existence. as the people on the street become more radicalized, it becomes increasingly difficult for governments to offer critique of any kind. it is not possible, i think, to win the "public relations battle" when the actual battle is so gruesome and, i would argue, imbalanced. let me know if you all are interested in hearing more from damascus. i don't want to step on anyone's toes, but the picture, even through our common berkeley grad. student eyes, is really very different here. best regards to everyone, and be safe.
The way Israel is bombing Lebanon, I can't help to think how long they've been drooling to take this country back 30 yrs. Because this reaction is definitely NOT about just 2 IDF soldiers kidnapped. Not only this point, but I can't help to think how much EASIER it has become to freely destroy Lebanon since Syria CONVENIANTLY withdrew its army in 2005 after Hariri's 'mysterious' bombing/assassination ;)
Dear Seth,
First of all, we'd love to hear more from you from Damascus. Looking forward to seeing your blog! :) I would be very careful about jumping to the conclusion that Israel's response to Hizbullah has suddenly elevated the group's status in the region. Hizbullah's popularity has been on the rise since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, which was interpreted as a defeat of the IDF. Every Hizbullah "victory" - be it the kidnapping of soldiers or a small tactical victory increases its popularity. The stronger Hizbullah gets, the more popular it will become. I agree with Martin Kramer's comparison of Nasrallah to Nasser in the 1960s. Nasser was buyoed by Egypt's "victory" in the Suez Crisis. His aggressive rhetoric against Israel made him popular all over the Arab world. It's interesting to note, by the way, that a lot of al-Jazira and al-'Arabiyya's attention in the first week of the war focussed on the damage being inflicted by Hizbullah on Israel. They had very intense coverage by reporters who were stationed in Israel.
I've been reading a number of Liberal Lebanese blogs. Their authors are invariably secular, anti-Syrian, westernized Lebanese, although not all of them are Christian. Indeed, there are even Shi'a among them. Many of these bloggers were very anti-Hizbullah before the war, and they remain fundamentally opposed to the movement. Of course, they're rallying around Lebanon and are furious at Israel's air strikes. But, they are just as critical of Hizbullah for provoking this war.
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