Lebanese Unity - and the Problem of Hezbollah
Exactly 30 years ago Palestinians attacked a church. Radical Christians retaliated with a massacre on a bus. And so began Lebanon's plunge into the hell of civil war that pulverized the city center to powder and carved the rest of Beirut (and the rest of the country) into besieged ethnic cantons ruled by militias. The beginning of that war wasn't being celebrated, exactly. Rather, the anniversary was re-branded and its meaning turned into its opposite. April 13 is now being associated with unity rather than balkanization and war.
The streets of Christian East Beirut and Sunni Muslim West Beirut emptied into Martyr's Square and the rest of downtown. Groups of families and friends marched into the city center waving Lebanon's national cedar tree flag. Drivers honked their horns more insistently than they do all the time anyway, if such a thing is even possible. Famous Lebanese musicians performed set pieces for an ecstatic crowd on an enormous stage next to the tent-city.
Thousands of people raised their hands into the air and placed their thumbs and index fingers together into the shape of a cedar tree.
Lebanon's unity festival was closely associated with the democratic opposition. The pro-Syrian crowd didn't come down here. But to those who say this is primarily a movement of middle-class Christians: nonsense. My hotel is in the Sunni Muslim quarter of West Beirut. By evening the streets in my neighborhood were empty. Not only were they empty of people. The streets were also empty of parked cars. The neighborhood was abandoned as totally as if it had been forcibly evacuated. It appeared every single last person was downtown doing as much as they could to heal their country.
But Lebanon is still not united, not really. A Hezbollah spokesman said earlier in the week that his group would participate in the festival. I saw no evidence of that whatsoever. They did not appear to come into the city. So I went down to their stronghold in the southern suburbs myself. It is only a five minute drive from downtown.
East and West Beirut are packed from one end to the other with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, casinos, bohemian bookstores, outdoor cafes, and shopping districts that rival the best in the world. Hezbollahland is a world apart. It is like another country down there - a bad country. It is a terrorist-ruled security-state within a state. The Lebanese Armed Forces are not allowed to enter Hezbollah's territory. Most Christians and Sunni Muslims never dare set foot inside. (Hezbollah is a radical Shiite Muslim militia.) They don't even know what Hezbollahland looks like. I do, and I took some photos.
Few portraits of Rafik Hariri are on display. Far more prevalent are pictures of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.
Most prevalent, however, are portraits of slain Hezbollah "martyrs." A new one appears every couple of feet. The streets are ruled by their ghosts as much as they are ruled by the religious fanatics with guns.
Those fanatics with guns are everywhere. Some wear the Hezbollah uniform. Most don't. I took few photos of these men because I was told, in no uncertain terms, that doing so would be extremely unwise. I did, however, manage to sneak in one snapshot from a long way away. You can see him in the bottom-left corner below.
Buildings are sandbagged. Surveillance and security watchtowers are erected in front of restaurants and stores. A Lebanese-American historian based in West Beirut told me that Hezbollah is better armed and more militarily powerful than the Lebanese army. East and West Beirut are as free-wheeling as Hong Kong, but Hezbollahland is a virtually sovereign fascist police state. It is so near to downtown I can walk to it. Now that I've been there and know how close by it is, I can almost feel its breath on my neck.
This cannot continue. Parts of Lebanon are still mobilized for civil war. Peace, democracy, and genuine national unity require not only elections but the disarmament of Lebanon's terror militia. It can't happen unless Syria, Hezbollah's patron, is first thrown out of the country entirely. Even then it will be a long, arduous, delicate, perilous process.
If you care about the people of Lebanon, if their victory - by no means assured at this point - over terror and dictatorship is important to you, please help us help them. You can donate as little as five dollars, or as much as you can afford. A donation from you is more than just charity. They are fighting for all of us here.
These same Hezbollahs that you are portraying as backward terrorists are the same people that stood and fought for Lebanon’s freedom from the Zionist state of Israel. Unlike the Christians and the others who stood and watched these men give their blood and souls to the freedom of their country. It is really shameful how the people like you quickly forget or pretend to forget if the situation does not suit them.
Oz.
Posted on 2005-04-14 19:12:18 by Yusef A.Thanks, Michael. I'll share it widely.
YusefA.: It's a sorry thing when an honest account is met only with more lies.
The "Zionist state of Israel" was only ever in Lebanon to squelch the havoc your darling Hezbollahs seem hell-bent on wreaking. The "Christians and others" neither stood by nor watched -- many have died, most have lost everything to your (Hezbollah's) brand of "freedom."
Posted on 2005-04-14 22:35:41 by Brandi D.Re: Exactly 30 years ago Palestinians attacked a church.
Except, the identity of the attackers was never established. They may or may not have been Palestinians, even the ethnic nature of the attack is unclear. The Maronites retaliated agains a busload of Palestinians whose only connection to the perpetrators was shared ethnicity, if.
Library of US Congress Country Study: Lebanon http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+lb0036) or if not working http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/lbtoc.html (scroll down and click on 'The Civil War, 1975-76')
The spark that ignited the war occurred in Beirut on April 13, 1975, when gunmen killed four Phalangists during an attempt on Pierre Jumayyil's life. Perhaps believing the assassins to have been Palestinian, the Phalangists retaliated later that day by attacking a bus carrying Palestinian passengers across a Christian neighborhood, killing about twenty-six of the occupants.
Of course you can find differing versions an Maronite-affiliated sites...
Posted on 2005-04-15 02:17:20 by Gazsi C.I'm pretty sure that BLT 1/8, 2 MarDiv would be glad to lend a hand to the Lebanese regarding removal of Hezbollah. I think they may even still be in the area after having helped to clean out Fallujah...
Posted on 2005-04-15 02:37:58 by Jonathan G.Huh. That's odd. Where'd that link come from?
Posted on 2005-04-15 02:39:04 by Jonathan G.Sorry, in my post above I should have used "Phalangists" instead of "Maronites". Of course not all Maronites were Phalangists.
Posted on 2005-04-15 02:39:20 by Gazsi C.So Yusef, Hezbollah "fought for Lebanon’s freedom from the Zionist state of Israel" so that they would impose an Islamic fascist police state? Damn, what great guys they are. Sheesh.
Posted on 2005-04-15 05:09:20 by Perry d.I didn't know that they were that close! Thanks for the pictures and keep up the good work over there!
Posted on 2005-04-15 21:23:04 by Darnell C.Dude, it's rather simplistic to blame Hizbullah for the harsh conditions in Beirut's southern suburbs. You are demonstrating with great aplomb how arrogant someone can be when exhibiting little understanding of the historical interplay with current realities. Hizbullah was created as a response to the Israeli invasion of 1982 in which over 30,000 Lebanese civilians of all ethnicities and religious backgrounds were slaughtered. Hizbullah is able to maintain such support among the poorest people in the country because it provides many services the Lebanese government has been unwilling and unable to provide. Eliminate the threat of Israel and resuscitate the Lebanese government and you'll see Hizbullah's power dissipate.
Posted on 2005-04-18 00:22:33 by M R N....and the only way to stimulate the resuscitation of the Lebanese Government for Syria to physically and politically exit Lebanon so that Lebanon can hold internationally monitored free elections.
Posted on 2005-04-18 09:41:45 by M R N.18 April 1996, under the UN umbrella, with the help of American Freedom weapons and the Peaceful state of Israel, we lost some children and women, http://www.leb.net/qana Hizbullah did help stop such holocaust. when palestinians kill an israeli civilian, they are terrorists, when israelis kill 106 child and women and you talk about it, you are anti-semist. of course we should convict George Washington, the french resistance, and everyone else who fought for the freedom of their countries,they are terrorists. the hizbulaland, should have night clubs and bars, this is the spirit of america, a rape every 5 minutes, but they cant be religious people,thats terrorism! you can put the Pope picture, but not Khomayni picture. France killed thousands of french after the world war because of their relation with the nazis, Hizbullah did not even wound one of Lahd army after the liberation. how come these people become terrorists in your opinion? because they killed some americans troops who tried to invade lebanon? Bin laden was forever supported by the CIA, Saddam Hussein,and others always supported by the CIA. if defending our country is terrorism, if being Muslims is terrorism, then we are proud to be. lot of christians, and non shiite muslims fought for the liberation of this country, not just hizbollah, but the lebanese war, and lebanese problems, are from people who claims that "sunnist" or christians, does not know hezbullahland. and who try to convince people that there we are trying to build a muslim state here. Beirut southern suburbs was under heavy fires from American Navy and their ally in lebanon, and till now,there is always pressures on the lebanese gov. to avoid any critical developments in this suburbs, just because they chose to support the resistance and the freedom of this country.
Posted on 2005-04-18 09:59:51 by Z A.When did George Washington send handicapped children as human bombs to target innocent civillians? Freedom fighters fight military oppression and target military operations, not women and children in pizza parlours. Where is the honor in blowing up an unarmed mother and her unarmed children waiting for a bus? That is the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist. The Israelis aren't freedom fighters either, but don't think for a second that targeting civillians, no matter what your cause, makes you some kind of hero.
And why is there such a stark difference between "Hezbullahland" and the rest of Beruit?
Posted on 2005-04-18 13:36:01 by Julie N.When democracy comes to Lebanon the majority will have the bigger say in Lebanon and last time i heard is that the shia muslim make up half the population of Lebanon and most shias support the resistance and socialservices group Hezbulla. The only reason the Beirut suburbs are such in bad shap is baecause ur friends Isreal chased them out the shia of there homes in south Lebanon and slautered a good number of them and had no money and of course the government of lebanon which has the small shia representation even though make up halfr the population cant do to much for the shia pop. however the maronites and sunnies which hold the president and prime minister only provide for there communities. So when true Democracy comes to lebanon which represents the real people of lebanon and not restricted by laws of how much each religious communties represents in the government, the shia will tuelly be represented and then the government can act fair and improve all the country and not only parts of the country which is how its is now. Why u ask Hezbulla is in the shia areas its because it helps the people which the government has negelected. ALso Hezbulla mantaines resistance in south Lebanon because it want to protect the shia community that suffered the most by far by Isreal's invasion unlike other communities.
Posted on 2005-04-19 00:08:25 by Robert H.That guy in the lower left corner seems to me looks like a lebanese soldier.
Posted on 2005-04-19 02:35:08 by Robert H.the problem with hezbulla is, they favor religion over their patriatism, you've always been funded by foreign terrorists, when the civil war started in Lebanon it started between Lebanese christians and palestinians,(been there done that, and yes I'm a lebanese christian) and which side did you take? of course the Palestenians, why ? because it's not about the country it's about killing the infideles,and because the PLO was supplying you with AK47's, I just can't understand what kinda of people will take side with a foreign force against their fellow country men just because they are froma different religion. Israel? they don't want anything to do with southern Lebanon if you stop trying to Liberate what you still call "Palestine" don't you get it? "Palestine" is history, it's called "ISRAEL" now , besides stop destrying your own country for the wrong cause. and now you know as well as I do that Iran is funding your asses to keep the country unstable. wake up and smell the coffe , what are you Lebanese or sheiites, this is the big question you should ask yourselves.
Posted on 2005-04-19 21:56:38 by Xguy L.Oh and that bus in "1975" in "Ain-el-remmaneh" for your information was filled with armed people and they killed a man before they were attacked, I don't care what the archive or history shows, I know the man that was killed there, so spare the crap sympathy for the poor people in the bus.
Posted on 2005-04-19 22:00:18 by Xguy L.Hey theres no point arguing about the past, lets not point fingers here everyone was one way or another at fault in a war and that y we call it war. Democracy will come someday and hopefully in its fullist form soon and all will be ok! so lets pray for the best. I live in Lebanon and nobody even mentions the past. muslims, christians, druze and forigner all are living in peace in harmony and no one cares of the past. Syria is leaving at the end of the month and elections will be held soon after and i just hope for the best. Just hope the new government works for the people and not for itself and syria.
Posted on 2005-04-20 06:42:26 by Robert H.It's not the past, it's the present brother, look at the photos above, streets filled with syrian's president, Iran's ex-president, the tradition continues, back then it was the photos of "jamal abd-el-naser" followed by "arafat", what is wrong with these people, I know all drouze and christians and "sunny" muslims, have came together finally, and I'm very stocked about that, why are the sheeits still wants syria in Lebanon, why can't they just be plain Lebanese and be proud of it.
Posted on 2005-04-20 16:51:09 by Xguy L.they want syria everybody, i dont think u know what going on in lebanon everyone single person including the hezbulla and the shiite, the only people that want them there are the prosyrian government theyre making millions with there syrias presense in lebanon. The shiite dont want bush and friends interfering in lebanon business. Hey I wanna ask u were do u live man really, first get ur facts strait and also ya the past is over, also hey do i say something when u have a pic of the pope or other religious fig, well mind ur own business when others put pics of there religious figure (ayatolla khomeini) OK!!its the palis that put up pics of arafat and nasser and people that are getting making money from syria put his pics (u think anyone the heck likes asad? Man where do u live really?
Posted on 2005-04-21 07:07:08 by Robert H.I just wanted to make the following comments:
1- Stop accusing each others on the basis of religions. There is no bad religion, there are bad persons. Speaking about that, the portraits shown in the pictures are for religious figures-Moussa El Sadr and Khomeini- (like The Pope for the Catholites, Boudha for the boudhits... etc). Saying that their ghoasts and the martyr's ghost are still emprisonning the region is a sign of ignorance and disrespect since these people and their religious as their national convictions helped liberating the country as we wish it will always be free from all foreign interventions.
2- The man walking is not a militiaman, he is a Lebanse soldier. I recognize that since Hezbollah people wear different cloths that the army (already seen in the south). This guy shown here is a soldier returning to his home after serving his daily duty (Khedmeh in arabic). They can be seen in any region and not in southern suburbs only.
3- The poorness of the southern suburbs is due to lack of govenrment support as it lacks in bekaa and Akkar and it is not because of Hezbollah. In the contrary, Hezbollahland is Hezbollahland because of :a) they have social services helping these people there b) they party was born there after the Invasion of Israeli and their reach to the capital while the Lebanese army could not stop them so they wanted to defend themselves.
4- Speaking about the Israeli invasion, Hezbollah is born after the Israeli invasion and not before. This not adressed to the author, it is adressed to Brandi D. Do not blame Hezbollah for making the Israeli enter. Guess what, Israeli entered because of the attacks of the Palestinians thay the Israeli themselves, kicked from their own land. Interesting logic, isn't it?
5- Finally, southern suburb is close to the downtown because Lebanon and Beirut are small and they are not close by the meaning they pose any threat like the author showed it.
Regards to all and keep the dialogue with respect. It is much better than attacking each other and by far better than a civil war.
Posted on 2005-04-22 02:56:36 by Samer H.Thomas Khawli
read this and tell what u think
Though the media would have us believe Israel's recent bombing raids in Lebanon, which destroyed electric power plants, leaving Beirut and other areas of the country in darkness, were simply a response to Hezbulla and those Katysuka rockets and the death of a few Israeli soldiers, this is but smoke and mirrors. As Robert Fisk, reporter for the London Independent noted February 14, Hezbulla had adhered to the 1996 cease-fire agreement with Israel by keeping her rocket and sniper fire well within Israel's so-called "security zone" where over 1000 Israeli soldiers are stationed. Despite all those TV shots of Israeli families hunkered down in their bunkers, no Israeli citizens were at risk. It was the Israel military that broke the 1996 treaty by bombing three Lebanese power stations outside that zone. Fisk went on to note that "Israel was losing the military struggle with the Hezbulla, but wining the propaganda war."
All of Israel's military incursions into Lebanon have had two objectives: to maintain control of Lebanon's Litani River for precious irrigation waters, and to destroy Lebanon's economic underpinnings lest she compete too strongly against Israel in the 2000 Mideast market. As early as the 1948 war with the Arabs, Israel occupied the Litani River valley in what is now her so-called "security zone," but was quickly forced out under international pressure. Later, at a 1954 meeting on water resources, Israel threatened President Eisenhower's envoy, Eric Johnson, to again militarily seize those Litani River waters, but our president stood firm.
Israel's next ruse as reported in the diary of Moshe Sharett, Israel's Prime Minister, was to destabilize Lebanon by bribing and training officers in the Catholic Maronite militia to attack the Muslim Druse forces and the PLO. Israel would then invade southern Lebanon to "keep the peace." Using these uprisings as an excuse, Israel launched devastating air and ground attacks against Lebanon in 1967. In 1969, her Air Force destroyed Beirut's new international airport with its fleet of 13 just-purchased passenger planes which were burned on the tarmac. In 1978, Israel invaded with 20,000 troops and seized Lebanese land, including the Litani River valley, declaring it a "security zone." She is still there. The UN has repeatedly demanded Israel withdraw (Resolution 425).
In 1982, with Reagan's covert OK, Israel launched her genocidal invasion to kill off those Palestinians who had escaped into Lebanon in the 1948 war. In 67 days, Israel, using ground and air forces as well as anti-personnel shells, butchered over 30,000 civilians and chased 500,000 out of Beirut, destroying that city.
Offshore with Reagan's OK, our USS New Jersey shelled Beirut's suburbs, killing those fleeing the city. Three hundred U.S. Marines later paid with their lives for Reagan's bombing, plus those U.S.-labeled "cluster bombs," used by Israel against Beirut civilians.
In the post-war negotiations, PLO officials were given safe transport to Tunis, whereupon Israel's Lebanese militia butchered some 1,000 of their wives and children in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. In 1993, Israel devastated southern Lebanon again, bombing villages and forcing over 300,000 to flee their homes. The 1996, brutal "retaliation" was a repetition of 1993, but with more damage to Lebanon's infrastructure. Every President since Eisenhower, threatened by the Zionist lobby, has excused or acquiesced to Israel's brutality.
What political coin Prime Minister Peres hoped to gain from his 1996 destruction of Lebanon was cancelled by worldwide outrage over the Qana killings. The New York Times reported, May 4, 1996: "UN observers stated Israel 'deliberately shelled the Qana refugee camp.' Netherlands Major General Frank van Kappen, who headed the UN investigators, reported that a pilotless Israel arterial spotter had transmitted TV images to Israel's gunners before and during the 15-minute barrage. Shells fired into the Camp, supplied by the Clinton Administration, were M-732 proximity-fuse rounds, designed for "amputation wounds." The 110 massively-injured corpses including several headless child's bodies.
After the Qana massacre the words of Art Shavit, Israeli columnist for the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz were copied in the Los Angeles Times, May 17, 1996. I quote:
"All we knew was that a large-scale killing of civilians was inseparable from the futuristic combat style the Israel Defense Forces have chosen... It could be assumed that the operation would kill 100 civilians, give or take a few.... It was important for us to kill them, because the yawning gap between the unlimited sacrosanct importance we attribute to our own lives and the very limited sacred character we attribute to the lives of others allows us to kill them. We killed them out of a certain naive hubris, believing with absolute certitude that now, with the White House, the Senate, and much of the American media in our hands, the lives of others do not count as much as our own. Believing we really had the right to instruct 400,000 people to leave their homes within eight hours... and treat their homes as military targets...and drop 16,000 shells on their villages and small towns...and we have the right to kill without being guilty.... It was very important to us that the victims stay faceless, nameless people. People who are quite unreal."
As for the Hezbulla, an organization much-maligned in our media, they are a voluntary militia of Lebanese citizens organized in 1982 to drive Israeli forces from their country, and they have support throughout the Muslim world, including Syria and Iran.
During our own Revolutionary War against England's King George III , our volunteer militia were supported by cash and arms from France. The Geneva Convention, which Israel also signed, permits such a militia to expel an occupying army [Israel's] "by any means at their disposal." Hezbulla will disperse only after Israel leaves their country. That $100 million Clinton promised Israel back in 1996 for "terrorism control" should have gone to the Lebanonse to help pay for Israel's repeated and inexcusable terrorism.
Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who campaigned on promises to "withdraw from southern Lebanon" has been fighting a rear-guard battle with the Orthodox Jewish Rightists whom he had to include in his cabinet, and who are resisting any return of "land for peace." Barak, like Netanyhu before him, has been found unable to keep promises made at the negotiating table with the Palestinians. Arafat will never forget that Barak, when serving with a commando unit in the Israeli Army in the '70s, took advantage of his baby face to dress as a woman and murder two Palestinian officials in their beds in Lebanon.
Despite all this, the political will for withdrawal is growing amongst the Israeli population. Last week in the Jewish paper Yedioth Aharovom, columnist David Grossman wrote: "Israel should evacuate the outposts, bring the soldiers home...learn to live with the insult, swallow the empty pride, stop feeding the fire of our lingering, pitiful arrogance with more and more of our young soldiers. We have lost. It's OK to say it aloud. No one dies from saying it."
Posted on 2005-06-23 22:41:38 by Thomas K.Lie 1: This war is between Hizbollah and Israel. Reality: Hizbollah members are not suffering any casualties. This is a war directed against the people of Lebanon. It is designed to break the infrastructure of Lebanon and destroy her peoples spirit. On April 19, 1996, the New York Times wrote, Israels goal has been to create an unmanageable number of refugees in Lebanon...to restrain Hizbullahs attacks. If the definition of terrorism is to attack civilian targets to achieve a political goal, then Israel is guilty of hi-tech terrorism.
Lie 2: Israel is retaliating against Hizbullah Katyusha rocket attacks into Northern Israel. Reality: According to a fact sheet from the Reuters News Agency; Israel was the first to attack civilians on March 30 and April 8. The three Hizbollah attacks on March 4, March 10 and March 14 targeted Israeli occupying soldiers inside Southern Lebanon. Prior to Israels attack of these civilians, both parties were abiding by the 1993 US-brokered agreement that only military sites could be targeted. Only after Israel massacred civilians in refugee camps did Hizbollah start firing Katyusha rockets into Northern Israel on April 9. The Israeli bombing of refugee camps, power plants, water reservoirs throughout Lebanon commenced on April 11.
Lie 3: Israel is acting in self-defense. Reality: The source of the conflict is the occupation of Southern Lebanon by Israel, a violation of international law. Resolution 425 of the UN Security Council, passed immediately after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, calls for Israel to leave Southern Lebanon and the replacement of Israeli forces with Lebanese government forces.
Lie 4: Israel is intervening because the Lebanese Government is unable to control the situation. Reality: If Israel leaves, Lebanese officials have stated that they will send 35,000 troops to Southern Lebanon to keep the border secure and calm.
Lie 5: Israel claims it was unaware of the presence of civilians in a U.N. shelter it bombed near Tyre. Reality: The UN had informed Israel repeatedly about the presence of its shelter for Lebanese refugees.
Lie 6: Israel claims it needs to create a Security Zone in Southern Lebanon.. Reality: The reason Israel is in Southern Lebanon is to siphon off the water of the Litani river. According to a United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Israel was using water from the Lebanese Litani River, by means of an 11 mile tunnel it had drilled, as well as from Lebanons Wazzani springs. (United Press International, June 1, 1994) In Middle East politics, water has now become more valuable than oil.
These lies are generated by pro-Israeli propagandists for the sole purpose of influencing American public opinion. Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Israeli Likud Party and candidate for Prime Minister in the upcoming Israeli election, said, ...an integral part of making a decision is addressing the question of how it will affect public opinion and what needs to be done to make its message more palatable and effective to international audiences...If public opinion was of decisive importance in shaping political outcomes during the first half of the century, it is now, as the close of the second half of the century, assuming an importance not even imaginable thirty or forty years earlier. (A Place Among Nations: Israel and the World, p. 386) The consequence of state-sponsored public relation campaigns like Israels is articulated best by author Henry Miller: The history of the world is the history of a privileged few.
Posted on 2005-06-26 16:41:26 by Thomas K.You obviously decided to scare everyone by writing a bizarre and incredibly long comment; lies packed into every sentence. People like you are always against peace and in favour of continued killing and death. Picking just one tiny untruth of yours amongst the hundreds of lies u told: "Lie 4: Israel is intervening because the Lebanese Government is unable to control the situation. Reality: If Israel leaves, Lebanese officials have stated that they will send 35,000 troops to Southern Lebanon to keep the border secure and calm."
The world waits for that "Reality" of yours. So far, they haven't sent those troops to Southern Lebanon. And why? Because Hezbollah won't agree to that. Should we smile or cry? Yet you print out that "lie" and "reality" of "they will send" - a lie easy to pick out because it regards the present and not the past.
Waiting...
Posted on 2005-08-12 01:57:54 by xstoryx y.Hi everyone, i just wanted to say my point of view, t.e. how i look at the lebanese people! Dudes are your stupid or do you think that the world around you is??!!! Every one knows that Hizbollah was the direct reason for the cowardly israeli RUNNING AWAY from Lebanon, but still the Amal party says the contrary, just to make some silly problems that may cuase nothing but some people injured, the others in jail! On the other hand, the christians of lebanon are just living in lebanon, forgetting that south lebanon even exists! I'm a russian photographer that worked in Lebanon during the 1996 war, been in Beirut and in the north,i made some interviews with some people, asking what do they think about what's going on in theirgreat great country! THEY EVEN DIDN'T KNOW THAT THERE WAS A WAR GOING ON!!! And this answer had a 37.5%among 150 people asked! Your civil war isn't over yet! You all hate each other, even worse than ever! Another thing, you say that you wished that the Syrians get out of Lebanon, and that they're taking (the country's money to Syria), and you all stood together when OUR great president Al-Hariri was murdured, and believe me this stand was something great. Yet on the other hand, look what you are doing! The Syrian worker, for ex., earns 10000 Livers per day, he puts 4 or 5000 per day for food and cigarettes, 5 times 30 that's 150000 per month going to Syria, but one Lebanese jerk can go to Syria and spend about 3,4, or even 500$ in one week! And you say that the Lebanese people are the smartest in their area!!! Any way, i don't have anythiong against you, i respect you and your kindness, adore your SACRED LAND, and i pray to God that he helps you all in what you're going to face in the very near future!
Posted on 2005-11-14 07:19:38 by Vasili S.hahahaha...this article is full of lies..the writer is a funny liar, he says that the guy in the picture is a hezbolaah fighter.loooool.thats a lebanese soldier returning home u can see he's holding a grocery bag and unarmed. ive been to the southern suburbs of beirut and i've never seen any armed people or checkpoints or fighters. the only reson it looks so poor its because shiite have long been deprived by previous goverments and because they invested all energy and money into liberating Lebanon for the last 20 years. so the writer is a little ignorant LIAR.
Posted on 2006-04-04 17:50:51 by DODO l.
