Sweet poem. But it's exactly the following attitude : <span style="font-weight: bold;">"I love Beirut because each street is a two way street even if it is a
one way officially. I love Beirut because one can park anywhere and not
get a ticket. I love Beirut because one can go as fast as his
speedometer." </span>which ensures that we will never develop into an advanced society - the idea that we're "above" the law in Lebanon.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">
On 8/18/06, <b class="gmail_sendername"><a href="mailto:lebanon-articles-request@mit.edu">lebanon-articles-request@mit.edu</a></b> <<a href="mailto:lebanon-articles-request@mit.edu">lebanon-articles-request@mit.edu</a>
> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div style="direction: ltr;">Send Lebanon-Articles mailing list submissions to
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</a><br><br>When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific<br>than "Re: Contents of Lebanon-Articles digest..."<br><br></div><br>Today's Topics:<br><br> 1. Why I love Beirut (Abdallah Jabbour)
<br> 2. From Mania to Depression (Abdallah Jabbour)<br><br><br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: "Abdallah Jabbour" <<a href="mailto:abdallah.jabbour@gmail.com">abdallah.jabbour@gmail.com
</a>><br>To: "LCM Articles" <<a href="mailto:lebanon-articles@mit.edu">lebanon-articles@mit.edu</a>><br>Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:48:47 -0700<br>Subject: [LCM Articles] Why I love Beirut<br><div> </div>
<div><strong>A member of A Small World answered the question the "Why do you love Beirut?" as such, enjoy!</strong></div>
<div><strong></strong> </div>
<div>"I love Beirut for its opposites. I love Beirut because I see a girl in a mini skirt and her sister in a tchador. I love Beirut because it is neither West nor East it is both. I love Beirut because one can party till 6 in the morning and not realize that it is tuesday morning. I love Beirut because Beirutis live as if they are going to die tomorrow and party as if they are going to live forever.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because I can be swimming in the morning and 30 minutes later I'm on the slopes skiing or doing apres ski. I love Beirut because I have never seen the sun this strong anywhere in the world.</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because I can see 6,000 years of history. I love Beirut because Christians and Muslims are living an understanding and do not need to have Christian Muslim understanding classes. I love Beirut because every Beiruti has a political opinion and will share it with you even if you could care less about his and you want to share yours with him. I love Beirut for all the conspiracy theories and how many people actually believe them.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because any night I can find a friend to go out with. I love Beirut because I do not need to call my friends to go and see them at their houses, but I just stop by. I love Beirut because as soon as I arirve at one of my friend's house his mom takes me to the kitchen and becomes the spokesperson of the refrigerator. I love Beirut because one can smell gardenia and jasmine. I love Beirut because strawberries taste like strawberries and fruits taste like fruits. I love Beirut because the food is so good that one gains so many pounds even if she tries to lose .
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because although the Lebanese women at times look alike as some did their surgeries at the same plastic surgeon they are the most elegant women I have ever seen. I love Beirut because when I go out at night I don't know at which women to look at as each one is gorgeous in her own way. I love Beirut because everyone knows me by name.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because I don't have to explain myself. I love Beirut because of the traffic jams and the people you meet because of them. I love Beirut because of the noise pollution from cars honking.</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut for the spirituality of the people whether Muslim or Christian. I love Beirut because I'm the first to call my Muslim friends on Ramadan and they are the first to call me on Easter. I love Beirut because on May 1st I see Muslims visiting Harissa ( Virgin Mary ) just like I see Christians. I love Beirut because we can differentiate between a Jew and an Israeli. I love Beirut because on the 22nd of every month I see Muslims going to Mar Charbel and believing that a miracle will happen.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because women look like they're out of a Vogue magazine. I love Beirut because you eat to live and live to eat. I love Beirut because one leaves a cafe to go to another and one does this all day.</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because all the Lebanese living outside want to come back and the Lebanese who are in Lebanon envy the ones who are living abroad not realizing what it means to live away from Beirut.</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because my sister , her husband are there and my niece and nephew who are 5 are waiting to see their uncle. I love Beirut because my niece asks me to bring her a pink skirt and tells me : "I love You".
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because a girl or a guy can easily tell you I just had a couple of Lexo or Xanax as if they just had a chewing gum. I love Beirut because for every Lebanese we have a singer. I love Beirut because the Lebanese star singers sing in nightclubs. I love Beirut because women go into the swimming pool with full make up. I love Beirut because guys go in with their cigars.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because it has been destroyed 7 times in History and has risen. I love Beirut because since 1975 the Beirutis have withstood the PLO , the Syrians and the Israelis. I love Beirut because the Beirutis will not accept anyone to occupy them and rule over them. I love Beirut because we feel that it is better to die on our feet than to live on our knees.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because each street is a two way street even if it is a one way officially. I love Beirut because one can park anywhere and not get a ticket. I love Beirut because one can go as fast as his speedometer.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because MEA (Middle East Airlines) lands there. I love Beirut because on MEA we can clap in unison when we are about to land. I love Beirut not because it is my city, but because it is the city of every Lebanese. I love Beirut because it welcomes every exiled freethinker and independent mind of the Arab world.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because we have hundreds of newspapers and our press is finally Free. I love Beirut because most Arabs dream of coming to Beirut and wish their capital was more like Beirut.</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because when I explain Beirut to my Western friends, my friends see the passion of Beirut in my eyes. I love Beirut because there is so much misconception about Beirut in the media and in the minds of people who have never visited. I love Beirut because when I tell my friends that I'm going to Beirut they tell me: "Can you take me with you?".
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because we argue over who is going to pay the bill at a restaurant as everyone wants to pay it. I love Beirut because although many whine about not making enough money everyone is living. I love Beirut because if I do the cross sign before I start driving the person next to me does not ask me if I fear that I'm going to get into a car accident but instead does his cross sign as well.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because we accept our differences as we disagree with each other. I love Beirut because it serves as a beacon of freedom to the rest of the Arab world. I love Beirut because to praphrase what Gibran said about Lebanon " Had Beirut not been my city I would have chosen it to be." I love Beirut because there is no city like it.
</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because even if Beirut is being destroyed you are still beautiful and will remain beautiful no matter how disfigured you are.</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut because you are always on my mind.</div>
<div><br>I love Beirut for no reason. I love Beirut for all the reasons of the world. " </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div> <a href="http://rampurple.com/blog/2006/08/06/so-true/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://rampurple.com/blog/2006/08/06/so-true/</a></div></div>
<br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: "Abdallah Jabbour" <<a href="mailto:abdallah.jabbour@gmail.com">abdallah.jabbour@gmail.com</a>><br>To: "LCM Articles" <<a href="mailto:lebanon-articles@mit.edu">
lebanon-articles@mit.edu</a>><br>Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 16:28:53 -0700<br>Subject: [LCM Articles] From Mania to Depression<br><p><b><font face="Times New Roman">By Uri Avnery</font></b></p>
<p><b><font face="Times New Roman">08/17/06 "</font></b><a href="http://informationclearinghouse.info/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"><b>Information Clearing House</b></a><b>
<font face="Times New Roman">" -- -- Tel Aviv. </font></b><font color="#990000" face="Times New Roman">
<b>---</b> T</font><font face="Times New Roman">hirty three days of war. The longest of our wars since 1949.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">On the Israeli side: 154 dead--117 of them soldiers. 3970 rockets launched against us, 37 civilians dead, more than 422 civilians wounded.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">On the Lebanese side: about a thousand dead civilians, thousands wounded. An unknown number of Hizbullah fighters dead and wounded.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">More than a million refugees on both sides.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">So what has been achieved for this terrible price?</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">"GLOOMY, HUMBLE, despondent," was how the journalist Yossef Werter described Ehud Olmert, a few hours after the cease-fire had come into effect.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Olmert? Humble? Is this the same Olmert we know? The same Olmert who thumped the table and shouted: "No more!" Who said: "After the war, the situation will be completely different than before!" Who promised a "New Middle East" as a result of the war?
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">THE RESULTS of the war are obvious:</font></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">* The prisoners, who served as casus belli (or pretext) for the war, have not been released. They will come back only as a result of an exchange of prisoners, exactly as Hassan Nasrallah proposed before the war.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">* Hizbullah has remained as it was. It has not been destroyed, nor disarmed, nor even removed from where it was. Its fighters have proved themselves in battle and have even garnered compliments from Israeli soldiers. Its command and communication stucture has continued to function to the end. Its TV station is still broadcasting.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">* Hassan Nasrallah is alive and kicking. Persistent attempts to kill him failed. His prestige is sky-high. Everywhere in the Arab world, from Morocco to Iraq, songs are being composed in his honor and his picture adorns the walls.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">* The Lebanese army will be deployed along the border, side by side with a large international force. That is the only material change that has been achieved.</font></p></blockquote>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">This will not replace Hizbullah. Hizbullah will remain in the area, in every village and town. The Israeli army has not succeeded in removing it from one single village. That was simply impossible without permanently removing the population to which it belongs.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The Lebanese army and the international force cannot and will not confront Hizbullah. Their very presence there depends on Hizbullah's consent. In practice, a kind of co-existence of the three forces will come into being, each one knowing that it has to come to terms with the other two.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Perhaps the international force will be able to prevent incursions by Hizbullah, such as the one that preceded this war. But it will also have to prevent Israeli actions, such as the reconnaissance flights of our Air Force over Lebanon. That's why the Israeli army objected, at the beginning, so strenuously to the introduction of this force.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">IN ISRAEL, there is now a general atmosphere of disappointment and despondency. From mania to depression. It's not only that the politicians and the generals are firing accusations at each other, as we foresaw, but the general public is also voicing criticism from every possible angle. The soldiers criticize the conduct of the war, the reserve soldiers gripe about the chaos and the failure of supplies.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">In all parties, there are new opposition groupings and threats of splits. In Kadima. In Labor. It seems that in Meretz, too, there is a lot of ferment, because most of its leaders supported the war dragon almost until the last moment, when they caught its tail and pierced it with their little lance.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">At the head of the critics are marching--surprise, surprise--the media. The entire horde of interviewers and commentators, correspondents and presstitutes, who (with very few exceptions) enthused about the war, who deceived, misled, falsified, ignored, duped and lied for the fatherland, who stifled all criticism and branded as traitors all who opposed the war--they are now running ahead of the lynch mob. How predictable, how ugly. Suddenly they remember what we have been saying right from the beginning of the war.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">This phase is symbolized by Dan Halutz, the Chief-of-Staff. Only yesterday he was the hero of the masses, it was forbidden to utter a word against him. Now he is being described as a war profiteer. A moment before sending his soldiers into battle, he found the time to sell his shares, in expectation of a decline of the stock market. (Let us hope that a moment before the end he found the time to buy them back again.)
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Victory, as is well known, has many fathers, and failure in war is an orphan.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">FROM THE deluge of accusations and gripes, one slogan stands out , a slogan that must send a cold shiver down the spine of anyone with a good memory: "the politicians did not let the army win."
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Exactly as I wrote two weeks ago, we see before our very eyes the resurrection of the old cry "they stabbed the army in the back!"</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">This is how it goes: At long last, two days before the end, the land offensive started to roll. Thanks to our heroic soldiers, the men of the reserves, it was a dazzling success. And then, when we were on the verge of a great victory, the cease-fire came into effect.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">There is not a single word of truth in this. This operation, which was planned and which the army spent years training for, was not carried out earlier, because it was clear that it would not bring any meaningful gains but would be costly in lives. The army would, indeed, have occupied wide areas, but without being able to dislodge the Hizbullah fighters from them.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The town of Bint Jbeil, for example, right next to the border, was taken by the army three times, and the Hizbullah fighters remained there to the end. If we had occupied 20 towns and villages like this one, the soldiers and the tanks would have been exposed in twenty places to the mortal attacks of the guerillas with their highly effective anti-tank weapons.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">If so, why was it decided, at the last moment, to carry out this operation after all--well after the UN had already called for an end to hostilities? The horrific answer: it was a cynical--not to say vile--exercise of the failed trio. Olmert, Peretz and Halutz wanted to create "a picture of victory", as was openly stated in the media. On this altar the lives of 33 soldiers (including a young woman) were sacrificed.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The aim was to photograph the victorious soldiers on the bank of the Litani. The operation could only last 48 hours, when the cease-fire would come into force. In spite of the fact that the army used helicopters to land the troops, the aim was not attained. At no point did the army reach the Litani.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">For comparison: in the first Lebanon war, that of Sharon in 1982, the army crossed the Litani in the first few hours. (The Litani, by the way, is not a real river anymore, but just a shallow creek. Most of its waters are drawn off far from there, in the north. Its last stretch is about 25 km distant from the border, near Metulla the distance is only 4 km.)
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">This time, when the cease-fire took effect, all the units taking part had reached villages on the way to the river. There they became sitting ducks, surrounded by Hizbullah fighters, without secure supply lines. From that moment on, the army had only one aim: to get them out of there as quickly as possible, regardless of who might take their place.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">If a commission of inquiry is set up--as it must be--and investigates all the moves of this war, starting from the way the decision to start it was made, it will also have to investigate the decision to start this last operation. The death of 33 soldiers (including the son of the writer David Grossman, who had supported the war) and the pain this caused their families demand that!
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">BUT THESE facts are not yet clear to the general public. The brain-washing by the military commentators and the ex-generals, who dominated the media at the time, has turned the foolish--I would almost say "criminal"--operation into a rousing victory parade. The decision of the political leadership to stop it is now being seen by many as an act of defeatist, spineless, corrupt and even treasonous politicians.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">And that is exactly the new slogan of the fascist Right that is now raising its ugly head.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">After World War I, in similar circumstances, the legend of the "knife in the back of the victorious army" grew up. Adolf Hitler used it to carry him to power--and on to World War II.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Now, even before the last fallen soldier has been buried, the incompetent generals are starting to talk shamelessly about "another round", the next war that will surely come "in a month or in a year", God willing. After all, we cannot end the matter like this, in failure. Where is our pride?
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">THE ISRAELI public is now in a state of shock and disorientation. Accusations--justified and unjustified--are flung around in all directions, and it cannot be foreseen how things will develop.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Perhaps, in the end, it is logic that will win. Logic says: what has thoroughly been demonstrated is that there is no military solution. That is true in the North. That is also true in the South, where we are confronting a whole people that has nothing to lose anymore. The success of the Lebanese guerilla will encourage the Palestinian guerilla.
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">For logic to win, we must be honest with ourselves: pinpoint the failures, investigate their deeper causes, draw the proper conclusions.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Some people want to prevent that at any price. President Bush declares vociferously that we have won the war. A glorious victory over the Evil Ones. Like his own victory in Iraq.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">When a football team is able to choose the referee, it is no surprise if it is declared the winner.</font></p>
<p><i><font face="Times New Roman">Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom.</font></i></p>
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