[LCM Events] RE: Today's talk

[Loai Naamani]

Dear Randa,

Thank you for your message and concern.

As I'm sure you noticed, this was a tightly moderated Q&A session between the audience and the ambassador (and not among the
attendees themselves). In prelude to her question to the ambassador, she offered him an irrelevant recount of Lebanese war-era
history and hinted at mostly unfounded present-day Zionist ties with some Lebanese politicians. Responding back to her would have
entailed forcefully interrupting her or the ambassador and escalating the confrontation, which we were adamant about avoiding unless
necessary. Also, her question was the last permitted by the moderator on the Lebanese issue.

All in all, I believe it was much less about preparedness for her assumption than about respecting the 'rules of the game' in
constructively addressing it. I'd be very interested in following-up with her in person and hopefully fast-forwarding any stuck
hands of time she may be following, as you put it :-)  Feel free to join me.


Thanks again,
L.




-----Original Message-----
From: R//H [mailto:rhartm1 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 7:29 PM
To: Loai Naamani
Cc: 'LCM Events'
Subject: Today's talk


   Loai,

 The elderly lady with the green jacket is an
Armenian-Syrian professor emerita of political science
at Simmons College. I was quite surprised that you
weren't prepared for her assumption that you're all
"christians from an extremist right-wing,
promoting..."  

 It seems as if time had stopped for her at some
point, or that she really is not aware of the change,
even though superficial and political for now, if
that's all they see in it. 

 You should contact her to tell her where you all
stand. My understanding is that none of the christians
among you admires the phalangists or Michel Aoun. 
The judeo-christian alliances are common in history,
but one should believe in, and work towards having a
now politically-savvy Lebanese citizen who, as
sectarian as the Irish had been in this country, can
hope to participate in power towards more honorable
goals.

 The Arab Student Organization should have her contact
info, as she was recently invited by them to a
roundtable on Palestine. 

 What a beautiful generation you represent, all you 
need is to thicken your skins to the political games.
  --Randa 

 







		
Yahoo! Mail
Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour:
http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html