---

Help the Lebanese Red Cross get help to those in need

Send contributions through your bank to:

Lebanese Red Cross
AUDI BANK
BAB IDRISS
Account Nb: 841500
SWIFT: AUDBLBBX

---

** Interview with Lebanese Political Analyst Roula Talj **

Q.2 - Your first appearence on 'The Situation Room' on CNN was on July 20th, 2006. Seven days after the war started. How did CNN get in contact with you, and did you have any previous experiences in reporting?
A.2    Wolf Blitzer is someone I've known for few years now. We always exchange views and analysis.

We were doing the same when the war broke out and he decided he wanted me on his shows.
I was also contacted for an interview at Larry king's live on CNN, Fox news and Danish T.V.

_________________________________________________

II. The war: Before and during

Q.3 - We're July 12th, 2006. Hezbulla has just declared they captured to Israeli soldiers in hopes of trading them for the remaining Lebanese prisonners in Israeli jails. According to what we've seen in years past, would you qualify Israel's retaliation as surprising?
A.3    When UNSCR 1559 was born, the U.S had one priority in mind: The withdrawal of the Syrian troops from Lebanon, and an eventual regime change in Damascus.
Israel which is very concerned with its national security, wanted from UNSCR 1559 the disarmement of Hezbollah.
(Click here to read the full interview)

 

---

Open Letter to President Bill Clinton.

Mr. President the world misses your leadership, and the Middle East misses your compassion and understanding of the psychologies of both Arabs and Israelis.

Unfortunately, leaders on both sides failed to understand that you were the golden opportunity for a just peace. They failed to grab this occasion which would have allowed them to live in peace and secure the future of their children.  

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin saw this opportunity and because of his wisdom he was killed and the dream of a comprehensive peace was buried with him. President Hafez El Assad understood it as well but had no time to conclude a deal, the last deal you offered him in Geneva.  

After you left the White House the Middle East was turned into a blood bath for a reason that I, and many of my fellow Lebanese and Arabs do NOT understand. President Bush, in spite of the power vested in him by the peace-loving people of the United States as the commander in chief, has no right to create wars in order to show the strength of the United States and its leadership.  

Is this Mr. Bush's way to secure the interests of the State of Israel? By crushing its neighboring countries and turning them into war zones where different confessional groups are killing each other? 

I don't think that is how Israel’s interests would be secured. How could that be when it is surrounded by an inflamed environment and a fertile ground for extremists and terrorist organizations?  

Every day that passes by, I cling on more to the hope that peace between Israel and its neighboring countries is still possible, and that it is in fact the only option to secure a Middle East free of AL Qaeda and similar fundamental groups. In the midst of all the massacres that are taking place, all the hatred and frustration, the moderates of this world and especially the moderates of Israel must do something to stop the cycle of violence through a process that would take us from an immediate cease fire to a process that might lead us to a comprehensive and long lasting Peace. 
 
I pray that you President Clinton and other peace lovers take action now. Our culture in the Arab world might seem different and even strange to you. But we, the people of the Middle East, are scared just like the people of Israel are scared. We are concerned of George Bush's ignorance and visionless leadership. We are scared because the Israelis have the world's support to defend themselves when the rest of the world is against us. As a result many people are moving from moderation towards extremism. Every day that goes by, every massacre that is taking place is drifting people further away from Peace.

I speak to people around me, Muslims and Christians, and it is scary how they are in a suicidal mood. There issue is 90% about living in dignity. We all want a comprehensive peace a dignified peace, a Just peace.

I beg you to do something NOW!! 

If you love the people of Israel, help them understand that their interests could only be secured through a comprehensive and just peace. It is the only way for us, the moderates, to survive the wave of Christian, Muslim and Jewish extremism. 

I assume that all of you consider Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization. I will not defend it and I truly believe that only a strong army should protect a country and its people. However, it is important to understand that Hezbollah have a crucial role in Lebanon's political and public life and that their fight is not a religious fight. It is about achieving a just peace so the people could live in dignity away from conspiracies and hidden agendas. It is important to know this in order to avoid misconceptions that could lead to deadly results.

A comprehensive peace is much needed now. In the name of all the children who are dying in Lebanon and in the name of all the innocent people who are dying in Israel, I urge you Mr. President to do something now. I beg you to stop President Bush from leading the world towards another world war. Stop him from telling lies to the American people about his achievements in Afghanistan and Iraq! Stop him from telling the Jewish Americans that he is giving Israel more than any president has ever given. He is giving all of us a ticket to hell! 

President Clinton, your compassion and understanding of the sensitivities in this area are the only remedies against the Bush administration's madness.

God bless you, God Bless the real American values.

Roula Talj

(Comments/Discussion)

---

ذكريات وطن

---

(Top of page)

terrorists, terrorists, terrorists..
(By Robert Fisk || July 27th, 2006)

What I am watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage.

The beautiful viaduct that soars over the mountainside here has become a “terrorist” target. The Israelis attacked the international highway from Beirut to Damascus just after dawn and dropped a bomb clean through the central span of the Italian-built bridge a symbol of Lebanon’s cooperation with the European Union sending concrete crashing hundreds of feet down into the valley beneath. It was the pride of the numbered ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri, the face of a new, emergent Lebanon.

And now it is a “terrorist” target.

So I drove gingerly along the old mountain road towards the Bekaa; the Israeli jets were hissing through the sky above me turned the corner once I rejoined the highway, and found a 50 feet crater with an old woman climbing wearily down the side on her hands and knees, trying to reach her home in the valley that glimmered to the east.

This too had become a “terrorist” target.

It is now the same all over Lebanon. In the southern suburbs where the Hizbollah, captors of the two missing Israeli soldiers, have their headquarters a massive bomb had blasted off the sides of apartment blocks next to a church, splintering windows and crashing balconies down on to parked cars.

This too had become a “terrorist” target.

One man was brought out shrieking with pain, covered in blood. Another “terrorist” target. All the way to the airport were broken bridges, holed roads. All these were “terrorist” tragets. At the airport, tongues of fire blossomed into the sky from aircraft fuel storage tanks, darkening west Beirut. These too were now “terrorist” targets. At Jiyeh, the Israelis attacked the power station.

This too was a “terrorist” target.

Yet when I drove to the actual headquarters of the Hizbolla, a tall building in Haret Hreik, it was totally undamaged. Only the same night did the Israelis manage to hit it.
So can the Lebanese be forgiven? Can anyone here be forgiven for believing that the Israelis have a greater interest in destroying Lebanon that they do in their two soldiers?

European politicians have talked about Israel’s “disporportionate” response to the capture of its soldiers. They are wrong. What I am now watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage. How can there be any excuses!
Any for the 600 dead Lebanese civilians blown apart these past two weeks?

The same applies, of course, to the 24 Israeli civilians killed by Hizbollah rockets. But please note the exchange rate of Israeli civilian lives to Lebanese civilian lives now stands at one to more than 15. This does not include two children atomised in their home in Dweir whose bodies cannot be found. Their 6 brothers and sisters were buried, with their mother and father.
Another “terrorist” target.
So was a neighbouring family with 5 children who were also buried.

Another “terrorist” target.

(Top of page)

Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist.

There is something perverse about all this, the slaughter and the massive destruction and the self-righteous, constant, cancerous use of the word “terrorist”. No, let us not forget that the Hizbollah broke international law, crossed the Israeli border, killed 3 Israeli soldiers, captured 2 others and dragged them back through the border fence. It was an act of calculated ruthlessness that should never allow Hizbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to grin so broadly at his press conference. It has brought unparalleled tragedy to countless innocents in Lebanon. And of course, it has led Hizbollah to fire at least 270 rockets in Israel.

But what would happen if the powerless Lebanese government had unleashed air attacks across Israel the last time Israel’s troops crossed into Lebanon? What if the Lebanese air force killed 300 Israeli civilians in bombing raids in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Israeli West Jerusalem? What if a Lebanese fighter aircraft bombed Ben Gurion airport? What if a Lebanese plane destroyed 30 road bridges across Israel? Would it not be called “terrorism”? I rather think it would. But if Israel was the victim, it would probably also be World War Three.

Of course, Lebanon cannot attack Tel Aviv. Its air force comprises 3 ancient Hawker Hunters and an equally ancient fleet of Vietnam-era Huey helicopters. Syria, however, has missiles that can reach Tel Aviv. So Syria, which Israel rightly believes to be behind Hizbollah’s attack is not going to be bombed. It is Lebanon which must be punished.
The Israeli leadership intends to “break” the Hizbollah and destroy its “terrorist cancer”. Really? Do the Israelis really believe they can “break” one of the TOUGHEST guerrilla ARMIES in the WORLD? And HOW?

There are real issues here.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1559 the same resolution that got the Syrian army out of Lebanon the Shia Muslim Hizbollah should have been disarmed. They were not because, if the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, had tried to do so, the Lebanese army would have had to fight them and the army would almost certainly have broken apart because most Lebanese soldiers are Shia Muslims. We could see the restarting of the civil war in Lebanon, a fact which Nasrallah is cynically aware of, but attempts by Siniora and his cabinet colleagues to find a new role for Hizbollah, which has a minister in the government foundered. And the greatest danger now is that the Lebanese government will collapse and be replaced by a pro-Syran government which could reinvite the Syrians back into the country.
So there’s a real conundrum to be sovled. But it’s not going to succeed with the mass bombing of the country by Israel.

Nor the obsession with terrorists, terrorists, terrorists..

Login to your webmail