Comments on: Life During Wartime

By: They're after Iran

They're after Iran — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:45:53 +0000

Hate to break up this Israeli lovefest, but many of us saw the dead children from the June shelling of the Gaza beach and think Hezbollah was deliberately goaded into a move against Israel.

The Palestinians elected Hezbollah, Israel didn’t like it and picked a fight. Firstly started with rhetoric (demanding Hezbollah recognize Israel, sonic jet booms etc.), then closing the border and blocking funds, then finally lobbing shells at them till they got a response.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5066496.stm

Finally it got a response, the capture of one of it’s soldiers (big whoop) which gives it the excuse to shell gaza (killing 80) and re-invade Lebanon and Gaza.

It looks like the USA is not an innocent third party it pretends top be either, there was a major shipment of weapons in June to Israel and further shipment of $120 million in fighter jet fuel on the 14th July.

To me it looks like they’ve cooked up a regional conflict to invade Iran. Ziad Matni comments only further convince me that this is true.

By: Ziad Matni

Ziad Matni — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:34:56 +0000

I agree. I’m of the opinion that “democracy” means nothing if you don’t have a stable and strong central government that can back-up a system of laws and protect everyone equally. The US Constitution would be rendered to nothing but ink on paper if it were not backed-up by national consensus, an empowered judiciary and a strong military. All of these are lacking in Lebanon. So, as beautiful as Beirut is/was, and as pro-democracy and pro-capitalism as most Lebanese are, Lebanon’s always been at the mercy of other forces around it.

BTW, either way is acceptable spelling in English.
Hezb-o or Hizb-o: Party-of (as in politics)
Allah: well, I’m sure you’ve heard that term before.
Can you imagine a US political party calling itself “God’s Party”????

By: Andrew Schmitt

Andrew Schmitt — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:03:12 +0000

Is the proper spelling ‘Hizbollah’ or ‘Hezbollah’?

As I recall, Beiruit used to be the ‘Paris of the Middle East’ before the civil war in the 80′s and was in resurgence in the past few years. Looks like it is in retrograde again.

Lebanon is proof that having free elections is not a quid pro quo for a stable democracy.

By: Ziad Matni

Ziad Matni — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:42:38 +0000

Hi Andrew,

Great website you got here. Hope your new post-Vitesse life is everything you hoped it would be.

Just a quick note to clarify your question in the first paragraph. Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia group, is heavily funded and politically glued to Iran and Syria. They act as a ‘state-within-a-state’ in Lebanon (ie. the Lebanese governement is so weak and fractured that they really can’t do much about this group). The rockets that Hezbollah has fired on Haifa seem to be Iranian-made and Syrian-delivered. It’s no secret that Syria and Iran have designs on being the spoilsports of the MidEast.

The majority (but, alas, not all) of the Lebanese would like to see Hezbollah disappear. Lebanon is a pluralistic society with Christians and Muslims and the Lebanese, like the Israelis, tend to be a lot more Western-oriented than the rest of the Middle East (there are many Lebanese that want to see eventual peace with Israel). This latest misadventure of Hezbollah was done independantly of what the Lebanese people wanted and is costing everyone dearly.

As you’ve surmised from visiting Israel, life goes on regardless of the dangers presented and, after all, the Mediterranean mentality is one of enjoying life passionately (or…um…hating passionately, unfortunately…).
Here’s hoping for a quick resolution and an end to the stresses of war…

Z. “ever the optimist”