Letters from Lebanon
From: “Rania Masri”
To: “Rania Masri”
Subject: From Lebanon.
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 13:08:30 +0300
Dear friends, Thank you all for your letters of concern. Yes, I am in
Lebanon, and, yes, I am safe, as safe as one can be when one’s country
is under attack. I appeal to you all: we need your voices of outrage to
be heard. Since Wednesday, we have been under vicious, unjustified
attack, and the attacks have been intensifying. Vicious. Perhaps you
have not heard the news because the western news has not been reporting
it. Perhaps you have seen the pictures because the western news is not
printing the pictures (the media has access to the pictures, but is
choosing not to print them). See: www.angryarab.blogspot.com for some
pictures. As for the attacks, the level of infrastructural damage
exceeds that of the 1982 Israeli invasion: * Every airport has been
attacked and rendered unfit for travel. The main airport (our only
commerical airport) has been attacked several times over several days.
The smaller military airports, none of which were in use for years,
have also been attacked and rendered useless. * Every port from the
south to the north has been attacked by the Israelis. For the first
time, the port of Jounieh was bombed. (Which opens up the rather narrow
question: how can the Americans, French, British, and Italians — all
of whom have called for the evacuation of their citizens — evacuate
their citizens?) * Several major gas stations and electrical stations
have been destroyed. There is a rumor that every major gas station in
the country is under threat. * The major bridges in the country have
been destroyed. We are all hesitant to cross over any bridge for the
fear that it could be the next target. * The main arteries of the
country have been destroyed — from the south to the north. What does
this mean? This means that travel between main cities *throughout
Lebanon* is physically impossible. One cannot leave the country to
Syria — nor, and more importantly, can one move safely from one area
to another, from one city to another, and, in the South, from one part
of the village to another part of the village. There is only one main
route that is still open (the highway from nothern Beirut to Tripoli),
and since last night, Israel has been threatening to bomb the tunnel in
Chekka, thus making it impossible to go - on the main road - from
Jbeil/Byblos to the northern areas, and vice versa. (some basic
geography of Lebanon, from the central Lebanon to the north, the main
cities are: Beirut, Jounieh, Jbeil/Byblos, Batroun, Chekka, Tripoli.
This besieging of villages is especially vicious in the South. The
Israeli army has been calling upon villages in the South to evacuate
yet they have destroyed the roads on which they can evacuate - so the
message is clear: leave your homes and we will kill you, stay in your
homes and we will kill you. They have done both. * What does all this
mean? o Israel is attempting to scare the Lebanese into submission by
forcing us to remain in the country and not “escape.” This is terorism
- in its purest form. o Israel is attempting to besiege every major
community in the country, to isolate us so that eventually we will
“surrender” when there is a lack of food and medicine and other basic
necessities. Already, numerous villages and the major city of Sour/Tyre
have spoken about the lack of basic goods.
Vicious. Yes. The Israeli acts of aggression have not been limited to
infrastructure but have *deliberately* targeted civilians.
Deliberately. Homes in the South have been deliberately targeted and
attacked. How can we prove intent? Several ways. First: In open fields,
the bombs have hit the homes and not the fields surrounding the homes.
We have seen this kind of precision attacks during the 1996 Qana
massacre, when the Israeli Offensive Forces bombed the areas in the UN
compound in which the civilians were hiding and did not bomb the very
close areas in which the UN staff were housed nor the trees that
surrounded the compounds. Entire families, entire families,
have been killed thus far in the South. In separate attacks, four
families — father, mother, and their children — have been massacred.
Their bodies torn apart. Their faces burned. This is the Independent
(UK)’s reporting on the first of the attacks: Israeli jets “came first
to the little village of Dweir near Nabatiya in southern Lebanon where
an Israeli plane dropped a bomb on to the home of a Shia Muslim cleric.
He was killed. So was his wife. So were eight of his children. One was
decapitated. All they could find of a baby was its head and torso which
a young villager brandished in fury in front of the cameras. Then the
planes visited another home in Dweir and disposed of a family of
seven.” In a fifth attack, the Israeli terrorist forces bombed a
building that was housing four families. No one survived. In another
attack, a family — after being told by the Israelis (through flyers
that are dropped from their fighter planes) to evacuate — went to the
UN building for refuge. The UN threw them out. As they were leaving,
their van was bombed. They were torn to pieces. Torn to pieces. See the
pictures on www.angryarab.blogspot.com. See the pictures attached.
These massacres have been continuing — and these massacres, let us
remember, are not unique in the history of Israeli aggression. Vicious.
Barbaric. Horrific. And Unjustified. Yes, unjustified. Let us remember:
attacks by the Israeli Offensive Forces on the Lebanese border did not
begin this Wednesday with the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. For
more than the past month, the Israeli army has been conducting live
ammunition training on the border. Lebanese shepherds have been killed.
The response from the “international community”? Silence. Let us
remember: Israel continues to imprison Lebanese in their jails, and the
call from Hezbollah has been clear for years: Hezbollah will work for
their release. Lebanese are not the only ones held in Israeli jails;
there are thousands of Arab prisoners. And in contrast to the incorrect
reporting by The Guardian (UK), Hassan Narsallah, Secretary General of
Hezbollah, stated quite clearly that Hezbollah will use these 2 Israeli
soldiers for negotiation and he did not specify the conditions; he did
NOT say that he will release these soldiers only upon the release of
all Arab prisoners in Israel. Let us also remember: Israel has refused
to submit a map of the 400,000 land mines that it deliberately left in
South Lebanon, and these mines regularly kill Lebanese children.
Regardless if one agrees with the action of Hezbollah or not,
regardless if one views Hezbollah’s action as a reaction or a
provacation, regardless: the attacks by Israel are clearly not
proportional. Furthermore, while Hezbollah has kidnapped soldiers, the
Israeli army has been deliberately attacking civilians and imposing an
illegal and terrorist collective punishment on the country as a whole.
“[Israeli] Brigadier General Dan Halutz said: ‘Nowhere is safe [in
Lebanon] … as simple as that.’ “(From the Guardian (UK)) So, once
again, I appeal to you. We are all expecting the situation to worsen in
Lebanon. We are all expecting more massacres and more destruction to
Lebanon’s basic infrastructure. ** People have protested in Australia
and in Germany. Protest in the United States, as well! Protest in
solidarity with the Lebanese people — who are standing united in the
face of this aggression. The division is from the politicians, but not
from the people. Protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people –
who have been standing strong for decades in the face of Israeli
aggression. We Americans, you Americans, have a particular
responsibility: these weapons that are being used to massacre and
destroy are paid for by US taxpayer dollars, and supported by George
Bush and an acquiscent Congress. ** Share these pictures with your
local press. Meet with your local press and talk to them about what is
happening in Lebanon. See: www.electroniclebanon.net for updates. Call
for fair reporting. The Lebanese people being killed
have names and faces. (I will share with you detailed stories as I
gather them.) ** Call your Congressional representative and demand an
immediate, unconditional end to Israeli aggression. One more note to
you all: In my constant calls to friends in the South, I have been
hearing the same comment: We are strong. We are resilient. We will be
victorious. This strenth of spirit is what our strongest weapon of
resistance. - Rania Masri
El Koura, Lebanon ======== More stories from Lebanon: -
From: Bilal Elamine [mailto:zaloom33@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 11:12 AM
To: Beirut IMC
Subject: dispatch from beirut
hi everyone, people are contacting me a lot, they want to hear from
people here and how they can help. i sent this quick report. please
send your observations, particularly eyewitness accounts and things
that activists here are doing that friends abroad can support.thanks, b
From Beirut
July 16 Hi everyone. First of all, I am fine as are family and friends.
We’re scattered in different places, some still in the south, some in
Tyre, the rest in Beirut and its surroundings. Those who live in the
southern suburbs where Hizbullah is based managed to leave before the
latest strikes and are safe with relatives. As most of you know,
Hizbullah carried out a bold operation a few days ago and managed to
capture two Israeli soldiers. The resistance has been saying for quite
some time now that it intends to free the remaining Lebanese prisoners
in Israel, most prominently Samir Qantar. Dubbed the “dean of the
prisoners,†Qantar is the longest serving Arab prisoner in Israel. He
was to be released along with other Lebanese prisoners in a swap
between Hizbullah and Israel. The Israeli government voted not to
release him and two others and stupidly kept the prisoner file open.
The Hizbullah operation was an attempt to put an end to the matter.
There were several previous unsuccessful attempts that were costly to
the resistance. This operation according to Nasrallah, the
general-secretary of Hizbullah, was months in planning and its timing,
which has been endlessly criticized, may have been logistical more than
anything else. In light of Israel’s ferocious response, it is worth
noting that the capture of the two Israeli soldiers was a pure military
operation and did not as much scratch an Israeli civilian. Israel’s
counter is exactly the opposite—collective punishment of the civilian
population by destroying the country’s infrastructure and committing
ugly massacres against families and fleeing refugees as they did
yesterday in the south. Who’s the terrorist in this case, even by the
self-serving definitions peddled in Washington. Why did Hizbullah do
this, did they not know that Israel would respond this way. I’m
certain that they considered this scenario as one of several. But
Hizbullah’s two decades of experience in dealing with Israel have
taught it one thing and that is Tel Aviv will never budge on any matter
without threat of force. Israel was compelled to leave southern Lebanon
in May 2000—after over 20 years of occupation—only after the
resistance gained the upper hand militarily. The consequent prisoner
swap in which nearly all Lebanese prisoners in Israel were released was
only possible once Hizbullah managed to capture Israeli soldiers and
offer them in exchange. As Nasrallah put it, the recent operation was
the only logical conclusion given Hizbullah long experience with
Israel. To get the remaining prisoners out, Israeli soldiers must be
captured—Israel simply offered no other option. The current situation
only confirms Hizbullah’s experience. The whole world—and most
painfully the Arab governments—have refused to lift a finger to
restrain Israel. The UN met and decided to do nothing, yesterday the
Arab League met and was even more insulting. The Lebanese government
has yet to act, besides denouncing Hizbullah and distancing themselves
from the resistance–not even providing the most basic services to the
displaced and injured. The Arab League meeting and statements by the
Lebanese prime minister suggest that there is a convergence of
interests between them and Israel over putting a halt to the Lebanese
resistance by disarming Hizbullah and burying once and for all those
forces in the region, including Hamas for example, that believe in a
line of confrontation with Israel as the only road to get some
semblance of justice. The Saudi royals and their slavish counterparts
in Jordan and Egypt, want Arabs to submit and swallow the humiliation
we are subjected to daily in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, all in the
name of stability and rational thinking. Since 1993 and the signing of
the Oslo Accords, the Arab leaders, the US and the UN have been saying
that negotiations and normalization with Israel are the only way to
peace. But we have yet to see Israel make the smallest concession,
taking the opportunity to swallow up yet more land, butcher the
Palestinian people and continue to imprison thousand. Hamas’ election
was but one indicator that ordinary Arabs have understood that
successive peace accords have brought them nothing but further
misery—only resistance, with all the suffering that comes with it,
bears fruit. Like the Palestinians, the Lebanese are all alone,
abandoned to be taught a lesson by the regional and global powers.
Hizbullah’s incredible response (striking a war ship and bombing as
far as Haifa) shows that they perhaps considered and prepared for
Israel’s ferocious response. Only their ability to strike back
effectively can save Lebanon from complete destruction at the hands of
Israel—the lunatics in Tel Aviv know no other language. Bilal El-Amine