Note from Cyrus: The following is an email from a friend of a friend studying Arabic for the summer at the American University in Beirut. I've edited it slightly for spelling. From: Gabriel Nevin Date: 19 Jul 2006 08:35:43 -0700 Subject: To: While it has been far from continuous, and I honestly have not been scared for my safety much since this war has started, I have for the first time felt a six story building rumble as bombs explode near it. This is an eerie feeling, which I hope nobody else has to experience. Four days ago I was sitting in my room with the doors open. From very far off I heard the noise of a plane engine. The noise of Israeli aircraft is everywhere over Beirut these days, and this time it sounded like the jet was coming from behind my building and would shortly fly directly over our heads. We have been hearing a lot of this war but have seen very little of it, and I was excited to see one of the fighter jets my tax dollars pay for. I went out and stood on my balcony looking up at the sky and waiting. the thing still sounded very faint like it was far away. But it was growing louder very quickly, and I thought maybe I was going to get a sonic boom as well. It kept getting louder and louder until I had to cover my ears to stand it. Then something about the noise changed; it is difficult to explain, but I had the experience in the next moment of my brain processing so many very intense things in such a small period of time that they could only be unpacked and examined after the fact. I still don't know why, but I suddenly knew that the sound was not an airplane but rather a shell and it was very very close. This thought was running through my head at the same time that my hearing which had been completely over powered by the screeching went blank, and as I saw a black shape rocket across the sky and into the ground, and as my body forced itself to the ground it seemed faster than gravity could have taken it; the blank was replaced with a roar, and I felt the ground shaking the building all the way up to the sixth floor so hard that doors slammed shut and everything metal was humming. I think it took about as long as snapping your fingers. I have not been fearful being in the middle of this war; I but I was just registering that I had seen the most terrifying thing of my life and I might be about to die, when I heard a secondary pop. I looked up and saw crater in the soccer field in front of my dorm about 100 feet away. The field was also covered in little bits of paper. It was an Israeli propaganda bomb. They are shells packed with leaflets that are supposed explode at a few hundred feet above the ground and disperse propaganda flyers on the people. This one was just a dud. Its been a weird week. So, a number of people were offended enough to respond angrily to my last email. I believe that, among other things calling the Israelis "raging fucking dickholes" was the main cause for complaint. Since some people may have had similar feelings about this but not bothered to raise it with me, I feel like a public clarification on this is in order, (and probably more mature then responding to measured and well thought out protests with, "give me your Jew gold" ). I should disclaimer this by saying first that this is long even for me. So if you aren't interested or weren't offended, you might have read the most interesting part and will end up bored. A number of problems with my email were raised. among them Israelis seem to feel that I was targeting all Israelis with this blanket statement, and that if the tables were turned I might be offended if someone were to make a similar statement about Americans if they felt we had made a massive international mistake. The other general thread is in defense of Israeli actions, the feeling being that Israel was attacked and is responding in kind to Hezbollah; and that by specifically targeting Hezbollah buildings and militants Israel is fighting the war correctly. It is out of turn, but firstly the notion that I would be offended by similar statements is a little off base. In my opinion my country has made lots of mistakes, and sometimes those are egregious enough to qualify us as assholes, or raging fucking dickholes if you prefer. If you were Laotian during the Nixon era, or an Iranian under the Shah, or had members of your Chilean family abducted by Pinochet, or watched your stable but not free country ripped to sectarian shreds because George W. Bush wanted...something, then you might call Americans assholes; and you might be right. However (and I think I shouldn't have to clarify this), I was referring less to Israelis as a people (whom I have found to be quite friendly and hospitable), and more to the foreign policy of the Israeli state (less friendly and hospitable). This policy is however carried out by Israelis and I can see how one individual might take offense. However you might keep in mind that it is very easy to dislike the actions of a group, without prejudicing against a member of that group. As to the way in which this invasion has been carried out, think there are a number of important things, which are not well detailed back home. It should be understood that Hezbollah is many things. In addition to being a rogue non-state militia force committed to the destruction of Israel (which has earned them the label: terrorists), Hezbollah is nominally a political party with a majority of seats in the Lebanese parliament and seats on the cabinet of a PM from another party. Hezbollah also provides a lot of welfare services in the south like education and medical care. This makes them very popular in some places. Many Lebanese don't like Hezbollah but they remain very powerful in the south and the government is not strong enough to remove or disarm them either through elections or by force. Many democrats feel the same way about republicans (and visa versa), but our parties don't have guns (maybe the NRA). Before a few days ago Hezbollah and Israel had sort of de facto rules which allowed them both to take shots at each other to keep morale up but usually didn't hurt anyone. Without a doubt Hezbollah broke those rules, and started this conflict and they did so at the peak of Lebanese tourist season when strangely enough they were the ones with the most to lose. People here are really confused by this and at this time no one knows exactly why they chose to do this. So yes, Israel it seems, has every right to respond to the Hezbollah militia. But this retaliation is much more complicated than one might think. Hezbollah is estimated to only have about 500 full time fighters. They can certainly raise their strength to closer to 5000 for a short time, but only 500 men are continually fighting. This is a small number and they blend in and evaporate easily. Hezbollah also lacks bases or central leadership in the field. While there is central political leadership many militia cells operate independently. Their weapons are hidden under houses, in barns, or in the hills of southern Lebanon which are riddled with caves. The Hezbollah buildings (and surrounding neighborhoods) in South Beirut which have been leveled in the past few days (and right this minute if my ears don't mistake me) are much more related to the functions Hezbollah has as a political party. You can bet your ass that nobody important was in those buildings, and that very few Hezbollah fighters were killed in any attacks in Beirut. What all of this means is that if the Israelis want to actually eliminate Hezbollah or have anything to show (like recovered weapons) for all the damage they have done, it won't be accomplished with airplanes. So Israel has been doing a lot of bombing (there's one now), but if they can't route Hezbollah from the air what are they doing? If you read the news, they have been hitting a lot of strategic targets all over Lebanon, like roads, bridges, harbours, airports, power plants, and a number of key pieces of Beiruti infrastructure like the light house. That is all in the news, but have you heard one word about the intricate search and rescue operation for those missing soldiers that got this started? Probably not (hint: there isn't one). However Hezbollah is Israel's enemy and and apparently that is who they are preparing to fight. The Israelis say that bombing roads and bridges traps Hezbollah in the south and keeps them from being re-supplied; and has killed over 30 Lebanese civilians and a number of fleeing foreign nationals. Unfortunately this is not true. The Lebanon/Syria border in not a wall or a river. Think of the US border with Mexico, only with roads through it. If you know the region (and Hezbollah knows it best) then there are hundreds of places to cross into Syria without getting your passport stamped. According to the Israelis, bombing the airports (3 times) and harbours (2 times) are also significant to keeping Hezbollah pinned down and unable to resupply, since the Syrians and Iranians will most assuredly declare and pay the appropriate duty on any weapons they send through Lebanese customs. And as for the power plants, for a country which has suffered around a quarter century of civil war this is devastating; since even during those turbulent times not one single neighborhood or building or family ever thought of getting a back up generator. As such Beirut is completely black tonight (and I am writing this email by... magic). So what are the Israelis doing in Lebanon? Well probably they are trying to break up Hezbollah. The problem is that they are doing it the same way they did in 1982... and it didn't work very well then. The stated strategy is putting pressure on the rest of the Lebanese population in the hopes that they will revolt against Hezbollah, and give up their support for them. To be more precise, when I say "putting pressure on", I mean "bombing the shit out of everything in Lebanon". The Israelis have openly stated the aim of this campaign has been to punish the Lebanese for not disarming Hezbollah. Remember the lighthouse I mentioned? Other than guiding in the mighty (non-existent) Lebanese navy, it is most famous for the story that surrounds it. During the civil war it supposedly never went out. The operator, at great risk to himself in a city filled with snipers, went to work everyday and made sure that it was on. Because of this it became very much a symbol for Beirutis and the whole country. From where we live the lighthouse is maybe 700 yards. A few days ago I watched from my balcony as a helicopter gunship blasted the shit out of it with missiles. The thing serves no strategic purpose! It would be like if a foreign army fucked up the statue of liberty; it wouldn't do anything to harm Americans, it would just make us feel like shit. And that's mostly what Israel is doing. They know damn well bombing the road to Damascus isn't going keep Hezbollah from getting there or anywhere else. But it does scare the shit out of the rest of the Lebanese who don't want anything to do with this, and really just let Hezbollah stay because they fought a 20-year civil war and will deal with a militia party if it means that they can have peace. Israel has declared war on Lebanon to punish it for not disarming Hezbollah, but as far as I understand it Lebanon couldn't really do much about this. So Israel has declared its war and probably will punish the Lebanese people and send Lebanon back 20 years, or whatever else it is that will make them feel better about this. That doesn't change the fact that where I am right now it feels unjustified and and wrong and makes the Israelis look like bullies. That's not as concise as raging fucking dickholes but you asked for an explanation.