Great Beirut blogging from Rami Zuraik
If you want to know what's happening in the Ras Beirut/Manara area of Beirut, go check Rami Zuraik's excellent 'Land and People' blog. Though the wisdom he dispenses there is usually on agricultural and food issues in the ME and worldwide, right now he and his kids are hunkered down in their Ras Beirut apartment.
This is what he blogged earlier this morning:
- We woke up this morning to the sound of machine gun shooting. I looked from the window and there was a few young armed civilians running in all directions. The kids were startled and we did what everybody does at times like these: seek the news. I sat at my computer and logged into the usual websites, then left the laptop to go to the tv, in the same room. The kids came in the room. Suddenly there was a small explosion, like a firecracker, with a cloud of dust and smoke. My 10 years old was the nearest to the source and we all looked towards him. There was a little hole in the glass door of the balcony, and another one in the wall a meter or so away from him. A bullet had come through the balcony, passed between the children and removed a small chunk of the wall, a meter or so away from my kid. We are now all huddled in a small room with no windows, waiting for the storm to pass. As I write, the fighting and shooting is still going on.
My kid had his baptism of fire at 10.
I think Rami would agree that the situation in many Beirut neighborhoods is probably quite a lot worse than in his. But his family's situation is bad enough. Allah yusellimak, Rami.
Guardian's Nicholas Noe on Lebanon's Chessboard Game
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nicholas_noe/2008/05/a_dangerous_strategy.html
Nicholas Noe says: "Either way, having reached a point where the spectre of yet another Israeli invasion and/or another civil war is being seriously discussed as imminent," ...
Yet another Israeli invasion could be "imminent"?
From where would Israel invade? From its northern borders - to confront the 12,000 or so French, Italian, German and other UNIFIL forces? Or is it proposed they would make an invasion by sea or air into the north? The latter option seems unlikely.
Civil war is "imminent"? If so, this would be the result of Hezbollah having refocussed its energies on bringing down the Lebanese Government after it was chucked out of southern Lebanon in 2006 and can no longer mount raids into Israel or Sheba.
Would it do this via a military coup or pustch, similar to Hamas in Gaza? I guess its possible. But why would they? Unless of course the US or Israel or both were bombing Iran's nuclear facilities at the time?
Is there a message here somewhere?
Ya know, Nick Noe might have his talents (and also be a skilfull rider of the Western white guys' elevator.) But for some reason I think the granularity, immediacy, and acuity of Rami Z's reporting is more informative...
Like this, about Hizbullah in his latest post:
Even if they give the control of the city back to the army, the latter has been weakened because it has watched all the events take place without intervening. I do not particularly like armies, and a lot of criticism can be poured on the Lebanese army, not least because of its actions against Palestinian civilians in Nahr el Bared, but it is an institution that can maintain some form of order and rule of law. And when you weaken it you leave void that has to be filled. Unless Hizbullah wants to step in (and I don't think it does), it will have to deal with the repercussions of having strengthened goons and parasites...
Three informative links:
1--A Wild Day in Beirut: Street Notes from the Hamra District By FRANKLIN LAMB
http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb05092008.html
2--Interview with activist and publisher Samah Idriss in Beirut, Lebanon
http://tadamon.resist.ca/index.php/post/1397
3--Al-Jazeera Video: Nasrallah address Lebanon - 08 May 08 (translated to English)
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/al-jazeera-video-nasrallah-address.html#links
Daily Star provides commentary from Lebanon experts-fortunately some resolution appears to be en-route-
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=91886