Hi Bala,
Today's paper quotes the Israeli PM saying that the UN peace keeping armed forces in Southern Lebanon are just a bunch of retirees, and that they are ready to stop the war provided the UN can recruit some real soldiers ready for army, combat and battle. This does raise lots of questions on the capability of the UN to enforce peace among the warring nations. The mayhem may be happening in Lebanon, but people all over the world are not only condemning Israel, but raising questions on the existence of UN, and the double-sided takes of US & UK. Bush & Blair may be the leaders of the 2 most powerful countries of the world, but their ignorance in certain matters is mind-numbingly shocking. Yesterday's newspaper carried an article which said that Blair made a speech citing that Kashmir was a part of Islamic Terrorism and publicly linked it to the continuing conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan & West Asia. Lots of criticisms have been raised against Tony Blair's statement, with even the Former Foreign Secretary of Britain Malcolm Rifkind saying that the Kashmir Issue is a regional dispute between India and Pakistan and it was "silly" for Blair to portray it as a sign of extremist Islamic war.
Such high-handed ignorance is not going to make matters any easier to solve. World affairs and peace is deteriorating day by day. The world is even not sure whether Hezbollah is, in fact, a terrorist organisation with very few coutries actually giving it a status of a terrorist organisation and even fewer adopting a stand of declaring only the External Wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. I am not aware of India's stand on Hezbollah. I agree with the US professor's views that such attacks are only going to make Lebanese people hate Israel even more and further fuel the fire. Hezbollah, if a terrorist organisation, is not going to have any difficulties in recruiting more people for its 'cause'.
What is required currently, besides an immediate cease-fire, is:
1. Greater clarity in world affairs to be exercised by the politicians and governments, especially those who have a greater say.
2. An immediate action on the UN, do the very countries that brought it into existence, intend it to remain a puppet and nothing more? Of course its dominated by a few countries, but the other emerging countries who very soon are going to have an equally competent status may even think of establishing a separate entity on the lines of the UN and that is going to help divide the world further. Look at Asia, so many regional trading blocs, The ASEAN, SAARC, SAFTA etc etc. With no unity, this continent is left far far behind.
The World is divided as ever, be it the Israel-Lebanon conflict or any other. And it is divided because there seems to be more ignorance than knowledge. General public have no means of gaining greater clarity except from the media or what the government says. So where does a person go for the truth? Where does one get true unbiased knowledge? What does one do to help, beside raising his/her voice on forums or by signing mass letters? There is no concrete way... to make the World Leaders listen.
From India,
1Today's paper quotes the Israeli PM saying that the UN peace keeping armed forces in Southern Lebanon are just a bunch of retirees, and that they are ready to stop the war provided the UN can recruit some real soldiers ready for army, combat and battle. This does raise lots of questions on the capability of the UN to enforce peace among the warring nations. The mayhem may be happening in Lebanon, but people all over the world are not only condemning Israel, but raising questions on the existence of UN, and the double-sided takes of US & UK. Bush & Blair may be the leaders of the 2 most powerful countries of the world, but their ignorance in certain matters is mind-numbingly shocking. Yesterday's newspaper carried an article which said that Blair made a speech citing that Kashmir was a part of Islamic Terrorism and publicly linked it to the continuing conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan & West Asia. Lots of criticisms have been raised against Tony Blair's statement, with even the Former Foreign Secretary of Britain Malcolm Rifkind saying that the Kashmir Issue is a regional dispute between India and Pakistan and it was "silly" for Blair to portray it as a sign of extremist Islamic war.
Such high-handed ignorance is not going to make matters any easier to solve. World affairs and peace is deteriorating day by day. The world is even not sure whether Hezbollah is, in fact, a terrorist organisation with very few coutries actually giving it a status of a terrorist organisation and even fewer adopting a stand of declaring only the External Wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. I am not aware of India's stand on Hezbollah. I agree with the US professor's views that such attacks are only going to make Lebanese people hate Israel even more and further fuel the fire. Hezbollah, if a terrorist organisation, is not going to have any difficulties in recruiting more people for its 'cause'.
What is required currently, besides an immediate cease-fire, is:
1. Greater clarity in world affairs to be exercised by the politicians and governments, especially those who have a greater say.
2. An immediate action on the UN, do the very countries that brought it into existence, intend it to remain a puppet and nothing more? Of course its dominated by a few countries, but the other emerging countries who very soon are going to have an equally competent status may even think of establishing a separate entity on the lines of the UN and that is going to help divide the world further. Look at Asia, so many regional trading blocs, The ASEAN, SAARC, SAFTA etc etc. With no unity, this continent is left far far behind.
The World is divided as ever, be it the Israel-Lebanon conflict or any other. And it is divided because there seems to be more ignorance than knowledge. General public have no means of gaining greater clarity except from the media or what the government says. So where does a person go for the truth? Where does one get true unbiased knowledge? What does one do to help, beside raising his/her voice on forums or by signing mass letters? There is no concrete way... to make the World Leaders listen.
From India,
Hi Vinisha,
Thanks for the detailed and valid analysis of the situation.
The sad fact is that the two most (?) powerful countries are led by not so intelligent.
The world has to turn around to get something better.
You have mentioned thay you are not sure what India's stand on Hezbollah is. Who cares or listens to India's stance? Isn't it a fact that India does not count in all these high stake games powerful nations play?
With great pomp and valour India toook the case of Pakistan's involvement in the terror machinery involved in Mumbai blasts to the G 8 meeting. Nobody listened to it. Infact India got a lecture from the 'Global Policeman' on why and how Pakistan is so important in the global fight against terror. Further India was chided and asked for "proof" for Pakistan's involvement. It was publicly stated by the two masters of the "war on terror" that India should provide concrete "prrof" without which...................
Who cares about India's opinion?
Best Regards
Bala
From India, Madras
Thanks for the detailed and valid analysis of the situation.
The sad fact is that the two most (?) powerful countries are led by not so intelligent.
The world has to turn around to get something better.
You have mentioned thay you are not sure what India's stand on Hezbollah is. Who cares or listens to India's stance? Isn't it a fact that India does not count in all these high stake games powerful nations play?
With great pomp and valour India toook the case of Pakistan's involvement in the terror machinery involved in Mumbai blasts to the G 8 meeting. Nobody listened to it. Infact India got a lecture from the 'Global Policeman' on why and how Pakistan is so important in the global fight against terror. Further India was chided and asked for "proof" for Pakistan's involvement. It was publicly stated by the two masters of the "war on terror" that India should provide concrete "prrof" without which...................
Who cares about India's opinion?
Best Regards
Bala
From India, Madras
I believe India is too soft and tends to be taken for granted very easily. A bit of a strong approach won't hurt, but would only benefit India to a great extent.
I need to know India's stance on Hezbollah. As a citizen of India, whatever the Government supports, its equal to saying I am supporting and whatever the citizens say, in all probablities, whether agreed to or not, is what India says.
Regards
Vinisha
From India,
I need to know India's stance on Hezbollah. As a citizen of India, whatever the Government supports, its equal to saying I am supporting and whatever the citizens say, in all probablities, whether agreed to or not, is what India says.
Regards
Vinisha
From India,
Hi Vinisha,
Another side of Hezbollah......................................... ...
What does the US or Britain say?
Quote::::::::::::
Hezbollah paid for his wife’s Caesarean section. It brought olive oil, sugar and nuts when he lost his job and even covered the cost of an operation on his broken nose.
Ahmed Awali, a security guard, ran out of money after a daughter was born. He told one of his neighbors, and soon bags of groceries arrived.
Like many poor Shiites across southern Lebanon, Ahmed Awali, 41, a security guard at an apartment building in this southern city, has received charity from Hezbollah for years. He says he is not a member. He does not even know the names of those who helped him.
Hezbollah fighters move like shadows across the mountains of southern Lebanon; its workers in towns and villages, equally as ghostly, have settled deeply into people’s lives.
They cover medical bills, offer health insurance, pay school fees and make seed money available for small businesses. They are invisible but omnipresent, providing essential services that the Lebanese government through years of war was incapable of offering.
Their work engenders a deep loyalty among Shiites, who for years were the country’s underclass and whose sense of pride and identity are closely intertwined with Hezbollah.
Their presence in southern Lebanon is so widespread that any Israeli military advance will do little to extricate the group, which is as much a part of society as its Shiite faith.
“The trees in the south say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ The stones say, ‘We are Hezbollah,’ ” said Issam Jouhair, a car mechanic. “If the people cannot talk, the stones will say it.”
Hezbollah is nowhere but everywhere. In this city, the gateway to the fighting and the location of several of southern Lebanon’s largest functioning hospitals, clues about its fighters surface daily.
A doctor at one of the hospitals, Jebel Amal, said it currently had about 450 patients. Hospital officials, however, seemed eager to show off a few wounded women and children, but would not allow access to any other patients.
On Wednesday, a mass funeral was canceled. Authorities cited the security situation. Minutes later, the sound of rockets being launched swooshed from an area near where the burial was to have been held.
“Just because I’m sitting here in this café doesn’t mean I’m not a resistance fighter,” said Haidar Fayadh, a cafe owner, who was smoking a water pipe as his patrons sipped tiny plastic cups of coffee near pictures of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
“Everyone has a weapon in his house,” he said. “There are doctors, teachers and farmers. Hezbollah is people. People are Hezbollah.”
The group is at once highly decentralized and extremely organized. Mr. Awali, whose job as a guard pays $170 a month, far lower wages than average, ran out of money for food shortly after his second daughter was born. He mentioned this to one of his neighbors, and days later, people with bags of groceries showed up at his tiny one-room apartment.
“They just put it down in the middle of the room and left,” said Yusra Haidar, Mr. Awali’s wife, sitting on a stoop outside their building, her young daughters, now 6 and 9, eating grapes at her feet.
But it was the health insurance, when Ms. Haidar was facing a difficult pregnancy, that saved the family. They applied for and received the insurance by submitting photographs and filling out paperwork. Someone from Hezbollah — he did not identify himself — came to inspect their apartment, and ask about their finances, checking their application.
They were issued a medical card that they can use in any hospital in Lebanon, Mr. Awali said. The $1,500 needed to pay for Ms. Haidar’s Caesarean section was now taken care of. Mr. Fayadh’s brother also is covered by the insurance, an alternative to state insurance that the group has made available to poor people for only about $10 a month.
“This is what Hezbollah does,” Mr. Fayadh said, with the Hezbollah station, Al Manar, flashing on the television screen behind him.
Most connections with the group are indirect. Its fighters are a part of the population, and identifying them can be close to impossible. On a mountain road not far from the Israeli border on Tuesday, a beat-up, rust-colored Toyota was parked with its doors open. Several men in ordinary clothes were standing on the road. They were in a hurry. One was carrying what appeared to be a hand-held radio, the trademark Hezbollah talking tool.
“No photo, no photo,” he said, walking away from the car.
The next day, the same man, in the same clothes, was standing in a hospital parking as hospital authorities were preparing to bury 88 bodies in a mass grave.
“They are ghosts,” said Husam, a thin unemployed man in a black T-shirt who was waiting for coffee at Mr. Fayadh’s shop. “Nobody knows them.”
Mr. Jouhair, the mechanic, says his son, Wissam, is a medic at the hospital in Bint Jbail, a town that is now largely leveled after Israeli fighter jets bombed it last week. Mr. Jouhair worked to avoid questions about his son, but it seemed clear he had been helping heal wounded fighters.
Hezbollah’s help for Mr. Fayadh came in the form of a canceled electricity bill. Some months ago, a bill amounting to thousands of dollars came for his café. He could not pay it.
“Hezbollah intervened for me to get the price down,” he said, fiddling with his empty plastic cup. “They said, ‘This is insulting for the people.’ ”
The bill came from Beirut. The electric company had sent out bills for a large sum before, something that was particularly frustrating for Mr. Fayadh, who had to transfer his four children from private to public school two years ago, because he could no longer afford the $1,000 annual fee for each child. He blamed the government of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which he said was corrupt and arrogant, ignoring the needs of southerners.
That sentiment is expressed by many here, who see themselves as separate from the Lebanese in the north and center of the country who support a government coalition that is often referred to as March 14, for the day in 2005 when thousands rallied to support them.
“I don’t trust them,” Mr. Jouhair said, as a Hezbollah station played on a radio under a small tree near his tire changing shop. “They do not represent me.”
Hezbollah members also act as silent police, keeping tabs on neighborhoods. Members in cars cruise about, stopping and asking questions at any sign of commotion. Late Friday afternoon, in a suburb of Tyre, men gathered to speak to a visitor and, within minutes, a bearded man in a button-down blue shirt and belted slacks walked up to the group.
“What’s going on here?” the man said, squinting in the sun. “What is she asking about?”
Residents identified the man as the Hezbollah security officer in the neighborhood. He carried a hand-held radio and fielded three cellphone calls in the course of a few minutes. He refused to identify himself. When asked about Hezbollah in the area, he replied, “Hezbollah is us, from the smallest child to the oldest man.”
The deep attachment to Hezbollah here has its roots in recent Lebanese history. In the Israeli invasion in 1982, Shiites across the south welcomed the Israelis, because they had come to fight the Palestinians, who had made their lives difficult for years. But as the occupation dragged on, Israelis came to be hated by the Shiites here, a feeling that is now passed on to small children growing up in the Lebanese south.
“What is that sound?” said Hani Rai, a neighbor of Mr. Jouhair, directing the attention of his small daughter Sara to the whine of a drone in the sky. “Voices of Israeli planes.”
Sara, who is only 3, can already recite a chant glorifying Mr. Nasrallah.
Now, Hezbollah’s military branch is separate from its social works, but in its early days it began together, organizing water delivery for people in Dahiya, the Shiite area in south Beirut, the scene of some of some of the most complete destruction in this war.
Several residents who knew Hezbollah members said they were trained and groomed for up to five years before becoming full-fledged members. The military wing is so secretive that sometimes friends and family members do not know a loved one is a part of it.
Mr. Rai said he was stunned to learn that a close friend of his, Muhammad, was a Hezbollah fighter. He learned of his membership only after his killing some years ago. His body was returned to his family in an Israeli military prisoner exchange, Mr. Rai said.
“When he would leave for a mission, he would say, ‘I’m going to Beirut,’ ” he said.
Mr. Rai has also been helped by Hezbollah: It paid for a relative’s heart operation.
In Tyre, even in this time of war, the group is still as elusive as ever. On Saturday afternoon, after Hezbollah fought Israeli commandos for several hours here just before dawn, men with serious faces, several of them bearded, walked purposefully through the halls of Hakoumi Hospital. Several stood by a large stack of coffins. One studied a list. Another looked distraught, his hair disheveled, his clothes unkempt. When a reporter approached, they turned and walked in the other direction.
“You are sitting here. Do you see anybody from Hezbollah?” said the hospital director, Dr. Salman Zainedine. “I’ve been here for a long time. I haven’t seen one Hezbollah body in this place.”
Unquote::::::::::::::::::::::::
Best Regards
Bala
From India, Madras
Another side of Hezbollah......................................... ...
What does the US or Britain say?
Quote::::::::::::
Hezbollah paid for his wife’s Caesarean section. It brought olive oil, sugar and nuts when he lost his job and even covered the cost of an operation on his broken nose.
Ahmed Awali, a security guard, ran out of money after a daughter was born. He told one of his neighbors, and soon bags of groceries arrived.
Like many poor Shiites across southern Lebanon, Ahmed Awali, 41, a security guard at an apartment building in this southern city, has received charity from Hezbollah for years. He says he is not a member. He does not even know the names of those who helped him.
Hezbollah fighters move like shadows across the mountains of southern Lebanon; its workers in towns and villages, equally as ghostly, have settled deeply into people’s lives.
They cover medical bills, offer health insurance, pay school fees and make seed money available for small businesses. They are invisible but omnipresent, providing essential services that the Lebanese government through years of war was incapable of offering.
Their work engenders a deep loyalty among Shiites, who for years were the country’s underclass and whose sense of pride and identity are closely intertwined with Hezbollah.
Their presence in southern Lebanon is so widespread that any Israeli military advance will do little to extricate the group, which is as much a part of society as its Shiite faith.
“The trees in the south say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ The stones say, ‘We are Hezbollah,’ ” said Issam Jouhair, a car mechanic. “If the people cannot talk, the stones will say it.”
Hezbollah is nowhere but everywhere. In this city, the gateway to the fighting and the location of several of southern Lebanon’s largest functioning hospitals, clues about its fighters surface daily.
A doctor at one of the hospitals, Jebel Amal, said it currently had about 450 patients. Hospital officials, however, seemed eager to show off a few wounded women and children, but would not allow access to any other patients.
On Wednesday, a mass funeral was canceled. Authorities cited the security situation. Minutes later, the sound of rockets being launched swooshed from an area near where the burial was to have been held.
“Just because I’m sitting here in this café doesn’t mean I’m not a resistance fighter,” said Haidar Fayadh, a cafe owner, who was smoking a water pipe as his patrons sipped tiny plastic cups of coffee near pictures of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
“Everyone has a weapon in his house,” he said. “There are doctors, teachers and farmers. Hezbollah is people. People are Hezbollah.”
The group is at once highly decentralized and extremely organized. Mr. Awali, whose job as a guard pays $170 a month, far lower wages than average, ran out of money for food shortly after his second daughter was born. He mentioned this to one of his neighbors, and days later, people with bags of groceries showed up at his tiny one-room apartment.
“They just put it down in the middle of the room and left,” said Yusra Haidar, Mr. Awali’s wife, sitting on a stoop outside their building, her young daughters, now 6 and 9, eating grapes at her feet.
But it was the health insurance, when Ms. Haidar was facing a difficult pregnancy, that saved the family. They applied for and received the insurance by submitting photographs and filling out paperwork. Someone from Hezbollah — he did not identify himself — came to inspect their apartment, and ask about their finances, checking their application.
They were issued a medical card that they can use in any hospital in Lebanon, Mr. Awali said. The $1,500 needed to pay for Ms. Haidar’s Caesarean section was now taken care of. Mr. Fayadh’s brother also is covered by the insurance, an alternative to state insurance that the group has made available to poor people for only about $10 a month.
“This is what Hezbollah does,” Mr. Fayadh said, with the Hezbollah station, Al Manar, flashing on the television screen behind him.
Most connections with the group are indirect. Its fighters are a part of the population, and identifying them can be close to impossible. On a mountain road not far from the Israeli border on Tuesday, a beat-up, rust-colored Toyota was parked with its doors open. Several men in ordinary clothes were standing on the road. They were in a hurry. One was carrying what appeared to be a hand-held radio, the trademark Hezbollah talking tool.
“No photo, no photo,” he said, walking away from the car.
The next day, the same man, in the same clothes, was standing in a hospital parking as hospital authorities were preparing to bury 88 bodies in a mass grave.
“They are ghosts,” said Husam, a thin unemployed man in a black T-shirt who was waiting for coffee at Mr. Fayadh’s shop. “Nobody knows them.”
Mr. Jouhair, the mechanic, says his son, Wissam, is a medic at the hospital in Bint Jbail, a town that is now largely leveled after Israeli fighter jets bombed it last week. Mr. Jouhair worked to avoid questions about his son, but it seemed clear he had been helping heal wounded fighters.
Hezbollah’s help for Mr. Fayadh came in the form of a canceled electricity bill. Some months ago, a bill amounting to thousands of dollars came for his café. He could not pay it.
“Hezbollah intervened for me to get the price down,” he said, fiddling with his empty plastic cup. “They said, ‘This is insulting for the people.’ ”
The bill came from Beirut. The electric company had sent out bills for a large sum before, something that was particularly frustrating for Mr. Fayadh, who had to transfer his four children from private to public school two years ago, because he could no longer afford the $1,000 annual fee for each child. He blamed the government of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which he said was corrupt and arrogant, ignoring the needs of southerners.
That sentiment is expressed by many here, who see themselves as separate from the Lebanese in the north and center of the country who support a government coalition that is often referred to as March 14, for the day in 2005 when thousands rallied to support them.
“I don’t trust them,” Mr. Jouhair said, as a Hezbollah station played on a radio under a small tree near his tire changing shop. “They do not represent me.”
Hezbollah members also act as silent police, keeping tabs on neighborhoods. Members in cars cruise about, stopping and asking questions at any sign of commotion. Late Friday afternoon, in a suburb of Tyre, men gathered to speak to a visitor and, within minutes, a bearded man in a button-down blue shirt and belted slacks walked up to the group.
“What’s going on here?” the man said, squinting in the sun. “What is she asking about?”
Residents identified the man as the Hezbollah security officer in the neighborhood. He carried a hand-held radio and fielded three cellphone calls in the course of a few minutes. He refused to identify himself. When asked about Hezbollah in the area, he replied, “Hezbollah is us, from the smallest child to the oldest man.”
The deep attachment to Hezbollah here has its roots in recent Lebanese history. In the Israeli invasion in 1982, Shiites across the south welcomed the Israelis, because they had come to fight the Palestinians, who had made their lives difficult for years. But as the occupation dragged on, Israelis came to be hated by the Shiites here, a feeling that is now passed on to small children growing up in the Lebanese south.
“What is that sound?” said Hani Rai, a neighbor of Mr. Jouhair, directing the attention of his small daughter Sara to the whine of a drone in the sky. “Voices of Israeli planes.”
Sara, who is only 3, can already recite a chant glorifying Mr. Nasrallah.
Now, Hezbollah’s military branch is separate from its social works, but in its early days it began together, organizing water delivery for people in Dahiya, the Shiite area in south Beirut, the scene of some of some of the most complete destruction in this war.
Several residents who knew Hezbollah members said they were trained and groomed for up to five years before becoming full-fledged members. The military wing is so secretive that sometimes friends and family members do not know a loved one is a part of it.
Mr. Rai said he was stunned to learn that a close friend of his, Muhammad, was a Hezbollah fighter. He learned of his membership only after his killing some years ago. His body was returned to his family in an Israeli military prisoner exchange, Mr. Rai said.
“When he would leave for a mission, he would say, ‘I’m going to Beirut,’ ” he said.
Mr. Rai has also been helped by Hezbollah: It paid for a relative’s heart operation.
In Tyre, even in this time of war, the group is still as elusive as ever. On Saturday afternoon, after Hezbollah fought Israeli commandos for several hours here just before dawn, men with serious faces, several of them bearded, walked purposefully through the halls of Hakoumi Hospital. Several stood by a large stack of coffins. One studied a list. Another looked distraught, his hair disheveled, his clothes unkempt. When a reporter approached, they turned and walked in the other direction.
“You are sitting here. Do you see anybody from Hezbollah?” said the hospital director, Dr. Salman Zainedine. “I’ve been here for a long time. I haven’t seen one Hezbollah body in this place.”
Unquote::::::::::::::::::::::::
Best Regards
Bala
From India, Madras
Yes, I remember reading that Hezbollah gets hundreds of thousands of dollars as donations from sources that are not disclosed, but they suspect it gets it from Iran and Syria. They use this donation for getting medical supplies, establishing hospitals, setting up schools and many other social welfare activities.
The situation in Lebanon seems to be going more and more against Israel as International Aid Agencies are claiming that Israel is blocking aid support from reaching Lebanon. It has even striked a Palestianian Refugee Camp in Lebanon.
Did you read today's Times of India editorial titled "A terrorist State" by M. Najeeb Mubarki? Its a good piece on the situations in the Middle East and Israel's stand and position. It revolves more around the opposing forces for Israel and the silent stand taken by a perplexed Saudi Arabia! I should be highly surprised if we didn't see any uprising happening on a large scale in Middle East.
Regards,
Vinisha.
From India,
The situation in Lebanon seems to be going more and more against Israel as International Aid Agencies are claiming that Israel is blocking aid support from reaching Lebanon. It has even striked a Palestianian Refugee Camp in Lebanon.
Did you read today's Times of India editorial titled "A terrorist State" by M. Najeeb Mubarki? Its a good piece on the situations in the Middle East and Israel's stand and position. It revolves more around the opposing forces for Israel and the silent stand taken by a perplexed Saudi Arabia! I should be highly surprised if we didn't see any uprising happening on a large scale in Middle East.
Regards,
Vinisha.
From India,
Hi Vinisha,
And if indeed a violent uprising starts in the Middle East with most of the governments being autocratic, imagine what a Human Tragedy it could be for the hundreds of thousands of Indians living there. It could be a tragedy of a scale which this world has never seen so far.
Hope everybody realise the explosive mixture and bring things to normalcy very soon - but somehow with today's happenings in London, the levels are going to rise only.
Oh, what a world we are living in!!!!!!!!
Bala
From India, Madras
And if indeed a violent uprising starts in the Middle East with most of the governments being autocratic, imagine what a Human Tragedy it could be for the hundreds of thousands of Indians living there. It could be a tragedy of a scale which this world has never seen so far.
Hope everybody realise the explosive mixture and bring things to normalcy very soon - but somehow with today's happenings in London, the levels are going to rise only.
Oh, what a world we are living in!!!!!!!!
Bala
From India, Madras
Hi All,
How the voices of moderate Arabs are getting drowned in the cacophony of violence??? Read this below:
Moderate reformers across the Arab world say American support for Israel’s battle with Hezbollah has put them on the defensive, tarring them by association and boosting Islamist parties.
The very people whom the United States wanted to encourage to promote democracy from Bahrain to Casablanca instead feel trapped by a policy that they now ridicule more or less as “destroying the region in order to save it.”
Indeed, many of those reformers who have been working for change in their own societies — often isolated, harassed by state security, or marginalized to begin with — say American policy either strangles nascent reform movements or props up repressive governments that remain Washington’s best allies in the region.
“We are really afraid of this ‘new Middle East,’ ” said Ali Abdulemam, a 28-year-old computer engineer who founded the most popular political Web site in Bahrain. He was referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement last month that the situation in Lebanon represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.”
“They talk about how they will reorganize the region in a different way, but they never talk about the people,” Mr. Abdulemam said. “They never mention what the people want. They are just giving more power to the systems that exist already.”
His plight is shared by reformers across the Arab world.
Fawaziah al-Bakr, who promotes educational change and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, helped organize women to protest the Israeli attacks. “Nobody is talking about reform in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “All we talk about is the war, what to do about the war. There is no question that the U.S. has lost morally because of the war. Even if you like the people and the culture of the United States, you can’t defend it.”
The statement by Ms. Rice — during a fleeting stopover in Beirut last month — is being juxtaposed with the mounting carnage to rally popular opposition against all things American.
In Lebanon, Israel continues bombing despite the fact that the violence could destabilize the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, elected last year in a vote that the United States hailed as a democratic example for the Middle East. Iraq was the previous such example, reformers note bitterly.
In Bahrain, Mr. Abdulemam fears that a proposed new anti-terrorism law could severely curb the freewheeling discussions on BahrainOnline.org, his Web site, perhaps even shutting it down, because among other things the law bans attacking the Constitution. Recently, the government cut off access to Google Earth, he said, probably because too many citizens were zeroing in on royal palaces.
Members of Islamist political organizations, in particular, consider American actions a godsend, putting their own repressive governments under pressure and distancing their capitals from Washington, reformers say.
The Americans “wanted to tarnish the Islamic resistance and opposition movements, but in reality they only served them,” said Sobhe Salih, a 53-year-old lawyer in the Muslim Brotherhood, which was swept into the Egyptian Parliament in an election last fall after capturing an unprecedented 20 percent of the seats. “They made them more appealing to the public, made them a beacon of hope for everyone who hates American policies.”
Glance at any television screen — they are everywhere — and chances are that the screen will be showing mayhem in Lebanon, Baghdad or Gaza. It usually takes a minute or so to decipher which Arab city is burning. Popular satellite news channels like Al Jazeera say repeatedly that the carnage arrives via American policy and American weapons.
Before 2003, the hardest step for any Islamist movement was recruitment, noted Mohamed Salah, an expert on Islamic extremist movements who writes for the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat from Cairo. Moving someone from being merely devout to being an extremist took a long time. No longer, he said. Moderate Arab governments, which have pursued peace with Israel for nearly 30 years, have seen that policy undermined among their publics by Hezbollah’s ability to strike at Israel.
“Recruitment has become the easiest stage because the people have already been psychologically predisposed against the Americans, the West and against Israel,” Mr. Salah said.
Moderate reformers say they are driven to despair by what they see as inconsistencies in Washington’s Middle East policy. For example, in Lebanon lives a black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Washington approves of Israel’s bombing campaign to stamp out his organization, Hezbollah.
There is another black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a different secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and he lives in Iraq. He is an American friend.
“In Iraq the same kind of group is an ally of the United States, while in Lebanon they are an enemy whom they are fighting,” said Samir al-Qudah, a Jordanian civil engineer. “It has nothing to do with reform, but where America’s interests lie.”
The overwhelming conclusion drawn by Arabs is that Washington’s interests lie with Israel, no matter what the cost.
“Those calling for democratic reform in Egypt have discovered that once Israeli interests are in conflict with political reform in the Middle East, then the United States will immediately favor Israel’s interests,” said Ibrahim Issa, the editor of the weekly Al Dustour, who faces a jail sentence on charges of insulting President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Reformers invariably add that a credible effort to solve the issue of Arab land occupied by Israel, which they believe is the taproot of extremism, does not even seem to be on Washington’s radar.
Sheik Nasrallah is particularly adept at exploiting public anger at civilian deaths in Lebanon by talking about how fickle the United States can be as a friend. "I want you never to forget that this is the U.S. administration, Lebanon’s friend, ally and lover,” he mocked in a speech on Thursday. He also issued a pointed warning to other Arab leaders that if they spend more time defending their thrones than the people of Lebanon, they might find themselves pushed off those thrones.
Reformers also worry that the chaos in Iraq has fueled public perception that a despot can at least keep violence and sectarian differences at bay. In Syria, war news drowned out dismay over the jailing of activists in a crackdown by the Syrian government this spring.
Omar Amiralay, a Syrian documentary filmmaker, was in a taxi recently when the radio broadcast a news bulletin about a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed some 35 people.
“The Americans should just let Saddam out of jail for a week,” he quoted the driver as saying, only half joking. The dictator would slay one million Iraqis and “everything would be peaceful again.”
Mr. Amiralay is convinced that change will come only with an eruption from within, but people have no time to think about that now. “Uncertainty has become the order of the day,” he said.
There is a general sense in the region that the Bush administration soured on pushing democracy because of the successes of Islamist parties in the most recent Egyptian and Palestinian elections — the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas, an offshoot of the Brotherhood, in the Palestinian territories.
For the first time in a while, political analysts are again comparing governments like that of Mr. Mubarak of Egypt to that of the late Shah of Iran — an isolated despot who ignored the broad wishes of the population while currying favor with the American administration. Some rulers are clearly nervous.
King Abdullah of Jordan initially criticized Hezbollah when the fighting erupted nearly a month ago, but in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday he was dismissive of American plans for a “new Middle East.” The monarch said he could “no longer read the political map” of the region because of black clouds gathering from Somalia to Lebanon.
That kind of attitude may prove beneficial, reformers say, allowing more breathing space for public debate as leaders try to quiet public anger. But they doubt moderates will find much of a platform.
“There is no room on the street for a moderate like me,” said Mr. Qudah, the civil engineer in Jordan. “We are all against Israel attacking Lebanon, but I am also against hitting cities in Israel where there are civilians. If I tried to say the things in public that I am telling you on the phone, I might be beaten. In a war like this, the extremists alone own the streets.”
How unfortunate? Where does the world go frome here?
Think, friends, think.
Bala
From India, Madras
How the voices of moderate Arabs are getting drowned in the cacophony of violence??? Read this below:
Moderate reformers across the Arab world say American support for Israel’s battle with Hezbollah has put them on the defensive, tarring them by association and boosting Islamist parties.
The very people whom the United States wanted to encourage to promote democracy from Bahrain to Casablanca instead feel trapped by a policy that they now ridicule more or less as “destroying the region in order to save it.”
Indeed, many of those reformers who have been working for change in their own societies — often isolated, harassed by state security, or marginalized to begin with — say American policy either strangles nascent reform movements or props up repressive governments that remain Washington’s best allies in the region.
“We are really afraid of this ‘new Middle East,’ ” said Ali Abdulemam, a 28-year-old computer engineer who founded the most popular political Web site in Bahrain. He was referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement last month that the situation in Lebanon represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.”
“They talk about how they will reorganize the region in a different way, but they never talk about the people,” Mr. Abdulemam said. “They never mention what the people want. They are just giving more power to the systems that exist already.”
His plight is shared by reformers across the Arab world.
Fawaziah al-Bakr, who promotes educational change and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, helped organize women to protest the Israeli attacks. “Nobody is talking about reform in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “All we talk about is the war, what to do about the war. There is no question that the U.S. has lost morally because of the war. Even if you like the people and the culture of the United States, you can’t defend it.”
The statement by Ms. Rice — during a fleeting stopover in Beirut last month — is being juxtaposed with the mounting carnage to rally popular opposition against all things American.
In Lebanon, Israel continues bombing despite the fact that the violence could destabilize the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, elected last year in a vote that the United States hailed as a democratic example for the Middle East. Iraq was the previous such example, reformers note bitterly.
In Bahrain, Mr. Abdulemam fears that a proposed new anti-terrorism law could severely curb the freewheeling discussions on BahrainOnline.org, his Web site, perhaps even shutting it down, because among other things the law bans attacking the Constitution. Recently, the government cut off access to Google Earth, he said, probably because too many citizens were zeroing in on royal palaces.
Members of Islamist political organizations, in particular, consider American actions a godsend, putting their own repressive governments under pressure and distancing their capitals from Washington, reformers say.
The Americans “wanted to tarnish the Islamic resistance and opposition movements, but in reality they only served them,” said Sobhe Salih, a 53-year-old lawyer in the Muslim Brotherhood, which was swept into the Egyptian Parliament in an election last fall after capturing an unprecedented 20 percent of the seats. “They made them more appealing to the public, made them a beacon of hope for everyone who hates American policies.”
Glance at any television screen — they are everywhere — and chances are that the screen will be showing mayhem in Lebanon, Baghdad or Gaza. It usually takes a minute or so to decipher which Arab city is burning. Popular satellite news channels like Al Jazeera say repeatedly that the carnage arrives via American policy and American weapons.
Before 2003, the hardest step for any Islamist movement was recruitment, noted Mohamed Salah, an expert on Islamic extremist movements who writes for the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat from Cairo. Moving someone from being merely devout to being an extremist took a long time. No longer, he said. Moderate Arab governments, which have pursued peace with Israel for nearly 30 years, have seen that policy undermined among their publics by Hezbollah’s ability to strike at Israel.
“Recruitment has become the easiest stage because the people have already been psychologically predisposed against the Americans, the West and against Israel,” Mr. Salah said.
Moderate reformers say they are driven to despair by what they see as inconsistencies in Washington’s Middle East policy. For example, in Lebanon lives a black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Washington approves of Israel’s bombing campaign to stamp out his organization, Hezbollah.
There is another black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a different secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and he lives in Iraq. He is an American friend.
“In Iraq the same kind of group is an ally of the United States, while in Lebanon they are an enemy whom they are fighting,” said Samir al-Qudah, a Jordanian civil engineer. “It has nothing to do with reform, but where America’s interests lie.”
The overwhelming conclusion drawn by Arabs is that Washington’s interests lie with Israel, no matter what the cost.
“Those calling for democratic reform in Egypt have discovered that once Israeli interests are in conflict with political reform in the Middle East, then the United States will immediately favor Israel’s interests,” said Ibrahim Issa, the editor of the weekly Al Dustour, who faces a jail sentence on charges of insulting President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Reformers invariably add that a credible effort to solve the issue of Arab land occupied by Israel, which they believe is the taproot of extremism, does not even seem to be on Washington’s radar.
Sheik Nasrallah is particularly adept at exploiting public anger at civilian deaths in Lebanon by talking about how fickle the United States can be as a friend. "I want you never to forget that this is the U.S. administration, Lebanon’s friend, ally and lover,” he mocked in a speech on Thursday. He also issued a pointed warning to other Arab leaders that if they spend more time defending their thrones than the people of Lebanon, they might find themselves pushed off those thrones.
Reformers also worry that the chaos in Iraq has fueled public perception that a despot can at least keep violence and sectarian differences at bay. In Syria, war news drowned out dismay over the jailing of activists in a crackdown by the Syrian government this spring.
Omar Amiralay, a Syrian documentary filmmaker, was in a taxi recently when the radio broadcast a news bulletin about a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed some 35 people.
“The Americans should just let Saddam out of jail for a week,” he quoted the driver as saying, only half joking. The dictator would slay one million Iraqis and “everything would be peaceful again.”
Mr. Amiralay is convinced that change will come only with an eruption from within, but people have no time to think about that now. “Uncertainty has become the order of the day,” he said.
There is a general sense in the region that the Bush administration soured on pushing democracy because of the successes of Islamist parties in the most recent Egyptian and Palestinian elections — the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas, an offshoot of the Brotherhood, in the Palestinian territories.
For the first time in a while, political analysts are again comparing governments like that of Mr. Mubarak of Egypt to that of the late Shah of Iran — an isolated despot who ignored the broad wishes of the population while currying favor with the American administration. Some rulers are clearly nervous.
King Abdullah of Jordan initially criticized Hezbollah when the fighting erupted nearly a month ago, but in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday he was dismissive of American plans for a “new Middle East.” The monarch said he could “no longer read the political map” of the region because of black clouds gathering from Somalia to Lebanon.
That kind of attitude may prove beneficial, reformers say, allowing more breathing space for public debate as leaders try to quiet public anger. But they doubt moderates will find much of a platform.
“There is no room on the street for a moderate like me,” said Mr. Qudah, the civil engineer in Jordan. “We are all against Israel attacking Lebanon, but I am also against hitting cities in Israel where there are civilians. If I tried to say the things in public that I am telling you on the phone, I might be beaten. In a war like this, the extremists alone own the streets.”
How unfortunate? Where does the world go frome here?
Think, friends, think.
Bala
From India, Madras
Sunayna,
I am not aware if its true but that is the reason cited by the Israeli Government to attack the civilian areas and villages like Qana. But there was no missile launcher found in Qana. It looks similar to the whole US trying to find underground missiles in Iraq and not finding anything episode.
Regards
Vinisha
From India,
I am not aware if its true but that is the reason cited by the Israeli Government to attack the civilian areas and villages like Qana. But there was no missile launcher found in Qana. It looks similar to the whole US trying to find underground missiles in Iraq and not finding anything episode.
Regards
Vinisha
From India,
Hi Sunana and Vinisha,
I tend to concur fully with Vinisha's opinion.
Now the UN Security Council (hasn't the UN become a toothless body long long ago?) has passed the resolution (to quote the news" after days of political wrangling between US, France and Israel in the midst of the human tragedy on the right wording for the resolution"!) asking both sides to cease fire. Unexplainable that the affected party - Lebanon- didn't seem to be involved in any discussion or negotiation!
That is the way world works?
Bala
From India, Madras
I tend to concur fully with Vinisha's opinion.
Now the UN Security Council (hasn't the UN become a toothless body long long ago?) has passed the resolution (to quote the news" after days of political wrangling between US, France and Israel in the midst of the human tragedy on the right wording for the resolution"!) asking both sides to cease fire. Unexplainable that the affected party - Lebanon- didn't seem to be involved in any discussion or negotiation!
That is the way world works?
Bala
From India, Madras
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