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Sunday, 13 Aug 2006
Dear Nasrallah,
I am writing you this letter because I owe you sir an apology: I didn't support you or your blessed organization when this conflict started. Hell, even before that. And for that, sir, I was wrong, and I apologize. From this day forward I am the biggest Hezbollah supporter, ever. I will wear those T-shirts, I will wave your yellow flag, and go to every pro Hezbollah rally and chant with the chanters. I am converted now. You made a believer out of me, with your victory over Israel, which totally destroyed the legend of the Israeli army, just like it was destroyed in 2000 and 73. what a fuckin resilient legend, huh? It's like the Freddy Kreuger of legends. Everytime you kill it, it just keeps coming back. This is why I urge you to destroy it once and for all this time around, and not accept the cease-fire agreement.
You see sir, we in Egypt accepted a cease-fire agreement once in 73, and that is why Israel still exists, as many nasserites and syrians have told me repeatedly. Had we not accepted the cease-fire and continued fighting, we would've eventually liberated all of palestine. But alas, that pussy Sadat and his concern over war cost, the mounting casualty rates and that second army in the Km 101 have cost us that victory. Never again. We should learn from our mistakes sir. Every Newspaper I read in the middle-east and every arab satalite news channel, especially yours, keeps informing me of how much Israelis you are killing, how few men you are losing and how you are accomplishing what no arab country has accomplished and are winning this war against Israel, and you know how the arab media never lies and always tells the truth. What I don't understand is this: if you are winning, why stop now? I say continue fighting, until, god willing, you destroy the accursed zionist entity and liberate Jersualem. I am sure that your army of 5000 fighters and your 10000 rockets can do it. I have faith in you, especially after all the victories you have achieved, like having the israeli army inside of Lebanon again, right where you want them of course, and having your neighborhood in Beirut destroyed, which saved you all the demolition costs it would've cost you for the Hezbollah Paradise Towers project, which will provide every shia family with a luxury High-rise apartment in a premium Bierut location. It was a fantastic business decision I must say. Die with envy Christians and sunnis. You didn't think of that, did ya?
Oh, those christians and sunnis and druze make me sick, with their "support" on one side and their pushing for cease-fire the other side. If they really supported You and Your party, they wouldn't even called for a cease-fire. Everyone knows you don't call for a cease-fire when you are so clearly winning. Those people are defeatists and possibly zionists agents, especially that Jumbalatt. He even looks like a jew, with his nose and his hair and his dislike of Syria. So what if they assassinated his father, huh? Is that enough reason for him to be such a freakin traitor? Hell NO. He should be the first on the butcher's block that one.
However, it is quite impossible that everybody who is calling for a cease-fire is a zionist traitor. I think the problem is that those people don't have any dignity, or at least have the wrong definition of dignity. Don't be hard on them, god knows I was one of them before I saw the light. I always thought the definition of dignity was that you have a good job, a decent house, could afford your kids a decent living in a peacefull country with a future. What american zionist propaganda. Dignity is getting attacked due to the actions of your leader, to the point of losing everything, and still refusing to hold that leader
accountable. Dignity is having your entire neighborhood bombed, your children killed, and your only reaction is to dance in the streets like zulu warriors in support of Hezbollah. That's what dignity, pride and honor are all about. I get that now.
But we can help them get it too. Think about it: those people- cursed christian, sunnis and druze-who call for the cease-fire don't have dignity for a very good reason: Their houses are still standing. Hell, more than 80% of the country is still not destroyed. That's a lot of people without dignity oh great ayatollah Nasrallah, and we need to teach it to them. So please, for their own sake, continue bombing Israel from their villages and eventually those zionists will fall into your trap and bomb them as well, giving them instant dignity. Don't worry about any backlash on the short or long run. I mean, look at Nasser: He too entered wars against enemies far stronger than him, and caused the death of thousands of egyptians and the economic destruction of the country for decades to come. Do the people hate him? Noooooo. They love him, because he gave them dignity. Hell, your biggest supporters in Egypt keep comparing you to him, and they love you for reminding them of the dignity they feel whenever arabs die. Thank you for reminding them how it feels like to have dignity. Thank you.
And please, don't listen to those people who talk to you about the mounting lebanese civilian casualties due to Israeli bombing. Those people are idiots. First of all, you can't have an omlet without breaking some eggs. What? They thought liberating Palestine was going to be achieved with no people dying? Helloo, we have to kill 8 million jews to do it, and they are not big fans of getting killed. Deaths are inevitable. But, unlike them, our dead go to Heaven. Instant martyrs. Even the israeli muslims we kill are martyrs, as you said yourself. Those people are the same people who complained about the half a million iraqi children that died from malnutrition and lack of medicine from the sanctions imposed on the glorious regime of Saddam. They don't understand that Saddam gave them Dignity for breakfast, Honor for lunch and Pride for dinner as one Iraqi friend once told me, or that those half a million children are now playing in Heaven, after dying with the dignity that Saddam's rule gave them. But don't get mad at the ignorant my dear sir; they just don't know any better, since they don't understand dignity. Just like those arab leaders of ours, curse their names and faces.
Those so called leaders are all zionist american agents and have absolutely no dignity what so ever, as my nasserite friends have repeatedly told me. And you know what? They are right. A true arab leader, a leader with dignity, should immediatly go to war against Israel the moment they attempt to respond to your glorious and justified acts of resistance. Hell, they should throw all caution to the wind, not care about how unprepared they might be, or how such a war would effect the country economically, or even how many people would die because of it, and like Nike, just do it! A true leader shouldn't care about such trivial things like the welfare of his country or the safety of his people, as long as he engages in wars of dignity and inflicts some damages against the evil nazi zionists. That's what your glorious role model showed them, and the egyptian people have looked around, saw the peace and quiet we have been living in for the past 27 years and screamed: I DON'T WANT THIS HONORLESS PEACE! GIVE ME WAR! GIVE ME DEATH! GIVE ME DIGNITY. You are teaching all arabs what it means to be a leader with dignity, not one of those pansies that govern Egypt, Jordan or the arabIAN Gulf, with all of their sissy talk of peace, development and economic stability. What a bunch of pussies! Seriously! You will show them when you liberate Palestine. Oh yes you will.
And finally, don't listen to all of those poeple who talk about the difference in your army and the israeli army, and how they have superior weapons, like aircrafts and nuclear warheads. Those fools don't understand that you have the most powerful weapon of all: You have GOD ON YOUR SIDE. You even hinted at your special relationship when you omnipotently spoke about how the Israelis were going to attack in 2 months anyway, so it was a good thing to provoke an attack from them now while they were unprepared. Many people wonderd how you knew that, but only I figured it out: God told you. What? Do those people think he placed you as the leader of his party for no reason? HA! Foolish know-nothings! You have a close personal relationship with him. He talks to you and tells you stuff. This is why you don't do any filed fighting anymore, and reserve your energy for those TV appearances. You are in no hurry to die in order to meet him; he comes to you every night. And people wonder why the rest of the planet is in such bad shape: GOD IS BUSY, DAMN IT! He is occupied with making sure his party survives. And despite all that, you have those people who keep asking him for things like a better world, Justice and peace on earth, while he is busy helping you fight his chosen people. Don't people understand what Priorities mean anymore? People today man, I tell you, no manners!
And finally, If those negative defeatists naysayers continue their misguided rhetoric, refusing to believe that God is really on your side and will hand you your victory on a plate of silver, I would like to remind them what your name means. You are called Nasrallah, which means God's Victory. Come on people. Do I have to spell it out for ya? God's victory, waging the war using God's party? You are so gonna win this. It's not even a discussion!
So please, dear great supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah, for all of those reasons, don't accept the cease-fire. Continue fighting, and the gates of Jerusalem are yours to pass through. I will be here, standing right behind you, well, in front of the Television really, but I will be cheering really really hard for every Israeli death you inflict for every 10 death they inflict upon your people. And I will also pray very hard for God to help you out more and hasten the destruction of Israel. I hear they are considering bringing back Bibi as Prime Minister, so it really shouldn't be long now, since he will do most of the damage for you anyway, probably all in God's plan of giving you that victory. He works in mysterious ways, doesn't he? Oh yes. Yes, he sure does. And his victory and total annihilation of the jewish people is nigh and will be on your hands, god willing. Just keep fighting Nasrallah, and keep firing those rockets. I am sure the Israelis will just roll over and play dead any minute now!
Your new supporter and faithful scribe,
Sandmonkey
August 13th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Slightly overdoing it, aren’t we?
August 13th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
That is right, SM.
But you need to go a step further. I think you need to get on board, not only with Nasrallah, but with the progressives in San Francisco:
http://www.zombietime.com/stop_the_us_israeli_war_8_12_2006/
Remember when the left used to be against racism?
Ah…. those long gone halcyon days.
August 13th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
One of my favorite picks among the photos over at Zombie Time is the covert counter-protestor who claims “Israel broke my arm.”
LMAO.
August 13th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Sam I can hardly count the times that I was on the floor with this one. Is someone spiking your lemonade? Can I have some? But seriously, you know I had an Aunt who used to say that G-d talked to her in the bathtub. Maybe if Nasrallah took a bath a bit more frequently, G-d would give him better advice…?
August 13th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
“But seriously, you know I had an Aunt who used to say that G-d talked to her in the bathtub.”
I knew someone who knew someone who claimed to have seen Jesus in his shower. Absolutely true (at least that he said it), not trying to make a joke.
August 13th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
cleanliness is close to godness, isn’t it?
sandmonkey (or SM, which ever you preffer), this is the second time I notice you mnetioning that there are 8 million “jooz” in israel. I would like to point out that there are only 7 milion citizen in the state of israel, out of which roughly 6 milion are jewish.
but seriously, I love it when you diss bibi. spoken like a true israeli lefty.
August 13th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
Hey, I am Israeli righty and Bibi is a scumbag. The man has repeatedly proven himself to be a corrupt, lying, incompetent opportunist good only for bullshiting at people.
August 13th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
My dear husband and I could barely get through that as we were dying laughing.
So does this conversion We’re so glad you are feeling more dignified and honourable now!! LOL.
Incidentally, in Russian “Nasralla” is a verb meaning “she shat on”. “Nasral” means “he shat on”. “Nasrat” means “to shit” - not to do “number two” but literally and repulsively “to shit”. Fitting, no? My cousins and I have been saying that “Nasralla has Nasral on all of Lebanon:. You can probably imagine the anti-communist poem that came from Nasr’s relationship with Khrustchev. Let’s just say the gist was that he enlisted Russia to shit all over Egypt. My mother-in-law still hasn’t forgiven Nasr.
Anyway..
You are a brilliant, fantastic Sandmonkey. Never stop blogging.
August 13th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Nadav,
That means that roughly 13% of the population is Arab.
Thank God Nasrallah has spent the past month bombing some dignity and honour into them.
August 13th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Lazarus, I don;t think I over did it at all. I just echoed similar sentiments to the ones availble in the comment section of this article:
http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2006/08/13/26558.htm
And those people actually mean it! Just think about that for a second! Ok?
August 13th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Well done Sandmonkey! You should be granted honorary Israeli citizenship.
August 13th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Holy monkey feces… that was great! Biting sarcasm … no … dripping sarcasm …
Also for your reading pleasure this or in the original french (fwench?)
Ok, that said, now that we have a (HAH!) ceasefire, who will help Lebanon pick up the pieces? We already know that no one is going to help the 1/3 of Israelis with disrupted lives. Would be great if the promise and delivery of the money was subject entirely to milestones on the way to dismantling hezb.
August 13th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
Mr Monkey of Sand,
After reading your blog.. I have decided.. leaders appointed by God.. they’re the way to go.. so I am currently burning my zionist israe… eezraaeeelee flag, and I’m going off to join the hizb’allah!! We must work together to bring all the Lebanese and Palestinians to heaven!.. wait.. I mean bring the Zionists to hell.. uhmm.. or is it free the lebanese.. and erase the eezraeeleees.. while oppressing palestine.. minor detail.. I’ll figure that one out after the war..
Khamenie who akabar!! and Nasrallah is his General (peace be upon them)
August 13th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
At least one person on al-Arabiya gets it:
“I am amzed that we always declare victory and our country is destroyed and over 1000 of our citizens are killed. Everybody is praising Hezbollah because they didn`t have to suffer and loose family members like the lebanese did. When are we going to start valuing people instead of some dream of defeating Israel? the whole wold is moving on and progressing and we are still dreaming about killing and destruction”
Quelle victory.
August 13th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
test
August 13th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
SM, from what I’ve been reading in the news, it seems like Hizbullah has taken your excellent advice to heart:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=109969
and
http://pajamasmedia.com/2006/08/if_you_are_men_threats_and_blu.php
I love good sarcasm, thank you SM!
August 13th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Great post
ROFLMAO 
The al arabiya website has some english language contributions:
Such as this one:
“Sorry for typing in english, no arabic keyboard
Laith |13/08/2006 م، 06:45 مساء (السـعودية) 03:45 مساء (جرينيتش)
I think Hizbollah`s army should join the lebanese army in a special regiment or division, give their weapons to the lebanese army and use their experience from the war to train their country`s army how to defend itself in case israel fights again.”
Did these people miss something or were they not being told that Israel did not start this whole mess? There is no reason for Israel to bomb Amman. There is no reason for Israel to bomb Cairo. But there was a reason to bomb Beirut. And this does not ring a bell? Perhaps Israel is not the agressor but can actually make peace with its neighbours?
Sigh.
August 13th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
-”give their weapons to the lebanese army and use their experience from the war to train their country`s army how to defend itself in case israel fights again.”-
armies can’t fight like garillas, that’s the whole difference between them. an army can’t just take of it’s uniform, assimilate into the civilian population and lunch missiles into israel instead of actually defending the teritory..
August 13th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
I was totally laughing out loud.Out loud.No, seriously I love it, but you’re going to get us shut down, then again, all for the public good, so its cool. You’ve gotten some great comments here but how will this fare with Egyptian readers?
Honestly, if Arab nationalism had any sense in it it would sound like this. If anyone gave a damn about our countries, they’d all say the same. I think its that a good life seems so impossible, that we’re now in search of the abstract dignity. We have nothing to lose so we go in search of the meaningless and the unatainable.
When will people understand that I can be anti Hizbullah and anti Israel?
I dislike Israel, I just dislike Hizbullah more. And that is in no way racist against Jews or Shiites. It’s a freaking political opinion.
When will Arabs start focusing on their own deplorable states for a while and forget about freakin zionist conspiracies?
It is still a far way off, from a time when the general Arab public will understand Ma’moun Fendi, my dad, and SM.lol.
August 13th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
~~~~~10# The Sandmonkey Says:
August 13th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Lazarus, I don;t think I over did it at all. I just echoed similar sentiments to the ones availble in the comment section of this article:
http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2006/08/13/26558.htm
And those people actually mean it! Just think about that for a second! Ok?
~~~~~
I couldn’t stop laughing over this posting. Now, with this comment, I’m scared….
Tse.
August 13th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Yosra,
I get your post. I think that HA is hurting the Arabs more than it could ever hurt Israel and it’s a giant shame.
I’m wondering what you mean by “When will people understand that I can be anti Hizbullah and anti Israel?”
What do you mean anti-Israel? How does that manifest itself for you?
August 13th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Great :)))
BTW: Does anybody know a trustworthy organisation which cares for reconstruction and economic development in South Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories without mixing help and martial ideology?
I have been looking for such projects for quite a while now but could not find anything else than organisations for emergency aid (which is no doubt very important but normally does not help the ordinary people to stand on their own feet).
August 13th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Beautiful,
I’ll try to convince someone in Russia to translate and publish this, with respect to the copyright of cause. They have their own problems, with their Government pushing the dignity button, and the new wave of fascists (Dugin, Limonov - check out the flag at http://eng.nbp-info.ru/) pushing it even further. Very good statement, with its value valid well outside the Arab World as well.
August 13th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Emilie
Hizbolla runs charities. Since their work does not involve US arms sales or settlements or antisemitic acts of mass murder like we’ve seen in Beruit - you would probably get the best value for the buck through them.
You could also check with the Islamic Councils. Make sure you don’t end up with one of those CHalabi foundations.
Better yet - go to a Mosque and ask a cleric how to donate. Check with NOI. I don’t know if the red crescent is as corrupt as the red cross - but you can check that too!
Maybe Gush Shalom knows - but Gaza is undera news blackout. I am afraid to even imagine what is going on in that concentration camp. We’ve got the tail between their legs, part time warrior, full time racist, IDF, in a really bad mood because of the hard love the Lebonese resistance is sharing with them. THe Palestinians are defenseless, therefore take the brunt of Zion’s vain anger.
August 13th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
Emilie; There are no construction efforts to improve the lot of the Palestinians. Doesn’t fit the program.
The Arab world is awash with petro-dollars. They could build schools, hospitols, factories, or anything they wanted in Palestine. They could make it the envy of the world and make the Israeli economy look pitiful.
But they don’t because it doesn’t fit their agenda. They need the suffering of lots of Arab people in the occupied territories so that the Israelis are the bad guys. And they need these bad guys so that the Arab population doesn’t look at their own pitiful lives and at the lowsy leadership they have.
The tyrants of the Arab world need to have somebody out side of their countries worse than their own people. And they need an evil boogieman to blame it all on.
Thus we have the “poor suffering Palestinians” and those nasty Jews that caused it all.
SM; great post!! Should be mandatory reading throughout the ME!!
August 13th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Thanks for the information, Cadavre. Unfortunately, Hezbullah is not exactly what I had in mind when asking for an organisation which does not mix help and martial ideology; same with militant Palestinian organisations and their supporters.
What I am looking for is a foundation which supports ordinary people to reconstruct their houses, their farms, their small trade and commerce, etc. -in short: to get an income and become independent of alms.
Asking a cleric is a good idea, but unfortunately, those I asked so far could only give me adresses for emergency relief and intercultural exchange. Both are important but do not help the ordinary people to earn their livelihood.
August 13th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
thewiz, thanks for your information, too. So far as I have learned, several programs have spent millions to develop the Palestinian economics, financed by the European Community, the USA, the World Bank, etc. Unfortunately, none of those I know was really succesful.
It might be that “the Arab world” is not interested in Palestinians who work on the improvement of their economic situation. It might even be that many Palestininans or South Lebanese prefer to head for what they believe to be the otherworld paradise. But I can hardly imagine that there is nobody who would like to have a decent secular life. Even if there should be only a few of them, they deserve support. As I will hardly be the first who got that idea, there will be foundations which care for such projects. At least I hope so. Any hints?
August 13th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
The Salvation Army is legit, do they have a branch in Lebanon?
August 13th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
another great post SM. i was laughing my ass off till i realized that there are people out there that will read this post or other content like it and take it at face value. that kinda took the fun out of it for me.
the pictures that tommy posted of the san fran rally made my blood run cold. it’s amazing that the freedom’s of this nation can be used so revoltingly. but we have the first ammendment for a reason. my deep respect to the woman in the window with her little flag.
August 14th, 2006 at 12:34 am
Emilie,
I don’t know exactly but check out this site. It’s run by both Palestinians and Israelis. They may have a link or you may be able to contact someone there and they can put you in touch with someone.
http://www.mideastweb.org/
Unfortunately, the situation for the Palestinians is grim because most live in refugee camps, which are temporary by nature. So, I don’t know that people necessarily want to build until there is a permanent Palestinian State. But you can try.
August 14th, 2006 at 12:55 am
“Faithful scribe“?
Got a new job, Sandmonkey?
August 14th, 2006 at 12:58 am
[...] Nasrallah is always boasting about how Hezbollah is the “resistance.” And, according to the Sandmonkey, he’s being hailed as a hero all over the Arab media. Once upon a time, not so long ago, this was considered resistance: It was in Denmark, however, that Germans found out how fully justified the Foreign Office’s apprehensions had been. The story of the Danish Jews is sui generis, and the behavior of the Danish people and their government was unique among all the countries of Europe - whether occupied, or a partner of the Axis, or neutral and truly independent. One is tempted to recommend the story as required reading in political science for all students who wish to learn something about non-violent action in resistance to an opponent posssesssing vastly superior means of violence. To be sure, a few other countries in Europe lacked proper “understanding of the Jewish question”, and actually a majority of them were opposed to “radical” and “final” solutions. Like Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and Bulgaria proved to be nearly immune to anti-Semitism, but of the three that were in the German sphere of influence, only the Danes dared speak out on the subject to their German masters. Italy and Bulgaria sabotaged German orders and indulged in a comlicated game of double-dealing and double-crossing, saving their Jews by a tour de force of sheer ingenuity, but they never contested the policy as such. ….When the Germans approached them rather cautiously about introducing the yellow badge, tehy were simply told that the King would be the first to wear it, and the Danish government officials were careful to point out that anti-Jewish measure of any sort would cause their immedite resignation. It was decisive in this whole matter that the Germans did not even succeed in introducing the vitally important distinction between Danes of Jewish origin…and the 1400 German Jewish refugees who found asylum in the country…This refusal must have surprised the Germans to no end…The Danes … explained …that because the stateless refugees were no longer German citizens, the Nazis could not claim them without Danish assent…Thus, none of the preparatory moves, so important for the bureaucracy of murder, could be carried out, and operations were postponed until the fall of 1943….riots broke out in Danish shipyards, where the dock workers refused to repair German ships and then went on strike. [...]
August 14th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Not for nothing, but that fucking dog in SF with the sign about “Kikes” would have had his fucking ass kicked from here to next week, cops or no cops nearby. I would have pulled my gun, forced him into my car, and put a hurt on him with a few friends using a pair of pliars and a blowtorch.
August 14th, 2006 at 1:30 am
Jay and anonon: Thanks!
As the camps exist for almost 60 years now, some of their inhabitants might have ceased to regard the camps as temporary and engage to improve their present situation.
The salvation army does not seem to have a branch in Lebanon.
I hope te mideastweb can help with contacts. Any addidtional hints are welcome
August 14th, 2006 at 1:36 am
Yeah, SM. Loved the post, but I’m not laughing, either. Who was it during the Nuremburg trials that said something to the effect that it was easy to control a population by introducing a “straw man” enemy that could be hyped as threatening the national identity. It seems like 1984 is going to drag on until at least 2084…
August 14th, 2006 at 2:24 am
“I knew someone who knew someone who claimed to have seen Jesus in his shower.”
EVERY time I take a shower I see Jesus. A tad frisky in the morning sometimes.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:42 am
You aren’t very convincing, SM.
I didn’t see a single “Death to America” or “Death to Israel” in your entire post.
August 14th, 2006 at 3:20 am
go and get a job you have to much time on your hands
August 14th, 2006 at 4:26 am
I have never laughed so much!!! You are brilliant.
August 14th, 2006 at 5:05 am
The fodder continues. It looks like Nasrallah isn’t going to disarm in the south.
August 14th, 2006 at 6:13 am
Sandmonkey, I thought you might be interested in this quote from the Arab Times; thanks to Andrew Bolt:
“Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of “these irregular phenomena” is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community.”
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/arab_times_praises_israels_war_against_hezbollah/
Would like to read the rest the rest of the editorial but the Arab Times seems to be having trouble with their system. Might be working later. (link in Bolt’s post)
August 14th, 2006 at 7:43 am
i feel sick after reading what you wrote , SM , it is better to know about politic before talking about it , what means to win or lose a war ? the US army in vitnam lost the war , does that means that vitnam destroyed the american army or occupied america in revenge? no, but winning and losing has a lot of meanings and criterias
a final word , we must have a good look about anything to understand it before talking about it
August 14th, 2006 at 9:44 am
SM, once again thank you for your read. I fear you are right on the ball about Bibi. You and Olehgirl might want to keep an eye on Lieberman though. He has been absolutely silent from day 1 till this morning and he is playing it very “stately” and waiting for the street to do the work - and it will, just read the talkbacks in the Israeli press.
Off the subject but for your erudition and my sensitivity on the subject you have inadvertently insulted my Zulu brothers. The Zulu are a decent, honourable and dignified people. The Zulu impi justifiably earned their reputation as fierce warriors and venerable tacticians on the battlefield defeating both the Boers and the British (Isandlwana). They fought on the battlefield. They did not hide in the kraal or dance to celebrate the demise of their enemies. They honoured their agreements and treaties. Even in defeat they retained their honour and dignity without losing their humanity. Whether as royalist Inkatha or as ANC they resisted colonial occupation and apartheid without resorting to terror (see for example the Inkosi Bhambatha uprising and note that Inkozi amaZondi’s first action was to evacuate and protect the civilians). To equate them to HB is to insult them. I know you didn’t intend to. You can forward your appologies to His Majesty, King Goodwill Zwelithini Ka Bhekezulu Ka Solomon Ka Dinuzulu. Hebk! Yusuthu. Hebe Yusuthu.
August 14th, 2006 at 9:50 am
42. benhoz:
America lost the Vietnam war because the western world had not yet understood the concept of “the good war/the bad war”, and, unfortunately, it seems that many have not made the destinction yet… Losing the war had nothing to do with getting beaten by the North-vietnamese army, but rather not enjoying the support of the citizens of the western world.
In any case, who is the loser in this war? The Israeles, who might suffer a worsening of their reputation and a slightly more aggresive attitude from the arab world or the Lebanese, who can look around at a land bombed decades back in time and completely under the thumb of an autonomous paramilitary group, whose greatest goal is to repeat the process as soon as possible?
August 14th, 2006 at 10:47 am
absolutely hilarious, don’t forget to post it now!
August 14th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Perhaps when Nassrallah comes out of hiding, oops, I mean when he resumes his position at the head of the actual fighters, someone will pass on your good wishes. Hezbollah was able , by hiding amongst the civilians and manipulating the world press, to withstand the might, well 7% of the might, of the Israeli army. Quite a victory or it will be for many in the Arab world. Maybe not to those who lost family, friends, or homes in Lebanon.
August 14th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
A spectacular victory for Nasrallah! Only 500+ of his comrades killed and only 2 billion dollars worth of damage. The Shia world has found a new hero, one who can yet again twist facts to suit their narrow agenda. My guess is this time some of those Shia peasants who will be living in cardboard boxes (aka post consumer recycled executive mini homes) might not be so quick to support the “Army of God”, from what I’ve read few Christians, Druze and others in Lebanon support this group and unless Iran ponies up real big bucks soon those poor idiots will start to see the fallacy of Hezbollah as their guardian angel.
August 14th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Unfortunately, those living in cardboard boxes tend to make the best recruits for extremist organizations.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Nice job!
August 14th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
I loved it
Thanks.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
Sandmonkey throwing sand at Nasalboy? For shame, you are ruining the hra-hray parties.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
And those people actually mean it! Just think about that for a second! Ok?
Sandmonkey, in an era where extremism is normal, it becomes impossible to exaggerate for comic/satirical effect. As extreme as you get for the sake of laughs, there’s somebody who’s willing to push it farther — and IS DEAD SERIOUS.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
“First of all, you can’t have an omlet without breaking some eggs.”
Omlet? Ehud Omlet? How dare you take the name of the Israeli PM in vain!
August 14th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Emilie,
I don’t know of any charities in that part of the world that DON’T somehow have to pay a “tax” to whatever militia is active and operating in the area they are trying to help. If they don’t pay the protection money, their supplies get confiscated and their workers have “accidents”.
So, in answer to your question, there probably are no relief organizations in Lebanon that do not have to (or willingly) contribute some money to militias.
Remember, if in doubt, don’t give. Money to the wrong organization is worse than not giving any.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
As a jordanian, I can assure you that many arab people, especially (but not only) in Lebanon, wished that Israel will do the dirty job and clear Lebanon of Hizbulla, which makes a huje damage to Lebanon - a beautiful and peaceful country. Hizbulla shot Lebanese people in the war and made them stay in the south instead of running away when they could, since they needed them as a human barrier in front of the israeli troops. it is an Iranian sponsered and not a Lebanese organization.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
i hate israil and love Nasr Alla
August 14th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
sandmonkey, has your grandma told you that you have a career in journalism?
August 14th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Brilliant piece!
August 14th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
Way to go! What a pleasant suprise….I just knew there had to be Arabs out there who cared more for their own people and well, just living a normal life than they did for killing Jews and assorted other ‘infidels’….every now and then one or two appear, like you and Wafa Sultan I know there are others and I know its dangerous for you to speak out…but it is good and right that you do…
Please note there are those in Israel and in the West who will note Nasrallah and others boastful glee about having given Israel a thrashing to ensure it (the perceived thrashing) does not happen again and is repaid ten fold, no one likes to be humiliated, neither Arab not Jew, one would have thought that BOTH sides had grasped this by now…. this does not bode well for the next round….
August 14th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
I AM NOT TOO SURE NASRALLA CAN EVEN UNDERSTAND YOUR LETTER ….IF HE DID HE WOULD NOT BE WHO HE IS ….A BLINDED FANATIC
August 14th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Right on the mark! All you missed was Global Warming!
August 14th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
“Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)?
Answer: Israel.
Question: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed?
Answer: Israel.
Question Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East created 762,000 refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated?
Answer: Israel.
Question: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United Nations diplomat assassinated?
Answer: Israel.
Question: In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered the assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime minister?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship, the USS Liberty, in international waters, killing 34 and wounding 171 US sailors?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified documents and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union?
Answer: Israel.
Question: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the US president grant Pollard a full pardon?
Answer: Israel.
Question. What Middle East country allows US Jewish murderers to flee to its country to escape punishment in the United States and refuses to extradite them once in their custody?
Answer: Israel
Question. What Middle East country preaches against hate yet builds a shrine and a memorial for a murderer who killed 29 Palestinians while they prayed in their Mosque.
Answer: Israel
Question: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the United States, according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders?
Answer: Israel.
Question. Which country in the Middle East deliberately targeted a U.N. Refugee Camp in Qana, Lebanon and killed 103 innocent men, women, and especially children in 1996?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by U.S. vetoes?
Answer: Israel.
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives more than one-third of all U.S. aid yet is the 16th richest country in the world?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East receives U.S. weapons for free and then sells the technology to the Republic of China even at the objections of the U.S.?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely insults the US people by having its Prime Minister address the United States Congress and lecturing them like children on why they have no right to reduce foreign aid?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East had its Prime Minister announce to his staff not to worry about what the United States says because “We control America?”
Answer: Israel
Question: What country in the Middle East was cited by Amnesty International for demolishing more than 4000 innocent Palestinian homes as a means of ethnic cleansing.
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East has just recently used a weapon of mass destruction, a one-ton smart bomb, dropping it in the center of a highly populated area killing 15 civilians including 9 children?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely kills young Palestinian children for no reason other than throwing stones at armored vehicles, bulldozers, or tanks?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East signed the Oslo Accords promising to halt any new Jewish Settlement construction, but instead, has built more than 270 new settlements since the signing?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East has assassinated more than 100 political officials of its opponent in the last 2 years while killing hundreds of civilians in the process, including dozens of children?
Answer: Israel
Question: Which country in the Middle East regularly violates the Geneva Convention by imposing collective punishment on entire towns, villages, and camps, for the acts of a few, and even goes as far as demolishing entire villages while people are still in their homes?
Answer: Israel
Question: What country in the Middle East is the United States threatening to attack because of fear that it may be a threat to us and to our allies?
Answer: Syria & Iran
It’s absolutely ridiculous to even suggest that Hezbollah is the aggressor in the current crisis occurring in the Middle East. If Hezbollah took Israeli soldiers then shouldn’t Israel show a little restraint in bombing Hezbollah buildings since its possible the soldiers are inside of them? There retrieval of two soldiers is being used as a pretext to destroy Lebanon as well as kill it’s civilians.
800+ civilians have died thus far with 2500+ injured. If you compare the American news media (Fox News, ABC, CNBC, MSNBC, CBS, etc.) to international news sources such as the BBC or CBC you realize that in the USA you’re being horse fed filtered and biased news.
The Israeli’s have over 11,000 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in there prisons, including women and children so to make a fuss about two captured soldiers is at the least hypocritical. The post below is a perfect example of the targeting of civilians by Israel. Let me also remind you that these officers were never charged with any crime.
http://spikedhumor.com/articles/38051/Sad_World_We_Live_In.html
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Palestinians, married to Arab citizens of Israel, can’t live with their spouses in Israel. The controversial law that prohibited Palestinians married to Israelis to move to Israel was challenged in court with 6 to 5 votes, Israel’s high court rejected the idea that the law violated the civil rights of Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel. Israel authorities contended that letting young Palestinians into Israel posed too great a security risk. The law was introduced in 2002 to protect Israeli citizens from Palestinians entering the country under false pretext to carry out attacks. At the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, a few Palestinians who received citizenship through family reunification carried out attacks. Although the law was an emergency measure and only supposed to last for one year, it now seems to have become permanent. The court has been accused of upholding racist legislation by Palestinian-Israeli families, legislators and human rights activists.
Only Palestinian women over the age of 25 and men over 35 are eligible to join their families in Israel and eventually receive citizenship.
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As the tv networks give unlimited airtime to Israel’s apologists, the message rolls out that no nation, least of all Israel, can permit bombardment or armed incursion across its borders without retaliation.
The guiding rule in this tsunami of drivel is that the viewers should be denied the slightest access to any historical context, or indeed to anything that happened prior to June 28, which was when the capture of an Israeli soldier and the killing of two others by Hamas hit the headlines, followed soon thereafter by an attack by a unit of Hezbollah’s fighters.
Memory is supposed to stop in its tracks at June 28, 2006.
Let’s go on a brief excursion into pre-history. I’m talking about June 20, 2006, when Israeli aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in an attempted extrajudicial assassination attempt on a road between Jabalya and Gaza City. The missile missed the car. Instead it killed three Palestinian children and wounded 15.
Back we go again to June 13, 2006. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a van in another attempted extrajudicial assassination. The successive barrages killed nine innocent Palestinians.
Now we’re really in the dark ages, reaching far, far back to June 9, 2006, when Israel shelled a beach in Beit Lahiya killing 8 civilians and injuring 32.
That’s just a brief trip down Memory Lane, and we trip over the bodies of twenty dead and forty-seven wounded, all of them Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Israel regrets… But no! Israel doesn’t regret in the least. Most of the time it doesn’t even bother to pretend to regret. It says, “We reserve the right to slaughter Palestinians whenever we want. We reserve the right to assassinate their leaders, crush their homes, steal their water, tear out their olive groves, and when they try to resist we call them terrorists intent on wrecking the ‘peace process’”.
Now Israel says it wants to wipe out Hezbollah. It wishes no harm to the people of Lebanon, just so long as they’re not supporters of Hezbollah, or standing anywhere in the neighborhood of a person or a house or a car or a truck or a road or a bus or a field, or a power station or a port that might, in the mind of an Israeli commander or pilot, have something to do with Hezbollah. In any of those eventualities all bets are off. You or your wife or your mother or your baby get fried.
Israel regrets… But no! As noted above, it doesn’t regret in the least. Neither does George Bush, nor Condoleezza Rice nor John Bolton who is the moral savage who brings shame on his country each day that he sits as America’s ambassador (unconfirmed) at the UN and who has just told the world that a dead Israel civilian is worth a whole more in terms of moral outrage than a Lebanese one.
None of them regrets. They say Hezbollah is a cancer in the body of Lebanon. Sometimes, to kill the cancer, you end up killing the body. Or bodies. Bodies of babies. Lots of them. Go to the website fromisraeltolebanon.info and take a look. Then sign the petition on the site calling on the governments of the world to stop this barbarity.
You can say that Israel brought Hezbollah into the world. You can prove it too, though this too involves another frightening excursion into history.
This time we have to go far, almost unimaginably far, back into history. Back to 1982, before the dinosaurs, before CNN, before Fox TV, before O’Reilly and Limbaugh. But not before the neo-cons who at that time had already crawled from the primal slime and were doing exactly what they are doing now: advising an American president to give Israel the green light to “solve its security problems” by destroying Lebanon.
In 1982 Israel had a problem. Yasir Arafat, headquartered in Beirut, was making ready to announce that the PLO was prepared to sit down with Israel and embark on peaceful, good faith negotiations towards a two-state solution.
Israel didn’t want a two-state solution, which meant — if UN resolutions were to be taken seriously — a Palestinian state right next door, with water, and contiguous territory. So Israel decided chase the PLO right out of Lebanon. It announced that the Palestinian fighters had broken the year-long cease-fire by lobbing some shells into northern Israel.
Palestinians had done nothing of the sort. I remember this very well, because Brian Urquhart, at that time assistant secretary general of the United Nations, in charge of UN observers on Israel’s northern border, invited me to his office on the 38th floor of the UN hq in mid-Manhattan and showed me all the current reports from the zone. For over a year there’d been no shelling from north of the border. Israel was lying.
With or without a pretext Israel wanted to invade Lebanon. So it did, and rolled up to Beirut. It shelled Lebanese towns and villages and bombed them from the air. Sharon’s forces killed maybe 20,000 people, and let Lebanese Christians slaughter hundreds of Palestinian refugees in the camps of Sabra and Chatilla.
The killing got so bad that even Ronald Reagan awoke from his slumbers and called Tel Aviv to tell Israel to stop. Sharon gave the White House the finger by bombing Beirut at the precise times — 2.42 and 3.38 — of two UN resolutions calling for a peaceful settlement on the matter of Palestine.
When the dust settled over the rubble, Israel bunkered down several miles inside Lebanese sovereign territory, which it illegally occupied, in defiance of all UN resolutions, for years, supervising a brutal local militia and running its own version of Abu Graibh, the torture center at the prison of Al-Khiam.
Occupy a country, torture its citizens and in the end you face resistance. In Israel’s case it was Hezbollah, and in the end Hezbollah ran Israel out of Lebanon, which is why a lot of Lebanese regard Hezbollah not as terrorists but as courageous liberators.
The years roll by and Israel does its successful best to destroy all possibility of a viable two-state solution. It builds illegal settlements. It chops up Palestine with Jews-only roads. It collars all the water. It cordons off Jerusalem. It steals even more land by bisecting Palestinian territory with its “fence”. Anyone trying to organize resistance gets jailed, tortured, or blown up.
Sick of their terrible trials, Palestinians elect Hamas, whose leaders make it perfectly clear that they are ready to deal on the basis of the old two-state solution, which of course is the one thing Israel cannot endure. Israel doesn’t want any “peaceful solution” that gives the Palestinians anything more than a few trashed out acres surrounded with barbed wire and tanks, between the Israeli settlements whose goons can murder them pretty much at will.
So here we are, 24 years after Sharon did his best to destroy Lebanon in 1982, and his heirs are doing it all over again. Since they can’t endure the idea of any just settlement for Palestinians, it’s the only thing they know how to do. Call Lebanon a terror-haven and bomb it back to the stone age. Call Gaza a terror-haven and bomb its power plant, first stop on the journey back to the stone age. Bomb Damascus. Bomb Teheran.
Of course they won’t destroy Hezbollah. Every time they kill another Lebanese family, they multiply hatred of Israel and support for Hezbollah. They’ve even unified the parliament in Baghdad, which just voted unanimously — Sunnis and Shi’ites and Kurds alike — to deplore Israel’s conduct and to call for a ceasefire.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these little excursions into history, even though history is dangerous, which is why the US press gives it a wide birth. But even without the benefit of historical instruction, a majority of Americans in CNN’s instant poll –- about 55 per cent out of 800,000 as of midday, July 19 — don’t like what Israel is up to.
Dislike is one thing, but at least in the short term it doesn’t help much. Israel’s 1982 attack on Lebanon grew unpopular in the US, after the first few days. But forcing the US to pressure Israel to settle the basic problem takes political courage, and virtually no US politician is prepared to buck the Israel lobby, however many families in Lebanon and Gaza may be sacrificed on the altar of such cowardice.
August 14th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Now where did I put Hassan’s email address. I am certain that he would like to read this letter.
I will translate it on babble fish.
August 14th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Nasrallah would read the article but he’s too busy with his PBS like pledge drive to Iran and Syria looking for dinars to improve his recently modified fixer upper. I heard PBS was scheduled to begin principle filming in southern Beirut on a new home show called This Old Rubble.
August 14th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
31 years ago, when the Lebanese civil war was at its height, the Syrians sent their army into Lebanon (invited, of all people, by the Christians). At the time, the then Minister of Defense Shimon Peres and his associates created hysteria in Israel. They demanded that Israel deliver an ultimatum to the Syrians, to prevent them from reaching the Israeli border. Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister, told me then that that was sheer nonsense, because the best that could happen to Israel was for the Syrian army to spread out along the border. Only thus could calm be assured, the same calm that reigned along our border with Syria.
However, Rabin gave in to the hysteria of the media and stopped the Syrians far from the border. The vacuum thus created was filled by the PLO. In 1982, Ariel Sharon pushed the PLO out, and the vacuum was filled by Hizbullah.
All that has happened there since then would not have happened if we had allowed the Syrians to occupy the border from the beginning. The Syrians are cautious, they do not act recklessly.
WHAT WAS Hassan Nasrallah thinking of, when he decided to cross the border and carry out the guerilla action that started the current Witches’ Sabbath? Why did he do it? And why at this time?
Everybody agrees that Nasrallah is a clever person. He is also prudent. For years he has been assembling a huge stockpile of missiles of all kinds to establish a balance of terror. He knew that the Israeli army was only waiting for an opportunity to destroy them. In spite of that, he carried out a provocation that provided the Israeli government with a perfect pretext to attack Lebanon with the full approval of the world. Why?
Possibly he was asked by Iran and Syria, who had supplied him with the missiles, to do something to divert American pressure from them. And indeed, the sudden crisis has shifted attention away the Iranian nuclear effort, and it seems that Bush’s attitude towards Syria has also changed.
But Nasrallah is far from being a marionette of Iran or Syria. He heads an authentic Lebanese movement, and calculates his own balance sheet of pros and cons. If he had been asked by Iran and/or Syria to do something - for which there is no proof - and he saw that it was contrary to the aims of his movement, he would not have done it.
Perhaps he acted because of domestic Lebanese concerns. The Lebanese political system was becoming more stable a