[spectre] A Friend's Letter from Lebanon (Modified by Geert Lovink)

[gregory sholette]

Dear Friends - this is a letter from a dear friend who moved back to 
Beirut from NYC one day before the shooting began. Her analysis below 
is full of insights but also carries across the personal intensity of 
what is happening, something that will not be found in most news 
reports, especially those broadcast within the USA - g:

Received Friday, July 14th, 2006 at 10PM
Dear All,

I am writing now from a cafe, in West Beirut's Hamra district. It is 
filled with people who are trying to escape the pull of 24 hour news 
reporting. Like me. The electricity has been cut off for a while now, 
and the city has been surviving on generators. The old system that was 
so familiar at the time of the war, where generators were allowed a 
lull to rest is back. The cafe is dark, hot and humid. Espresso 
machines and blenders are silenced. Conversations, rumors, frustrations 
waft through the room.
I am better off here than at home, following the news, live, on the 
spot documentation of our plight in sound bites.
The sound of Israeli warplanes overwhelms the air on occasion. They 
drop leaflets to conduct a "psychological" war. Yesterday, their 
sensitivity training urged them to advise inhabitants of the southern 
suburbs to flee because the night promised to be "hot". Today, the 
leaflets warn that they plan to bomb all other bridges and tunnels in 
Beirut. People are flocking to supermarkets to stock up on food.
This morning, I wrote in my emails to people inquiring about my 
well-being that I was safe, and that the targets seem to be strictly 
Hezbollah sites and their constituencies, now, I regret typing that. 
They will escalate. Until a few hours ago, they had only bombed the 
runways of the airport, as if to "limit" the damage. A few hours ago, 
four shells were dropped on the buildings of our brand new shining 
airport.

The night was harrowing. The southern suburbs and the airport were 
bombed, from air and sea. The apartment where I am living has a 
magnificient view of the bay of Beirut. I could see the Israeli 
warships firing at their leisure. It is astounding how comfortable they 
are in our skies, in our waters, they just travel around, and deliver 
their violence and congratulate themselves.

The cute French-speaking and English-speaking bourgeoisie has fled to 
the Christian mountains. A long-standing conviction that the Israelis 
will not target Lebanon's Christian "populated" mountains. Maybe this 
time they will be proven wrong? The Gulfies, Saudis, Kuwaities and 
other expatriates have all fled out of the country, in Pullman buses 
via Damascus, before the road was bombed. They were supposed to be the 
economic lifeblood of this country. The contrast in their sense of 
panic as opposed to the defiance of the inhabitants of the southern 
suburbs was almost comical. This time, however, I have to admit, I am 
tired of defying whatever for whatever cause. There is no cause really. 
There are only sinister post-Kissingerian type negotiations. I can 
almost hear his hateful voice rationalizing laconically as he does the 
destruction of a country, the deaths of families, people with dreams 
and ambitions for the Israelis to win something more, always more.

Although I am unable to see it, I am told left, right and center that 
there is a rhyme and reason, grand design, and strategy. The short-term 
military strategy seems to be to cripple transport and communications. 
And power stations. The southern region has now been reconfigured into 
small enclaves that cannot communicate between one another. Most have 
enough fuel, food and supplies to last them until tomorrow, but after 
that the isolation of each enclave will lead to tragedy. Mayors and 
governors have been screaming for help on the TV.

This is all bringing back echoes of 1982, the Israeli siege of Beirut. 
My living nightmare, well one of my living nightmares. It was summer 
then as well. The Israeli army marched through the south and besieged 
Beirut. For 3 months, the US administration kept dispatching urges for 
the Israeli military to act with restraint. And the Israelis assured 
them they were acting appropriately. We had the PLO command in West 
Beirut then. I felt safe with the handsome fighters. How I miss them. 
Between Hezbollah and the Lebanese army I don't feel safe. We are 
exposed, defenseless, pathetic. And I am older, more aware of danger. I 
am 37 years old and actually scared. The sound of the warplanes scares 
me. I am not defiant, there is no more fight left in me. And there is 
no solidarity, no real cause.
I am furthermore pissed off because no one knows how hard the postwar 
reconstruction was to all of us. Hariri did not make miracles. People 
work hard and sacrifice a lot and things get done. No one knows except 
us how expensive, how arduous that reconstruction was. Every single 
bridge and tunnel and highway, the runways of that airport, all of 
these things were built from our sweat and brow, at 3 times the real 
cost of their construction because every member of government, because 
every character in the ruling Syrian junta, because the big players in 
the Hariri administration and beyond, were all thieves. We accepted the 
thievery and banditry just to get things done and get it over with. 
Everyone one of us had two jobs (I am not referring to the ruling 
elite, obviously), paid backbreaking taxes and wages to feed the 
"social covenant". We faught and faught that neoliberal onslaught, the 
arrogance of economic consultants and the greed of creditors just to 
have a nice country that functioned at a minimum, where things got 
done, that stood on its feet, more or less. A thirving Arab civil 
society. Public schools were sacrificed for roads to service neglected 
rural areas and a couple Syrian officers to get richer, and we 
accepted, that road was desperately needed, and there was the 
"precarious national consensus" to protect. Social safety nets were 
given up, healthcare for all, unions were broken and coopted, public 
spaces taken over, and we bowed our heads and agreed. Palestinian 
refugees were pushed deeper and deeper into forgetting, hidden from 
sight and consciousness, "for the preservation of their identity" we 
were told, and we accepted. In exchange we had a secular country where 
the Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces could co-exist and fight their 
fights in parliament not with bullets. We bit hard on our tongues and 
stiffened our upper lip, we protested and were defeated, we took the 
streets, defied army-imposed curfews, time after time, to protect that 
modicum of civil rights, that modicum of a semblance of democracy, and 
it takes one air raid for all our sacrifices and tolls to be blown to 
smithereens. It's not about the airport, it's what we built during that 
postwar.

As per the usual of Lebanon, it's not only about Lebanon, the country 
has paradigmatically been the terrain for regional conflicts to lash 
out violently. Off course speculations abound. There is rhetoric, and a 
lot of it, but there are also Theories.
     1) Theory Number One.
This is about Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah negotiating an upper hand in 
the negotiations with Israel. Hezbollah have indicated from the moment 
they captured the Israeli soldiers that they were willing to negotiate 
in conjunction with Hamas for the release of all Arab prisoners in 
Israeli jails. Iran is merely providing a back support for Syria + 
Hamas.
   
     2) Theory Number Two.
This is not about solidarity with Gaza or strengthening the hand of the 
Palestinians in negotiating the release of the prisoners in Israeli 
jails. This is about Iran's nuclear bomb and negotiations with the 
Europeans/US. The Iranian negotiator left Brussels after the end of 
negotiations and instead of returning to Tehran, he landed in Damascus. 
Two days later, Hezbollah kidnapped the Israeli soldiers. The G8 
Meeting is on Saturday, Iran is supposed to have some sort of an answer 
for the G8 by then. In the meantime, they are showing to the world that 
they have a wide sphere of control in the region: Afghanistan, Iraq and 
Lebanon. In Lebanon they pose a real threat to Israel. The "new" 
longer-reaching missiles that Hezbollah fired on Haifa are the message. 
The kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia issued statements holding 
Hezbollah solely responsible for bringing on this escalation, and that 
is understood as a message to Iran. Iran on the other hand promised to 
pay for the reconstruction of destroyed homes and infrastructures in 
the south. And threatened Israel with "hell" if they hit Syria.

     3) Theory Number Three.
This is about Lebanon, Hezbollah and 1559 (the UN resolution demanding 
the disarmement of Hezbollah and deployment of the Lebanese army in the 
southern territory). It stipulates that this is no more than a secret 
conspiracy between Syria, Iran and the US to close the Hezbollah file 
for good, and resolve the pending Lebanese crisis since the 
assassination of Hariri. Evidence for this conspiracy is Israel leaving 
Syria so far unharmed. Holders of this theory claim that Israel will 
deliver a harsh blow to Hezbollah and cripple the Lebanese economy to 
the brink of creating an internal political crisis. The resolution 
would then result in Hezbollah giving up arms, and a buffer zone 
between Israel and Lebanon under the control of the Lebanese army in 
Lebanon and the Israeli army in the north of Galilee. More evidence for 
this Theory are the Saudi Arabia and Jordan statements condemning 
Hezbollah and holding them responsible for all the horrors inflicted on 
the Lebanese people.

There are more theories... There is also the Israeli government 
reaching an impasse and feeling a little wossied out by Hezbollah and 
Hamas, and the Israeli military taking the upper hand with Olmert.

The land of conspiracies... Fun? I can't make heads or tails. But I am 
tired of spending days and nights waiting not to die from a shell, on 
target or astray. Watching poor people bludgeoned, homeless and 
preparing to mourn. I am so weary...

Rasha.

-- 


gregory sholette
280 Riverside Drive no. 3E
New York , NY 10025 USA
--------------------------------------
url: gregorysholette.com
alt email: gs92 at nyu.edu