Iarrived in Beirut yesterday with a crapload of misconceptions about Lebanon and its people, but I’m glad to say that I’ve been largely very, very wrong.
It’s been a lot of fun so far.
There seems to be a certain quality about this city that I haven’t witnessed anywhere else. It’s chaotic yet elegant. Anxious with a dash of fierce frustration, yet deeply soulful. Full of cracks, yet somehow still glued together.
And in the midst of it all, the magical element, that certain quality that keeps this living and breathing oxymoron ticking - resilience.
That’s what I’ve learned so far. 
The Lebanese, if anything, are a very resilient people, and it’s an awesome admirable quality I’m starting to like about them, besides their warm hospitality of course.
More to come soon, about Beirut, and the 2nd Arab Bloggers Summit.
Drima enjoys being stimulated, and he’s certainly grateful for the occasion.
So yay to stimulation - bitches.
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
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Interesting tweets.
As for Lebanon, I always thought the Lebanese (Phoenicians) and Israel should be best of friends, due to a common (Canaanite) heritage. I understand many or some Lebanese see it that way too. I wish Israel would bomb Syria instead of Lebanon the next time Hizbullah attacks. (Alternatively, I wish Hizbullah wouldn’t even attack. We’d all save a lot of time. And how many Arab lives is it really worth just to have Israel condemned by the rest of the world for reacting to an attack?)
What worries me about the “Arab Bloggers” summit is the imperialist attitude towards non-Arab peoples displayed even in those few tweets:
“I can’t trust an American politician to define human rights.”
“An occupier’s definition of human rights is different from mine. (excellent point, but their def is the wrong one!)”
(I am assuming by “occupier” they mean Israel and not any of the Arab governments controlling the lands of non-Arab peoples.)
“Cultures of the Arab Maghreb are marginalized”
(”Arab Maghreb”. Really? What if Israel referred to the Sinai as the “Jewish West”? When will the Arab world recognise that the Berbers are not Arabs and that their land is not Arab either? Talk about occupation…)
“One commenter: I would read a balanced study even from Israel and then make my judgement. Get rid of conspiracy theories”
(Not too bad, but why “even”? Israel has done nothing to Arabs that Arabs have not been doing to each other and any non-Arab peoples they managed to beat, and a lot less of those things too. So why single out Israel with an “even”?)
“Some North African blogger says: All Arab countries are run by dictators”
(He is right.)
“One commenter says he thinks @razaniyyat’s issue is with the fact that Americans did the study”
(And Americans cannot be trusted, I assume.)
I predict bad things coming from that summit if everybody there is so focussed on creating barriers between the Arab nation and other nations.
Why not replace everything “Arab” with “middle-eastern and north-African” and invite Arabs, Assyrians, Aramaeans, Jews, Berbers, Nubians, Kurds and all other middle-eastern peoples?
All Arab countries are run by dictators, all dictators are supported by the US. Thank you.
“All Arab countries are run by dictators, ”
True.
“all dictators are supported by the US.”
That is nonsense as Saddam Hussein had to notice in 2003.
And the US are certainly not supporting the dictators of Syria and Libya.
IRC…
Assad is supported by the US? Hmmm?
Sudan is supported by the US? Hmmm?
The Yemen’s are supported by the US? Hmmm?
Khaddafi is a long-time US favorite for sure? Hmmm?
And the US tends to support countries that either support her interests and/or that she has common values with. I get it…the USA should support its sworn enemies…
OK…let’s ship some atomic bombs to Iran…whoops…they would probably use them on ARABS!!!
IRC…and the USA supports:
Mexico
Canada
Japan
Europe
Australia
And on and on and on…
The USA supports a lot of different people for a lot of different reasons…some altruistic, some self-serving…
So really dude…what is your point?
Oh…the USA should support people you support…like who IRC? Arab dictators?
“all dictators are supported by the US.”
“That is nonsense as Saddam Hussein had to notice in 2003″
There is actually some sense to it. Whereas it is true that the US is not supporting all dictators in the Middle East, it is also true that the US is supporting the royal family of Saudi Arabia, the country from which most of 9/11 hijackers came! If there is a country that needs counter-terrorism bombing, it should be Saudi where youngsters are taught in schools to go out and see how sheep are being slaughtered during Eid in order to learn how to slaughter Jews and Christians when they grow up. This , by the way, is based on first-hand experience.
So we ask, why has the US not attacked Saudi Arabia? Should I tell you the answer or leave you to say it?
Muhammed…
Not so simple…though I would agree that the Saudi regime is basically evil and two-faced…I am not sure who you would be bombing…
Would you have the USA just kind of nuke Riyad and hope to hit a few bad guys? Or is it the old “it is just the oil thing”.
Well…I think it is all of the above and much more. Me…I don’t see the USA as some kind of PURE entity…as I said earlier…there is altruism and there is pragmatism and the USA has done some bad stuff for certain…You have criticism of the USA? Well…so do I.
But there have been terrorists from the USA as well…should we bomb Dearborn? Anaheim? Irvine? San Francisco? New York? and how about several parts of England, France and Canada and India?
So I disagree with war in Iraq…agree (at least originally) with the war in Afganistan. I would rather live in the USA than Saudia, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Yemen, and disagree with THEIR foreign policy a lot more than I disagree with my own country’s policies…and there are many here I disagree with…
So it is, like most things in life, nuanced, complex, shaded and impossible to have a policy that is not going to bother many people while it helps many others.
Muhamed…
I will take the bait OK…The USA supports Saudia for the oil..or at least primarily…there are other strategic issues like controlling Iran etc.
Happy?
And the Arab countries licked the boots of the Soviets for decades…biggest oppressors of Muslims in recent known history…
So what did that Jewish guy say? “he who is without sin let him throw the first stone?”
I just feel that the sins of the Muslim world have been, overall, a whole lot more graver and more selfish, closed and oppressive.
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Maybe the Arab summit won’t get heated like it’s getting a little heated in here. Andrew should people haft to be the best of friends because they share a common heritage like you say?
I often ask myself the samething that Muhammed asked “why has the US not attacked Saudi Arabia since that is where most of the 9/11 hijacker came from?”
Is oil that damn important that the US government nor media don’t even mention Saudi Arabia when they talk about terrorism. You would think that the terrorist came from Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad trained and sent them to the US by the way they talk about this man. So why would the USA would want to kiss Saudi Arabia’s ass but not Iran’s considering how dangerous terroism is and can be?
Someone is selling Ugg Boots.
“Andrew should people have to be the best of friends because they share a common heritage like you say?”
I think any excuse should do to be best of friends. Common heritage, similar religion, being neighbours, anything should work if you just concentrate on what brings together rather than divides.
” Whereas it is true that the US is not supporting all dictators in the Middle East, it is also true that the US is supporting the royal family of Saudi Arabia”
What you write about Saudi Arabia is true, of course.
And it has been a mystery to me to why the US support the Saudis so. It’s not new. The US already supported the Saudis around World War 2 and treated them like allies even though they did absolutely nothing in the war effort except ally with Hitler’s Arab allies after the war.
And that was the time when Saudi Arabia had just a few decades earlier invaded and annexed the Kingdom of Hejaz. (Which is just one reason why I can never take seriously Saudi Arabia’s comments about Israel’s “expansionism” and “occupation” of Muslim holy cities. If occupation of Muslim holy cities is so bad, feel free to give Mecca and Medina back to the Hashemites.)
“So we ask, why has the US not attacked Saudi Arabia? Should I tell you the answer or leave you to say it?”
Many people believe that Iraq was attacked so that the US could get its oil and Saudi Arabia was not attacked so that the US could get its oil. Apparently oil can be gotten either way and it’s always a good excuse.
I guess the reason is simply that Saudi Arabia is for all its fault a useful idiot which depends on American support and can be relied upon not to attack Israel or American interests directly. (Although as you say Saudi’s support for terrorism is weakening that argument tremendously. Currently it looks to me as if Saudi Arabia is a better “friend” to Israel than to the US.)
Another major reason is that Saudi Arabia has done nothing to allow a war. Iraq was at war with the US and had violated a cease-fire. Theoretically that justified war. (Of course “international law” disagrees and apparently allows certain parties to break cease-fires.) But Saudi Arabia was not at war with anyone but Israel.
Howie,
We are alike in the way we view Arab dictators and their oppression. And I am not trying to use the USA as a scapegoat to justify wrongdoings by Arab dictators. Also, I am not saying that the US should nuke Saudi but then we should remember that one of the many false arguments that were used to make the case for the war in Iraq was to overthrow Saddam, the dictator!! How is the ruling clique in Saudi any different from Saddam? They are even worst. But again, invading Iraq was wrong, just as invading Saudi or any other country would have been.
Yes right, it is the oil.
This, among many other examples such as the US support for the Taliban and Al-Qa’idah during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, proves that the US policy has often been misguided and actuated by economic interests and short-sighted pragmatism rather than its much-vaunted democratic values. This was in the past. Today, however, I am a supporter of the US policy under the leadership of Obama.
My point was to say that a statement such as the US “is not supporting dictators in the Middle East” is frankly ludicrous!
“I just feel that the sins of the Muslim world have been, overall, a whole lot graver and more selfish, closed and oppressive”
I could not agree more!
“we should remember that one of the many false arguments that were used to make the case for the war in Iraq was to overthrow Saddam, the dictator!!”
We should also remember the many true arguments. Saddam was a mass murderer and belonged executed. And Iraq deserves to be free.
“How is the ruling clique in Saudi any different from Saddam? They are even worst. But again, invading Iraq was wrong, just as invading Saudi or any other country would have been.”
The thieves that rule Saudi-Arabia are different from Saddam in interesting ways. For example, they do not have the blood of millions on their paws. While Saudi-Arabia has a history of invading neighbouring countries (it was among the countries that attacked Israel) it failed to achieve much in those attempts. Saddam’s Iraq is responsible for the murder of millions of Iranians, Kurds, and (mostly Shiite) Arabs. We cannot blame Saudi-Arabia for even remotely that number even if we include all the terrorism originating from the desert.
“Yes right, it is the oil.”
That doesn’t make sense. If it had been about oil, the US would have treated Saddam like they treat the Saudis. Clearly oil was not a factor. Both have them, something else made the decision.
” Today, however, I am a supporter of the US policy under the leadership of Obama. ”
I am glad. Perhaps you can then tell me what his policy is. He doesn’t seem to be doing anything except ignore Africa and throw away promises and demand that old treaties be forgotten.
Oh right, he is very strict about segregation in Jerusalem. It’s a millenia old tradition: whenever there is trouble anywhere in the world, expell the Jews from the Jerusalem. That’ll help.
George Bush gave me the opportunity to visit Iraq as a tourist. Instead of the hellhole Saddam had created there I found a country with too any German cars. Will Obama be able to do anything at all that will come close?
Muhammed,
I have never heard a convincing argument about why we went into Iraq:
So Haliburton could get rich, because George Sr. was still mad, for the oil, to free the people blah blah…I think all those arguments are simplistic…You know my theory? I think it was one giant fuck-up…just that simple…all kinds of people saying all kinds of stuff and then a fuck-up.
In terms of who the USA sides with…again…this is probably every country on the planet. I guess it would be nice if America always clearly stood up for all that is right and good and loved by God…but it is a dirty and complex world.
I am not a patriot…like I have said…there is good and shit here…I am neither a Democrat or a Republican…can’t agree with either party. Don’t like Obama…he does NOTHING for me.
But the arugment by many Arabs about the USA not being “even-handed”? Well…tough shit really. More even-handed than most, especially given the enormous power we have and how much others would abuse the HELL out of it. Give me a list of fully even-handed countries in the world…and let’s start with…hmmm; China, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Iran
“I have never heard a convincing argument about why we went into Iraq:”
I think people confuse two different things: the historical reasons or motives that influenced the US decision, and the reasons why it might (or might not) have been a good thing to do.
In other words, the US government can have done a good thing from bad or inadequate motives. And again, they could have done something that was worth doing, but made an appalling botch of the follow-up.
Drima,
It’s interesting that in the http://www.arabloggers.com website, under “Arab Countries” next to the search field, Sudan is not included… Do we need to reignite the “Is Sudan Arab or African” debate once more?
They did manage to put Djibouti, Eritrea
Best,
AK
… and Somalia
Isn’t Sudan half Arab and half African? That is what causes all the trouble.
“Isn’t Sudan half Arab and half African?”
In a way. Just like Morocco, Algeria, and Lybia are “half Arab and half Berber”.
The Arab empire rules over many nations.
What classify someone as a Arab because when i think of Sudan and sees it’s people i wouldn’t think Arab anything nor would others?
Does African mean black because i’ve heard many people use the term african, indian, white etc when describing different groups of people within a single country?
AK i bet the fact that Sudan is not in the search field is not a mistake.
“What classify someone as a Arab”
People classify themselves. If somebody thinks he is an Arab, he is.
In cases of nationality, such as “Is he British?”, it is decided by where you are borne. But Arab is not a nationality, it is a culture based largely on a family of languages.
enjoy your trip Drima
Lebanese girls are the “hottest’s”
now Lebanese people aren’t different of Syrian’s, or even Palestinian’s, and or Israeli’s that used to live there since the origins
only political partitions made them opponents
“How is the ruling clique in Saudi any different from Saddam? They are even worst”
Not true. As Andrew said, Saddam has the blood of millions on his hands. KSA, while certainly a murderous government, is nowhere near as brutal as Saddam Hussein was.
The “Saudis are worse than Saddam!” argument is a myth that desperately needs to be debunked for good…I’ve heard it a lot here in the Bay Area and in Europe.
Dzjeezz, I just wrote on Saudi Jeans’ blog about this - he’s there. Did you get to meet?
Tsedek….
Long time no see dude
“Arab is a culture based largely on a family of languages”.
So that means the people of Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya are or could be Arabs as well, assuming if they wanted to be. Thanks for giving me some insight Don! I was curious that’s why i asked the question. Again, thanks.
Totally off-topic but probably of interest to Drima:
The first Sudanese restaurant opened in Tel Aviv.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1135202.html
Raccoon, you reading this? Roman probably won’t eat in a non-kosher restaurant but we should try this out, no?
I’ll see that I can come to TA in April.
“Not true. As Andrew said, Saddam has the blood of millions on his hands. KSA, while certainly a murderous government, is nowhere near as brutal as Saddam Hussein was”
“The thieves that rule Saudi-Arabia are different from Saddam in interesting ways. For example, they do not have the blood of millions on their paws”
I disagree. It is true that the Saudi government has not directly killed as many people as Saddam did but it is indirectly responsible for the killing of millions around the world. The blood of all people killed in terrorists’ attacks, including those who died in 9/11, is in the hands of the Saudi government. This is a country where school curriculum inculcates intolerance and religious bigotry in the minds of youngsters. Religious textbooks taught in Saudi schools instruct Muslims to be harsh with non-Muslims, to fight them until they are either dead or converted to Islam. The Salafi ideology, which originated in Saudi, is the primary source of inspiration for people who kill in the name of Islam. The Saudi royal family is politically astute and it uses clerics to reinforce its authority but it turns a blind eye to what clerics teach people in school. I studied in a Salafi school in Saudi and if it was not for different factors, I would be out there killing “infidels”.
Try to track down all the people implicated in terrorist attacks and you will find out that most of them, if not all, have either been living in Saudi or influenced by Salafi ideology. The Saudi government sponsors and guards Salafi ideology and because of that I consider it responsible for the all deaths caused by terrorist attacks. At least Saddam is not there to kill anymore but Saudi’s sponsorship of Salafi ideology is unabated. Invading Iraq on the pretext of “the war on terror” was the wrong thing to do. If you really want to fight terrorism and help save people from the fascist Salafi ideology, the battlefield should be Saudi Arabia.
Muhammad Osman,
I think we agree about Saudi-Arabia and the Saudi crime lords. The point was here that Saddam openly murdered millions and was thus a more suitable target for a conventional war. Explaining what you just did to the large audience in the west for the purpose of acting militarily against the Salafi teror machine was and remains impossible.
Personally I believe the only correct solution would be to move the Saudi family back into the desert, grant independence to the Shia provinces at the Gulf and return Hejaz (Mecca, Medina etc.) to the Hashemites to recreate the Kingdom of Hejaz which the Saudis destroyed in 1926.
The Salafi heresy is a problem not only for the world but also for Islam. Without the Saudi-sponsored terrorism (and the Iranian counterpart), few could argue that Islam is a religion of war or an anti-Semitic death cult.
However, and this is often forgotten now because they are basically beaten, before 2003 there was a third source of terrorism, and that was Arab nationalism, represented by Nasser (done), the non-Syrian Baath party and Saddam (done) and the PLO (on their way out, kept in power only by Israel).
That third source was effectively destroyed when Israel won the second “Intifada” and the coalition destroyed Saddam’s regime.
The Iranian regime will hopefully collapse and Iran will return as one of the great civilisations and great powers of the world.
But I don’t see how we can stop the Saudis.
“But I don’t see how we can stop the Saudis.”
Developing nuclear power would help, especially safe fusion devices. The power of the Salafis comes from oil sales.
“The power of the Salafis comes from oil sales.”
The Saudis need very little money to teach a deadly ideology. Schools and terror camps are cheap.
Even if the oil money stopped flowing, the ideology would survive.
“Even if the oil money stopped flowing, the ideology would survive.”
The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia is proof of that.
“If you really want to fight terrorism and help save people from the fascist Salafi ideology, the battlefield should be Saudi Arabia.”
“The blood of all people killed in terrorists’ attacks, including those who died in 9/11, is in the hands of the Saudi government”
Do America and its allies know this or do they choose not to know?
“This is a country where school curriculum inculcates intolerance and religious bigotry in the minds of youngsters. Religious textbooks taught in Saudi schools instruct Muslims to be harsh with non-Muslims, to fight them until they are either dead or converted to Islam”
Why do some people feel as if they haft to go through extreme measures to defend what they believe in? If you are content with your religion, you shouldn’t haft take extreme measures to protect it, defend it and live by it especially when no one is trying to interfere with it. No one is nor was trying to destroy or change their religion so why teach hate of other peoples religion? These people are delusional.
Hi Andrew,
“Explaining what you just did to the large audience in the west for the purpose of acting militarily against the Salafi terror machine was and remains impossible”
May I ask why it is impossible? America acted militarily against Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of “the war on terror”, why should Saudi Arabia remain exempt while it is the source of all this evil?
“Personally I believe the only correct solution would be to move the Saudi family back into the desert, grant independence to the Shia provinces at the Gulf and return Hejaz (Mecca, Medina etc.) to the Hashemites to recreate the Kingdom of Hejaz which the Saudis destroyed in 1926″
This is a perfect example of what “was and remains impossible”, you can’t turn back the hands of history, what’s done is done and the Abd-al-Aziz royal family is in control.
I agree that religious fanaticism and Salafi ideology are not the only the source of terrorism. Arab nationalism is equally contributing to this, but then what is the solution?
Do you know what keeps fueling Arab nationalism in is the Middle East? It is the Israeli persistence not to cease the “natural growth” of settlements. No peace could ever be achieved as long as Israel keeps expanding existing settlements and building new ones.
“I don’t see how we can stop the Saudis”
I’ll tell you how. It is their oil revenues that keep them going, so impose economic sanctions on them, instead of imposing them on abjectly poor and defenseless countries like Sudan. Use diplomatic pressure to force them to change their schools curriculum. It ain’t hard to achieve.
Thanks
ibn zandaqa…ya zalame I know what that means, unlike many of your readers, I suppose. Quite a name to choose!
I don’t dislike it. I suppose my main area of study is conversion from Islam to Christianity, which is not precisely zandaqa, but it is certainly both rida and, if one were to actually talk about it, fitna
salam 3aleyka ya ibn zandaqa.
Muhammed…
I agree with a lot you are saying here…until the old “its Israel’s fault”.
I disagree…I think Israel is an escape and a scapegoat. And most Arab/Muslim war has been directed at Arabs/Muslims.
I have said this before…when I asked an Iranian friend of mine about Iranian threats towards israel, hate of Israel etc.
I said “Dude…how many Iranians have been killed by Israeli’s…currently and throughout history”…
Answer…”None”
Asked him how many by Arabs:
Answer…”millions”…
So the Arabs/Muslims have found ample reasons to be mad…from a religious perspective and from a national perspective. I do agree that both the religious and the political folk USE the settlements as fuel for the fire…but it is a bunch of crap really. And most of those could not give a SHIT for the Palestinians…come on…
Israel is a small part of the “problem” that has been grossly distorted and used/abused by a bunch of loser dictatorial regimes and folks just lap it up. I can’t help the fact that so many Arabs just react without thinking just a bit deeper. Why was there almost no outrage over Darfur when land was being taken and 10’s of thousands killed? Hardly a soul in the Arab world gave half a shit but they are SO worried about Israeli settlements and their poor Palestinian brothers…
Where was the outrage when a couple of years back the Lebanese army pounded the shit out of one of the Palestinian camps? I saw not a word anywhere…zip.
Muhammed you are obviously a very very bright guy. I hope you write a book about your experiences in the Magic Kingdom…but on this issue…I think you have fallen for the same old bait?
Muhammed…
BTW…the largest part of the “settlements” are just growth in Jerusalem neighborhoods…Get it out of your head the ideas of a bunch of wild-eyed, machine gun wielding cowboys in trailers spreading all over the West Bank…this is a MINUTE portion of the “settlement population” and the settlement population is only about what 18% of the entire population of Israel? But Muhamed if you walked through Jerusalem…you would walk though tons of “settlements” without really knowing you had…
So yes some kind of agreement has to happen someday I guess…then what happens to Arab nationalism? Goes away? Everybody gets religious and mad at something else? Does the “Arab world” ever turn more powerfully inward and say “you know…mostly we have ourselves to blame for a lot of this shitty mess”.
“It is the Israeli persistence not to cease the “natural growth” of settlements. ”
It is the Israeli persistence not to cease the natural growth of ALL Jewish villages and towns, in any territory.
It’s not like the Arabs stop growing their cities, even in disputed territory. (And I think the very idea of dictating to non-Jews that growing villages in disputed territory is wrong would hilarious to the world.)
The fact is that Arab nationalism was beaten over the head by Israel (and finally the Americans in Iraq) and that’s why it’s insignificant now. Israeli retreats (or even Jews fleeing from Arab countries) did nothing to stop Arab nationalism. I somehow don’t see why exactly now exactly a few towns and villages in the West-Bank would make a difference.
Israel has to grow its settlements because there can only be peace once Israel knows that there is peace even if Jews are alive and well and living on “Arab land”.
We already know that the Arabs don’t accept an Israel in the “borders” of 1967 because they didn’t. So why try that again?
For Arab nationalists this is about the pride of Israel not winning.
For Israel it is about being treated like everybody else.
Saudi-Arabia builds towns in areas taken from Hejaz, hence Israel can build towns in areas taken from a Hashemite kingdom too. (Alternatively, the Hashemites can have it back. But we’ll keep our holy city.)
Correction:
And I think the very idea of dictating to non-Jews that growing villages in disputed territory is wrong would SEEM hilarious to the world.
HOWIE!!!!!! How are you?
Whazzup with Drima? Starting to get to feel too important to react on his own blog? LOL!
Tsedek…
I am OK…ups-and-downs…
Been a long time and good to see you back and commenting again.
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