A colleage of mine at Grameen Foundation is based in Beirut and we’re all watching the situation closely and thinking good thoughts for her and those close to her as they wait for evac plans to be figured out (or, better, for things to settle down). Her fiance has been blogging the situation and, as you might expect, the reality of the situation on the ground is not exactly what the US government and CNN are representing:
Most Lebanese who’ve been here a while are scared but consider this more of the same, so most think this will blow over if we sit tight. Even last night, with explosions in the distance every fifteen minutes or so with a flash of light, I realized I was becoming accustomed to the sounds, whereas the first night I was pretty frightened. Of course, the apartment we’re in now is further away from the areas of bombing than our apartment in West Beirut. Odd irony there - Heather picked the apartment there because she thought that in the event of any escalated conflict between Christians and Muslims we’d be safer in the Muslim area. We didn’t look at the scenario that Israel would attack Beirut, because we believed and still believe that Hizbollah is relatively isolated to the South. Israel seems to think otherwise. For example, one “port” they hit yesterday was close to our apartment in West Beirut, near the lighthouse called Manara, where in a small marina small fishermen’s boats congregate and near people walk in the evening on the Corniche. Not for one second has this particular “target” ever been a Hizbollah operations point. Near Manara is a nice spot to get an argile (water pipe) and some food, with a nice view of the waves crashing on the rocks nearby. The attack on this location is one example of a psychological attack on Lebanon that cannot be justified, and if someone actualy engaged President Bush on this level of detail he would not be able to show that the methods Israel is using are within “the right to defend itself.”
And, it’s nice to see that in the midst of bombing, his sense of humor hasn’t vacated the premises:
Things I saw on CNN now that could be taken out of context. First, Palestinians thanking Hassan Nasrallah (head of Hizbollah as you prob know my now) misleads a viewer to think the groups are linked. Not true. They are separate organizations whose interests happen to be aligned. Second, that Hamas leader on the megaphone weating a white hat. I really hope no one picks up on that as some sort of Klan symbol. Queer Eye needs to get on the case.
