195 Bishkek to Beirut
“Left: Lebanese Passport. Right: Foreign Passport.” From An-Nahar, Beirut’s foremost daily, July 30, 2006.
It was nice to escape the looming presence of the war in Beirut for a week. Back in Cairo, though, it’s impossible. Busy with work, now, so just a few scattered, unshaped thoughts:
It looks like the Israelis may have finally gone too far for their patrons in Amrika. On July 28, the Americans called Israel’s suggestions that the world had authorized it to continue bombing Lebanon “outrageous.” This is the first time I can remember the Americans calling anything Israel has done as “outrageous.”
Two comments: I wonder where the Israelis got that impression? And is that statement more outrageous than the death of 27 children in one missile strike on Qana, or indeed, the deaths of more than 700 people, mostly civilians in 18 days of bombardment? Strange what Americans find outrageous. Bush looked miserable as he delivered weak expressions of “sympathy for those who lost their lives,” with no condemnations, and Condi’s forced smile and handshake with Olmert as details of the Qana casualties emerged was a PR disaster for the Americans.
Prime Minister Siniora has, it seems, finally lost patience with the insulting U.S. position, and has indicated he’s not interested in discussing anything but an immediate cease-fire. This, the shock of the images of terrorist babies being pulled out of the rubble in Qana, and the global condemnation seem to militate for a cease-fire sooner rather than later. I hope so. But the Israelis are still saying “no cease-fire” and are talking about broader attacks.
If this keeps up, they may finally lose public sympathy in Amrika. I caught a bit of ABC network news last night. All images of dead children in Lebanon, protests across the Arab world. An attempt at “balance” by showing the trauma of the war in northern Israel in a subsequent segment of equal length appeared lame. All ABC could produce was some footage of a Hizbullah rocket falling harmlessly on a grassy hillside next to an Israeli military installation. And while videographers for the New York Times (whose coverage has, at least until today, read like a parody of “The Jewish-Controlled Media”), might zoom their cameras in on these grass fires to make them look dramatic, no stoned East-Village macrobiotic could equate the deaths of so many innocent blades of grass near an IDF outpost with the deaths of so many innocent children and old women across the border in Lebanon. With televised facts like this, it doesn’t matter if Siniora’s English isn’t good enough to really pack a punch in his appeal to the American people on Face the Nation.
“They’re using civilians as human shields,” Shimon Peres told American TV all day yesterday. Perhaps this will be enough to assuage the consciences of those in the Israel-right-or-wrong crowd (That’s right, guys, take that anger and revulsion and direct it at the Lebanese). But will it be enough for the rest of America, that segment of the population that doesn’t spend its time on the Internet arguing that Palestinians don’t actually exist? We’ll see.
Here in Cairo, the mood is very grim. People are grieving and angry, trying not to watch TV because it only brings depression and insomnia. You see people praying together on the street even in trendy neighborhoods where such behavior would previously have been considered gauche. Predictably, even moderates are getting radicalized. One friend, one of the few Egyptian journalists here who talks to Israeli sources, told me that she had just started to accept Israel and to move round to supporting normalization, but that after the past few weeks she’s decided “That’s it. the Israelis just need to go.” And last night I listened to a group of leftist, pro-democracy activists debating whether there’s such a thing as an Israeli civilian.
Rami Khoury, looking at the changes Israel’s bombardment and Qana in particular have wrought to public opinion and governmental positions, sees the region entering “uncharted diplomatic terrain.”
There’s another protest against the war tonight downtown. Previous demonstrations have been angry (by the way, read the comments on that last link from Arabist.net: there’s an interesting dialogue between international anti-globalisation, pro-Palestinian, ISO types and the Egyptian activists… things could get very interesting if the Egyptian activists link up with their fellow shit-disturbers abroad). I’ll post photos from tonight’s demonstration tomorrow.
Finally, let’s not forget the war’s still going on in Gaza… and Iraq.
[tags]Lebanon, lebanon, Egypt, United States[/tags]
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I believe the last time a US President directly condemned an Israeli act was exactly 50 years ago, at the Suez crisis. Don’t hold your breath for any anti-imperialist cooperation by the Great Power(s) this time around. Nasrullah is no Nasser, Kofi Annan is no Dag Hammarskj?ld and Bush sure ain’t no Eisenhower (imagine W taking fire in the Ardennes in 1917). Woe be unto us all.
Comment by P-New — July 31, 2006 #
Yeah, I can more easily imagine W singing “Catch a Fire” in the Ardennes than taking fire in the Ardennes.
Comment by Administrator — August 1, 2006 #