(no subject)
You too Hezbollah.
Though I'm more pissed off at the Israeli government at the moment. I just watched a documentary on the destruction in Lebanon, followed by home videos taken a day after the cease-fire. I didn't realize the extent of the damage until I saw it for myself.
It's fucking ridiculous, Israel has a few building and citizens that have been damaged compared to the almost complete destruction they caused in Lebanon, especially my family's village.
The documentary showed buildings and structures destroyed from the attacks. The southern, Muslim sector of Lebanon was practically leveled. It's not forgivable, but in the context of war it made sense. That's where Hezbollah would most likely have been. But then Israel went on to sporadically bomb the Christian sectors where Hezbollah wouldn't have been at all. It was a direct attack on the country, not just Hezbollah as they had claimed. They had even gone to Deirmimas, our village, where they interviewed my teta (grandmother). They showed little of the destruction in the village; but she explained that all of the hundreds of thousands of crops were either destroyed or laden with undetonated cluster bombs that they cant go near, and therefore can't harvest the crops until the army comes through and gets rid of all of the bombs.
The documentary also interviewed the "mayor" of the village; a philanthropist much like Rafik Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon who poured billions of dollars out of his own pockets to rebuild Lebanon after the civil war. This new mayor, who purchased land from my jidu (grandfather) at the base of the village, worth only a couple thousand dollars, for $150,000. He planned on using his money to bring business back to Deirmimas after a highway was constructed to bypass the village. Now that our village has been bombed, he plans on using his money to help rebuild... making a name for himself as Hariri did.
The cluster bombs that Israel dropped on Lebanon made harvesting crops impossible. The home video showed the ground littered with unexploded bombs. 5 citizens have died from these even after an attempted cleanup by the army. The 130,000 olive trees, all of which are thousands of years old, are only fertile once every other year. Last year was their year to be picked. Because they couldn't the economy suffered a massive loss. Even worse is that some of these trees were destroyed. These thousand-year-old trees are beautiful; it's very sad to me that Israel even did this.
The home videos went on to show the destruction along road sides in between Beirut and Deirmimas. All bridges and roads being destroyed, they often had to leave the car they were in, and hop into someone else's on the other side of whatever obstacle they came across. This is an excellent example of how people are in Lebanon, and most foreign countries. Even Israel, the citizens are very kind to everyone. Would you ever think to leave your car in the middle of a road to get into a stranger's? Probably not. Anthony Bourdain, a chef who has his own show on the Travel Channel, did his show in Beirut; arriving there two days before the bombings started. Instead of his show being about the food, he ended up trapped there, filming what he could of the war. Everything he had to say about the culture showed that the Lebanese are very strong and kind people. No where do you find such courtesy and willpower in the citizens. It's not only in Lebanon; but we as Americans don't get that kind of camaraderie from our neighbors. Despite our advancements, it is still we who live in caves.
In the village, our house was blown apart. A picture I've grown fond of--a vibrant burgundy wall with vines crawling up the edges and a ladder propped up against it--was redrawn in this video depicting a crude, potholed cement slab with a slight faded red in places where the paint didn't completely burn off. Across from that wall stood a large stone wheel, one of the only two old olive presses in the area, which is now chipped and worn away from the blasts.
The home video also gave a great look at the bombs that littered the ground. They were no bigger than a juice box, and they covered the ground only inches apart. Even whole cluster bombs that just didn't detonate were found. Massive missile-shaped bombs just laying there. One had buried itself deep into the ground and hadn't even detonated.
Nowhere in Israel would you find damage near this, and what I've described isn't even the worst of it. We lived in a Christian village. The Muslim villages and cities were leveled. Completely. The only thing that pisses me off more is that Hezbollah had used our house to hide in. Teta and Jidu returned to find spent armaments, canned food they never had, laying around their house. It's totally ridiculous and shameful to their country.
Though I still now fully blame Israel. They over-reacted entirely. People say Lebanon has been pushing them for decades. I say those in power in Israel don't even have the right to be there. They've occupied southern Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war, leaving minefields all across the land, refusing to give Lebanese officials placement maps so they can be disposed of properly. Their occupation was in order to take advantage of weaknesses in the government so they could strike at opportune times. They left long after peace was made between the Christian and Muslim population, with the intent to come back. When they did come back, Hezbollah attacked and captured two of their soldiers. FOR SOME REASON Israel deemed that as unforgivable... even though their soldiers were approaching Lebanese boarders? It's too bad the United States was the only country to agree with them, considering the US had enough influence to allow Israel to continue bombing.
When I say Israeli officials don't deserve their seats in the government, it's because it's not their land anymore. The Jews had left their Holy land thousands of years ago. Palestine was the result, and was there until World War II. After the massive displacement of Jews in the late 40's, they were given land that was already owned by the Palestinians, without their approval. I'm not saying the Jews didn't deserve a home, but that wasn't quite the correct place. Just because their religion says they are entitled to that land doesn't mean in these modern times we can just hand it over to them. If they can do that for someone based on their religion, than they could have given land back to the Native Americans who's entire race was in America first. Of course they have reservations and casinos, but it isn't their own country at all. They have little control.
Not to mention that people think "Semites" are Jews. Not true in the least. The word "Semite" derived from biblical Noah's second son, Shem, who was lord of the Middle Earth (not LotR, but the Middle East). This means that anyone who is Middle Eastern is Semitic.
This brings me to my final point, that those in charge of Israel don't deserve that land because they are NOT Semitic. Most of the people in the Israeli government are Japhetic Jews. Noah's third son, Japheth, was lord of the Northern Earth (being modern day Europe). All of those displaced after WWII were told they could have Palestine, which they then called Israel. I honestly think that's a bit fucked up. Their religion cannot define land that they are entitled to. If that were the case, I could convert to Judaism and be entitled to land in Israel.
And technically, if one did that and went to the Israeli government, they would be given land. Taken straight from the Palestinians.
Alright, I'm done ranting. Thanks ahead of time for not telling me to cut this.
Though I'm more pissed off at the Israeli government at the moment. I just watched a documentary on the destruction in Lebanon, followed by home videos taken a day after the cease-fire. I didn't realize the extent of the damage until I saw it for myself.
It's fucking ridiculous, Israel has a few building and citizens that have been damaged compared to the almost complete destruction they caused in Lebanon, especially my family's village.
The documentary showed buildings and structures destroyed from the attacks. The southern, Muslim sector of Lebanon was practically leveled. It's not forgivable, but in the context of war it made sense. That's where Hezbollah would most likely have been. But then Israel went on to sporadically bomb the Christian sectors where Hezbollah wouldn't have been at all. It was a direct attack on the country, not just Hezbollah as they had claimed. They had even gone to Deirmimas, our village, where they interviewed my teta (grandmother). They showed little of the destruction in the village; but she explained that all of the hundreds of thousands of crops were either destroyed or laden with undetonated cluster bombs that they cant go near, and therefore can't harvest the crops until the army comes through and gets rid of all of the bombs.
The documentary also interviewed the "mayor" of the village; a philanthropist much like Rafik Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon who poured billions of dollars out of his own pockets to rebuild Lebanon after the civil war. This new mayor, who purchased land from my jidu (grandfather) at the base of the village, worth only a couple thousand dollars, for $150,000. He planned on using his money to bring business back to Deirmimas after a highway was constructed to bypass the village. Now that our village has been bombed, he plans on using his money to help rebuild... making a name for himself as Hariri did.
The cluster bombs that Israel dropped on Lebanon made harvesting crops impossible. The home video showed the ground littered with unexploded bombs. 5 citizens have died from these even after an attempted cleanup by the army. The 130,000 olive trees, all of which are thousands of years old, are only fertile once every other year. Last year was their year to be picked. Because they couldn't the economy suffered a massive loss. Even worse is that some of these trees were destroyed. These thousand-year-old trees are beautiful; it's very sad to me that Israel even did this.
The home videos went on to show the destruction along road sides in between Beirut and Deirmimas. All bridges and roads being destroyed, they often had to leave the car they were in, and hop into someone else's on the other side of whatever obstacle they came across. This is an excellent example of how people are in Lebanon, and most foreign countries. Even Israel, the citizens are very kind to everyone. Would you ever think to leave your car in the middle of a road to get into a stranger's? Probably not. Anthony Bourdain, a chef who has his own show on the Travel Channel, did his show in Beirut; arriving there two days before the bombings started. Instead of his show being about the food, he ended up trapped there, filming what he could of the war. Everything he had to say about the culture showed that the Lebanese are very strong and kind people. No where do you find such courtesy and willpower in the citizens. It's not only in Lebanon; but we as Americans don't get that kind of camaraderie from our neighbors. Despite our advancements, it is still we who live in caves.
In the village, our house was blown apart. A picture I've grown fond of--a vibrant burgundy wall with vines crawling up the edges and a ladder propped up against it--was redrawn in this video depicting a crude, potholed cement slab with a slight faded red in places where the paint didn't completely burn off. Across from that wall stood a large stone wheel, one of the only two old olive presses in the area, which is now chipped and worn away from the blasts.
The home video also gave a great look at the bombs that littered the ground. They were no bigger than a juice box, and they covered the ground only inches apart. Even whole cluster bombs that just didn't detonate were found. Massive missile-shaped bombs just laying there. One had buried itself deep into the ground and hadn't even detonated.
Nowhere in Israel would you find damage near this, and what I've described isn't even the worst of it. We lived in a Christian village. The Muslim villages and cities were leveled. Completely. The only thing that pisses me off more is that Hezbollah had used our house to hide in. Teta and Jidu returned to find spent armaments, canned food they never had, laying around their house. It's totally ridiculous and shameful to their country.
Though I still now fully blame Israel. They over-reacted entirely. People say Lebanon has been pushing them for decades. I say those in power in Israel don't even have the right to be there. They've occupied southern Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war, leaving minefields all across the land, refusing to give Lebanese officials placement maps so they can be disposed of properly. Their occupation was in order to take advantage of weaknesses in the government so they could strike at opportune times. They left long after peace was made between the Christian and Muslim population, with the intent to come back. When they did come back, Hezbollah attacked and captured two of their soldiers. FOR SOME REASON Israel deemed that as unforgivable... even though their soldiers were approaching Lebanese boarders? It's too bad the United States was the only country to agree with them, considering the US had enough influence to allow Israel to continue bombing.
When I say Israeli officials don't deserve their seats in the government, it's because it's not their land anymore. The Jews had left their Holy land thousands of years ago. Palestine was the result, and was there until World War II. After the massive displacement of Jews in the late 40's, they were given land that was already owned by the Palestinians, without their approval. I'm not saying the Jews didn't deserve a home, but that wasn't quite the correct place. Just because their religion says they are entitled to that land doesn't mean in these modern times we can just hand it over to them. If they can do that for someone based on their religion, than they could have given land back to the Native Americans who's entire race was in America first. Of course they have reservations and casinos, but it isn't their own country at all. They have little control.
Not to mention that people think "Semites" are Jews. Not true in the least. The word "Semite" derived from biblical Noah's second son, Shem, who was lord of the Middle Earth (not LotR, but the Middle East). This means that anyone who is Middle Eastern is Semitic.
This brings me to my final point, that those in charge of Israel don't deserve that land because they are NOT Semitic. Most of the people in the Israeli government are Japhetic Jews. Noah's third son, Japheth, was lord of the Northern Earth (being modern day Europe). All of those displaced after WWII were told they could have Palestine, which they then called Israel. I honestly think that's a bit fucked up. Their religion cannot define land that they are entitled to. If that were the case, I could convert to Judaism and be entitled to land in Israel.
And technically, if one did that and went to the Israeli government, they would be given land. Taken straight from the Palestinians.
Alright, I'm done ranting. Thanks ahead of time for not telling me to cut this.