Friday, July 14, 2006  
The refridgerator is still the best spot in the house, except that S., the guest kitty (aka - the feline that came to stay (according to my friends)- until owner has finished house...I think), has opted for the bathtub.

My patience survived my class, my class survived me (put it this way- nobody got hurt and the janitor doesn't have to clean up anything reddish).

It's Bastille Day! so D. and A. (who has currently forgiven France for even existing- thanks to the French team) and I are going to feter la fete! (m'enfin!)

Doris sent some lovely picts of Lebanon- of places that may not exist in a few days. I will ask her permission and then post if I receive it.

A word about the situation:

It's badder than bad. It feels worse than when I sat on a bench at school reading in the Boston Globe about the Shabra and Shatilla massacres, and feeling so bad for F. and D. and A. It was so ghastly, it seemed beyond comprehension.

Now it feels equally ghastly, but worse because I know a bit more, know people in and of these places and it just tears at one.

But I also have a depressing suspicion that all this is somehow cynically orchestrated, in a way often found in Borges. One does one thing, the other does something else. Look, Ma, we reached Haifa! Oops, was that the airport in Beirut?
What is the point? Was Hizbollah so tired of the quiet, and feeling so left out of things in Iraq, that it needed to stir up a hornet's nest? Does Israel think "defending itself" is a license to wipe out other populations? Who is wagging whom here? And is Bush so blind, he cannot see certain parallels?

I have a suggestion: how about conventional weaponry at 20 paces in the Negev? Here are the rules:
- no hitting civilians
- no taking out religious buildings
- no destroying places of historical value

Whoever wins, gets to go home with whatever concessions they need. If it is a draw, get a divorce mediator and work it out.

Comments:
Zazou, if you'd like to try to meet up with me while I'm in So.Cal., email me (the_bokononist at yahoo dot com). Although I'll be away from any computer access for a couple days, I should be able to check email Monday.
 
Thanks James. Sent you an e-mail.
 
Zazou, I am getting more and more suspicious that somehow this was all premeditated when Olhmer (sp?) came to the US for a visit. The US and Israel were not happy with Hamas' election and needed some pretext for ridding Hamas and the expected Hezbollah counter (re)action.. it's about the big picture and I think you're starting to see it too...it's still a bit fuzzy on my end but I can make out the lines..
Ingrid
 
Hi Ingrid! You flatter me...
I don't know...but I suspect we are looking at a Chinese puzzle box as created by Borges. There are so many pieces and so many interpretations. It's not about Shalit-although Shalit may turn out to be a bit like the character Woody Harrelson played in Wag The Dog-and perhaps, as I am beginning to agree with a poster on the Arabist, it's not about Lebanon or Palestineper se, but someone has a bigger agenda (the ascendency of Israel, the Coming of Days, a neo-colonialism of the Levantine?)- and I want Bush and co to hang for this. Why (other than the fact I despise them[and f---- the thought police])? Because of AIPAC, the Heritage Foundation, Perle, Wolfovitz, Abramoff, etc., who have been linking agendas for some time and for whom a strong, vibrant Lebanon is not in those cards. Neither is any democratically elected government of Palestine nor the examination of the so-called Green line. I think Americans want to look at Israel and see themselves reflected back. If so, they are looking in a funhouse mirror. Any state that sets up a religous identity as the primary code for citzenship is by definition undemocratic.
 
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