A week into the war between Israel and Hizbullah I found myself embroiled in an escalating verbal war with Israeli relatives and friends usually known as moderate, liberal, even progressive. One of the most heatedly debated topics was our bombing of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure. My adversaries, like most Israelis at the time, applauded IDF’s ingenuity: the Lebanese will surely blame Hizbullah, for ruining their beautiful country again by bringing on the Israeli attacks. Therefore, all we have to do is keep bombing, then sit back and watch the Lebanese tear Hizbullah apart.
I countered that according to foreign media reports from Lebanon, this is not happening. There was widespread anger with Hizbullah at first, but when the barbaric reprisals from our “most moral army in the world” started hitting airports, power plants, roads and civilian neighborhoods across the country, the wrath very quickly converged on Israel. Then, in most Lebanese eyes Hizbullah have turned into heroes who stand up to this bully (a perception which, incidentally, was one of Hizbullah’s original goals when conducting their July 12 raid). My point was not well taken, to put it mildly. I was accused of relying upon ‘biased anti-Israeli’ news sources, and of being a very bad Israeli in general. The rest, as they say, is history.
At the end of the war a friend forwarded to me a Hebrew translation of an article that has been making the rounds in Israeli inboxes. The author is a Lebanese journalist living in Beirut, one Michaël Béhé (he is not the American “Intelligent Design” proponent with the same name; from here on, the dots and apostrophes will be dropped for convenience). This 2500-word article, dated July 30 and titled “The most hypocritical people on Earth”, confirms the Israeli mainstream’s talking points to the letter - especially regarding the impact on Lebanese public opinion. Here are a few gems:
“…It is easy now to whine and gripe, and to play the hypocritical role of victims…Of course, that is nothing but rubbish! The Security Council’s Resolution 1559 – that demanded that OUR government deploy OUR army on OUR sovereign territory, along OUR international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on OUR land – was voted on 2 September 2004. “
“…Lebanon a victim? What a joke! Before the Israeli attack, Lebanon no longer existed, it was no more than a hologram…That was the case, for example, of Hezbollah’s and the Syrians’ command zone in the Haret Hreik quarter … possessing its own institutions … its government. A “government” that, alone decided… to attack a neighboring state, with which we had no substantial or grounded quarrel, and to plunge US into a bloody conflict. And if attacking a sovereign nation on its territory, assassinating eight of its soldiers, kidnapping two others and, simultaneously, launching missiles on nine of its towns does not constitute a casus belli, the latter juridical principle will seriously need revising.“
“Thus almost all of these cowardly politicians … are blessing each bomb that falls from a Jewish F-16 turning the insult to our sovereignty that was Haret Hreik, right in the heart of Beirut, into a lunar landscape. Without the Israelis, how could we have received another chance – that we in no way deserve! – to rebuild our country? … Once again, the soldiers of Israel are doing our work. Once again, like in 1982, we are watching – cowardly, lying low, despicable, and insulting them to boot – their heroic sacrifice that allows us to keep hoping.”
“…Like the overwhelming majority of Lebanese, I pray that no one puts an end to the Israeli attack before it finishes shattering the terrorists…Like the overwhelming majority of Lebanese, I have put the champagne ready in the refrigerator to celebrate the Israeli victory. But contrary to them – and to paraphrase Michel Sardou – I recognize that they are also fighting for our liberty, another battle “where you were not present”! And in the name of my people, I wish to express my infinite gratitude to the relatives of the Israeli victims – civilian and military – whose loved ones have fallen so that I can live standing upright in my identity. They should know that I weep with them.”
This article immediately seemed fishy to me. The author poses as a Lebanese dissenter, harshly critical of his country’s leaders. Being a dissenter myself, I know something about how dissenters write. No society looks the same from the outside and from the inside, and dissenters – their views notwithstanding – are still insiders, a trait that should be evident from their writing in countless ways. I am not a Lebanese insider, but the article’s perspective seems too similar to the way Lebanon is viewed from the outside – specifically, from mainstream Israel. It follows too closely the Israeli mainstream’s arguments, some of which may not be even known in Lebanon. It caters to Israeli sensitivities, while trampling upon Arab ones. In short, the article smells un-Lebanese.
My suspicion led to a web search, with surprising results: The article’s English version is posted all over the right-wing/’pro-Israeli’ cyberspace, and made it even into high-profile outlets like The New Republic (the Hebrew version is also widespread, appearing even on one left-of-center site). The source is an obscure website called “The Metula News Agency”, where it first appeared in French.
|inline
