OUT OF ISRAEL

Statistics about Lebanon

This is just to add some background (which may be polemic at times, I admit) to the daily news of these days.

1. Lebanon has 18 religious communities.

2. It has 40 daily newspapers.

3. It has 42 universities.

4. It has over 100 banks (that is banks and not branches of a bank).

5. 70% of the students are in private schools.

6. 40% of the Lebanese people are Christians (this is the highest percent all the Arab countries).

7. There's 1 doctor per 10 people in Lebanon (In Europe & America, there's 1 doctor per 100 people).

8. The name LEBANON appears 75 times in the Old Testament.

9. The name CEDAR (Lebanon's tree) appears 75 times too in the Old Testament.

10. Beirut was destroyed and rebuilt 7 times (this is why it's compared to The Phoenix).

11. There are 3.5 Million Lebanese in Lebanon.

12. There are around 10 Million Lebanese outside Lebanon.

OTHER INTERESTING FACTS:

1. Lebanon was occupied by many countries: Egyptians-Hittites-Assyrians- Babylonians- Persians- Alexander the Great's Army- the Roman Empire-Byzantine- the Arabian Peninsula-The Crusaders-the Ottoman Empire- Britain-France- Israel- Syria.

2. Byblos (city in Lebanon) is the oldest, continuously inhabitated city in the world.

3. Lebanon's name has been around for 4,000 yrs non- stop (it's the oldest country/ nation's name in the world).

4. Lebanon is the only Asian/African country that doesn't have a desert.

5. There are 15 rivers in Lebanon (all of them coming from its own mountains).

6. Lebanon is one of the most populated countries in its archeological sites, in the world.

7. The first alphabet was created in Byblos (city in Lebanon).

8. The only remaining temple of Jupiter (the main Roman god) is in Baalbeck, Lebanon (The City of the Sun).

9. The name of BYBLOS comes from the bible.

10. Lebanon is the country that has the most books written about it.

11. Lebanon is the only non-dictatorial country in the Arab world (it has a President!).

12. According to Christianity Jesus Christ made his 1st miracle in Lebanon, in Sidon (The miracle of turning water into wine).

13. The Phoenicians (Original People of Lebanon) built the 1st boat, and they were the first to sail ever.

14. Phoenicians also reached America long before Christopher Columbus did.

15. The 1st law school in the world was built in Lebanon, in Downtown Beirut.

16. People say that the cedars were planted by God's own hands (This is why they're called "The Cedars of God", and this is why Lebanon is called by many "God's Country on Earth."

Hoping for the best

The day after I left Israel, the hydrogeologist, aka the young father, has been called to the army as a reservist. He did not, luckily, have to go up north, but is taking up the place of professional soldiers hitherto employed in the Westbank who have now presumably been relocated to southern Lebanon. The other hydrogeologist has left the country on that same day.
I also wanted to point out to you a new blog by the Israeli Arab from Haifa I have written about earlier. If you want first-hand news from the region, click here.

One happy return

After a very early start by Nesher taxi, two shaky landings and more driving, I have arrived home safely to a country that is in fact hotter than Jerusalem was these days. Given that on the flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, it seemed for something like 15 minutes that the crew intended to DRIVE to the Bosporus instead of fly, I was quite happy with it all only taking one day, even though I can neither recommend the food on Turkish Airlines nor the landing skills of their pilots.
The situation in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon, and, by the way, Gaza, is not improving, even though we all very much want to believe that since Condi is coming to visit and Javier Solana and Kofi Annan are now at least talking about it. If you are interested in a very critical look on what's happening, you can listen to an interview by one Ali Abunimah, co-founder of electronicintifada.net and researcher at Chicago University, who appeared on a show called "Beneath the Surface with Jerry Quickley" on Wednesday, July 19th, to discuss the Israeli attacks on Lebanon. It is about 12 minutes long and gives a rather different look on that thing we are all reading about every day, so try it here.

Final impressions

As my time here is drawing to a close, I have taken one last ride to IPCRI close to the checkpoint to Bethlehem to meet the people there. I took an Arab sherut taxi, as was my custom last time I was here, only that today, the atmosphere was of course different. The people at IPCRI told me they are planning a very large conference on peace education in November of this year, a joint Israeli-Palestinian-International one, which is great; however, especially the Palestinian academics are very much afraid of attending since they may easily be accused of collaboration with Israel if they do. On the way back, again on a sherut, we had to stop for a passport control, me of course being waved through as usual, but everybody else on the bus, young men presumably looking for work in the city, had their names written down by the police. It is a humiliating scene, really, which I will take back with me as one of my last impressions from this torn country. Sitting on the sherut, listening to Arab news which were concerned with - well, there's not much choice these days, is there - the trouble up north and in Gaza, I would have liked to talk to my fellow passengers about how they feel about all this, but couldn't since my Arabic is much worse than their English, and their English still isn't enough.

A point in case

I was talking to my former flatmate the rabbinical schoolteacher earlier this week. As many of you will remember, he emigrated from the States to Israel three years ago. So I, naive as I am, kind of assumed that if things got REALLY bad, he would fly out of the country, too. But no. He says this is his home, which is simply consistent, and made a comparison I found interesting. He said when the planes hit the towers, nobody even so much as thought about asking people whether they would now want to move out of New York City. Apart from the fact that this comparison like all comparisons doesn't fit perfectly for several reasons, he does have a point, I guess. Maybe most of us, including me, are kind of quick in our assessment of the region's politics, mentalities, and, most importantly, prospects.
And no, I will not stay here to support either party to the conflict now. Just wanted to share the thought.

Rescheduling revisited

I will fly out of Israel the day after tomorrow. Not because the situation has changed considerably, and by changed I mean deteriorated, but because I have needed less time to get through the library work than I thought. So the adventure will be over soon.

Sad preparations

As the hydrogeologists are learning how to "read" the siren signals and how the shelter rooms work, I have started to prepare, too. There is still no acute danger here, but just in case I have arranged everything so that I can be out of the city in less than an hour. This may be overreaction, but caution is better than whatever it is that may happen. Again, I am not saying anything actually WILL happen. Everybody here thinks Jerusalem is probably the safest city in Israel right now. But the thought that friends are trying out rocket shelters is not comfortable, believe me.
The thing is, the only thing that helps me grasp what's REALLY going on here, I mean the actual impact of this on people's lives, is the bits and pieces I have heard from my grandfather and gathered from books about the Second World War, about bomb shelters, weaponry, military strategy and so on. I simply don't have an actual frame of reference for what is happening here, other than the rather abstract academic knowledge that yes, suprise, there's a conflict going on here. And it's not only words, it's deeds, too. We are so lucky to live in a safe haven as the Europe of today.
On a different note, I have spent more time in the library, which was good. There is a little bit more work I would like to finish before I leave. I walked a lot through the city, being without a car, and enjoyed seeing old and new places.
And I have just been talking to a student who is living in the vicinity of Haifa, who just told me that tonight, he woke up to the sound of missiles. We have talked about the current crisis, of course, and he told me, speaking as an Israeli Arab who will join the Israeli military shortly, that he finds it difficult to decide what to think of Israel's action right now. Israel is, he said, doing the right thing in terms of military action, since its attacks are the only way to let that man know that he doesn't live in a vacuum and he can't do whatever he wants whenever he wants. However, as a humanitarian he doesn't agree with the harshness of the Israeli reaction, because saving the lives of civilians should be highest priority.
He also related to me that he has talked to Lebanese friends of his, and all of them have, rather surprisingly, expressed their satisfaction with the course of events. How come, he asked: After all, Israel is bombing you. But their response was that while this is certainly bad in the short term, it may benefit Lebanon in the long term. In the end, this attack will cause the Lebanese army to take control of the area instead of Hizbullah (which is, by the way, a Shiite movement - for those who are as ignorant as I was). All the non-Shiite Lebanese seem to be against Hizbullah, but not all can express that, at least partly due to the weakness of the still rather new Lebanese government. Most (non-Shiite) Lebanese believe that Hizbullah is implementing Iran's will (as do most Western countries). The current aggression may finally settle the dispute between the Lebanese government and Hizbullah, in the ideal case strengthening the elected government and helping it to emancipate itself from Syria, and weakening Hizbollah considerably. At least this is what a lot of the Lebanese the student knows expect to happen.
We also talked about the Lebanese army, which is not involved in this current conflict, mainly because it is lacking strength. Currently, the Lebanese government does not have enough political power to impose the authority of its army. If it does, however, it will have an army that is comprised of Sunni, Christian and Druze soldiers (and Shiite?), and thus represents the Lebanese people in all its diversity.
So as macabre as this may be, the current aggression may actually do good in the long run.

July 27 it is

My flight has been changed, I am coming back next week. This week was practically full, since Germans are going back and Israelis are coming here, and it really doesn't matter - this will give me a little bit of time to do a little bit more research. And after all, this is Jerusalem, not Beirut. Not even close.

Okay then

As more rockets are hitting Haifa and the North of Israel, I have decided to come back home early. I will be back by the end of the month; not exact dates yet, flight changes are currently underway. I don't even want to think about the fact that last year, we spent a day in Haifa on vacation, and now people there are hiding in their bomb shelters... The Israeli defence minister has issued a state of emergency for the country; everybody north of Tel Aviv has been advised to be careful. Also, let's not forget that Gaza is still being attacked on a regular basis, as are the Israeli towns around the Gaza Strip. However, life here (back in Jerusalem) still goes on as normal, building going on, cars honking, people in cafés and shops. It has become rather eerie though. It has a bitter taste to it, this calm.
However, there is not acute danger in Jerusalem. The range of the Hizbollah rockets does not include the city, or at least not that we know of. "We" being the Israeli government, the IDF, and everybody else living in this country at this very moment, I guess.

Critical times

I am still in Even Yehuda with the hydrogeologists. In the meanwhile, Lebanon has attacked one of Israel's ships and abducted 4 Israeli marines. Israel has continued its attacks on Beirut and Gaza city, and Katyushas continue falling on Northern Israel. However, except for the North of Israel, things are relatively normal. We have seen on the German news that reporters talk about a "state of emergency in the whole country". This is not true - yet. We have spent yesterday having coffee with loads of other people in a shopping mall and on the beach with families and tourists. A state of emergency looks different.
Nevertheless, the situation is serious. We have decided to wait a little bit longer and see what happens next. The critical factor will be whether Syria enacts its threats about getting involved or not. If it does, it's not only Syria, but Iran and possibly other Arab states openly putting money and weapons in this conflict. That would mean it is not certain how far rockets can fly into Israel. At this point, I will already be back home.
I will be going back to Jerusalem tomorrow morning. There, I will meet with my colleagues and talk to more people about their view on the situation. I have started looking for flights, just in case.
On a different note, we went out to eat last night, "we" meaning the two hydrogeologists, the one's wife, and me. It was delicious fish, as usual, and we really enjoyed ourselves. At one point, one of us said "schnell schnell" in a context I can't remember right now - we were joking about all kinds of things - and it went unnoticed by everybody. This is remarkable, I think, since these words for a whole generation of Jews have become synonymous with terror and death. I was happy to see that they don't have that connotation anymore in our generation.