Dove's Eye View

Lebanese-American Christian in South Lebanon Speaks Out

My uncle Simon is in Mieh-Mieh at the moment, but he keeps in close contact with his sons in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he maintains a home. He published this opinion piece in the Greensboro News-Record Saturday: News-Record.com - Greensboro, North Carolina: News - Religion: Only justice for all can bring peace for all.

The situation around us is difficult, tense and dangerous. Unfortunately most of my life has been in such a situation. I have learned through my education in American Presbyterian schools that we should know the truth and defend it; by this alone we would be free. Also I have learned from Socrates, the Greek philosopher, that "when I have to choose between my conscience and anything else, I side by the first."

I am proud to be American of Lebanese origin. I am honored to have the opportunity of having two homes and two hometowns, here in Lebanon and there in the United States. Normally I spend half my time here and the other half there.

Before the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in 1982, there was no Party of God. This and other like groups have been created as a response to the occupation and demand for justice. Resisting the occupation is a natural right for everyone that is found in our Book and accepted by international law. All religions seek peace built on justice and fight what is wrong and evil.

Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock

This is the kind of philosophy I respect and understand: Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock - New York Times.

In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek “power over” others — by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should instead seek to have “power under” others — “winning people’s hearts” by sacrificing for those in need, as Jesus did, Mr. Boyd said.

“America wasn’t founded as a theocracy,” he said. “America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn’t bloody and barbaric. That’s why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.

“I am sorry to tell you,” he continued, “that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.”

Mr. Boyd lambasted the “hypocrisy and pettiness” of Christians who focus on “sexual issues” like homosexuality, abortion or Janet Jackson’s breast-revealing performance at the Super Bowl halftime show. He said Christians these days were constantly outraged about sex and perceived violations of their rights to display their faith in public.

“Those are the two buttons to push if you want to get Christians to act,” he said. “And those are the two buttons Jesus never pushed.”

The man holds traditionally conservative views on such matters as abortion and homosexuality. But he takes a spiritual view of the role of the church in politics.

I grew up among liberal Christians, Protestant and some Catholics (my first apartment in New York was in a building full of Catholic Workers - we were just two blocks east of Dorothy Day house, and my building was its de facto dorm). I know many people of faith on the left who are organizing and working for political and social change. But I think it is valid to question the conflation of religion and politics. Separating the sacred from the state is a fundamental value in this country and I respect those who protect that value.

Note- if you've noticed the edit - I am a Protestant myself, of tenuous institutional connection but the philosophy and worldview run deep. However my original post characterizing this preacher as a Protestant just didn't sit well with me. Had I been writing in such a way about a Jew or a Muslim, it would have been offensive. So I changed a word.

I mean to say that I don't understand or respect the jingoistic nationalism of these other folks this preacher contradicts. And I do understand and respect this fellow's careful self-examination and his willingness to ruffle feathers - lose money and parishioners - by speaking out. It's a Protestant tradition that goes back to Martin Luther (the first one); my own family has lived and acted in this tradition all my life. I probably wouldn't agree with this pastor about a great many things, but I admire his character.

Letter from Israel to The Angry Arab

As'ad Abu-Khalil, the Angry Arab, doesn't tow a very Dovish line, but his reporting is essential. Just bring your paragraph breaks. Of course his vehement opinions draw incredibly vicious comment trolls. An Israeli correspondent wrote him, saying not all Jews agree with this war: Letter from Israel.

Dear sir, I live in Israel and I am a Jew. We don't all support the policies of Olmert or the policies of the Labor party either. And many of us grieve for the loss of lives in Lebanon and Palestine just as deeply as you grieve for those lives. I am sorry that this is happening to your country and I hope and pray that your family and friends will be safe and I hope that not one more Palestinian must die for the crimes of the state, the Israeli state. I would like to leave Israel before my son turns of age where he must serve in the military, I will not have my child be a part of an occupying army. I don't want my child to have the guilt of the death of your loved ones or of Palestinians on his heart. Please know that we are all not like the thugs that visit your blog and say cruel and callous things. I abhor the messages they leave on your blog and they are not representative of Judaism. Zionism is not Judaism. One day the Jews around the world will realize this fact and I hope that when they beg you and Palestinians for forgiveness that you will forgive them for the spiritual malaise that has afflicted them. In peace and in solidarity, Yossi"

Days of darkness

I don't know who Gideon Levy is, but thank God for this Israeli voice: Days of darkness - Haaretz - Israel News.

Lebanon, which has never fought Israel and has 40 daily newspapers, 42 colleges and universities and hundreds of different banks, is being destroyed by our planes and cannon and nobody is taking into account the amount of hatred we are sowing. In international public opinion, Israel has been turned into a monster, and that still hasn't been calculated into the debit column of this war. Israel is badly stained, a moral stain that can't be easily and quickly removed. And only we don't want to see it.

The people want victory, and nobody knows what that is and what its price will be.

Perils of Over-Simplifications

My antagonists to my left accuse me of being not nearly the left-liberal I think I am. Maybe it's true, because here is a so-called conservative I keep agreeing with: The Belgravia Dispatch: The Perils of Over-Simplifications.

It is time to engage with subtlety and nuance, for a change. I know it has become unfashionable to do such things, amidst all the macho Manichaeanism so popular among the serried ranks of various think-tanks, journalistic eminences, and blogospheric blowhards, where far too often ideological affiliation trumps fact-based inquiry. But stay with me, if just for a moment or two: Al-Qaeda is not Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is not al-Qaeda, and Hamas is not either of them. It is easy to scream like a boy from the rooftops that they are all terrorists, and terrorists, we know, are bad, and so must be defeated, for if they aren't, we are showing weakness, and showing weakness too is bad, because, you see, Mogadishu and then, well, you know the script. But Islamists come in different shapes and sizes, and with different agendas, and we cannot tar them all with the same broad brush and presume that we will prevail in a complex global counter-insurgency campaign against radical Islamists simply by egging on the Israelis to eradicate Hamas and Hezbollah (whatever that means), while we take care of Sadrist death squads and al-Qaeda radicals, neo-Baathists, and hard-line Sunni nationalists in Iraq (before turning to Syria and Iran!) Does anyone seriously believe that such simplistic, quasi-messianic approaches will make this country safer, as legions of individuals from (aptly named) 'Londonistan' to the Parisian banlieu to Dearborn to Jeddah to Lahore to Jakarta look on with horror at the scenes of Arab and Muslim blood being shorn hither dither?

That last sentence is pretty condescending - I am one such individual looking on with horror, and I'm not even a Muslim. But anyway...he's got a point. Let's hope the right-wingers are listening. ???

Morality and War-Fighting

Gregory Djerejian, a self-described Republican, tells it: The Belgravia Dispatch: Morality and War-Fighting.

to cogitate in polite society about the wisdom of, now more than half a century on, and in the course of a preventitive war of choice, intentionally killing, man by man, the entire population (save the kiddies and elderly, mind you) of a major ethnic group in that country... This is the logic of a Slobodan Milosevic or Saddam Hussein or Pol Pot or, yes, Adolf Hitler—not the sort of stuff we should be pondering whether George Bush or Ehud Olmert have the guts and fortitude to accomplish.

I mean, we've foresworn, haven't we, ...we've tried to move towards a more civilized future, one where there is rule of law, and where civilization, not barbarity, reigns? Are we now to stoop to the level of our worst enemies (it is the militias of Moktada al-Sadr, after all, who are slaughtering young Sunni males willy-nilly), pondering politely as if an interesting academic conundrum, with arguments ostensibly of equal merit on both sides, whether we should have fought the war in Iraq by exterminating hundreds of thousands of middle-aged male Sunnis? How then does this make us different than Saddam? How then does this make humanity different in the post-Auschwitz era? What have we learned? How then can we believe in progress, and decency, and history not doomed to cyclical savageries?

He then quotes Hannah Arendt:

No civilization would ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors, more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.

Thank you, Mr. Djerejian.

Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions

From Aron Trauring, Israeli-American: Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions - numbers one, two, and three.

I get these questions all the time - here they are in case you're wondering:

1) "What should Israel do? Just sit on its hands while Hezbollah rains missles on it?"

2) "What else can a country do when it is subjected to rocket attacks and cross-border raids by a terrorist organization committed to its destruction? If that terror group finds a safe haven just across an international border, and the government and the army there cannot control it, then what other option is there but to destroy that menace?" (Trauring breaks this down into five questions)

3) "Terrorists only understand force and nothing will stop them except their destruction. How can we negotiate with terrorists?"

I know these questions and answers will provoke howls from the comment trolls, but for the more thoughtful among you, please read.

And thank you, Aron, for your good sense.

Ceasefire: Berkeley Poetry Event

From my teacher and neighbor, Elmaz Abinader:

Cease Fire: Words and Music against the Siege
August 9, 2006
La Peña Cultural Center

Bay Area Writers and Musicians Hold Benefit for Lebanon and Palestine

July 28, 2006, Oakland, CA---Bay Area writers and musicians are responding quickly to the escalations of attacks in Lebanon and Palestine with a benefit at La Peña Cultural Center on August 9, 2006. They are hoping to raise funds for the victims and heighten awareness of the severity of the recent activities in the Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

The evening’s performers include recent Before Columbus American Book Award Winner, Matthew Shenoda, Pen Oakland Award Winner, Elmaz Abinader, Deema Shehabi, Amir Chidiac and other writers are joined by jazz musicians MB Hanif and the Sound Voyagers, jazz artist, Rita Lackey, composer, Omar Khorsheed, jazz vocalist Sarine Balian and others. In addition the writers and musicians will collaborate in a new piece created by Abinader named Messages from the Siege, a montage of letters from Lebanon and Palestine, combined with voices, poetry and music.

When organizing the event, Nadine Ghammache, the co-producer found many willing organizations to co-sponsor the event including: KPFA, Global Exchange, The Arab Cultural and Community Center, Voices of Middle East and North Africa, La Peña Cultural Center, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco Middle East Children's Alliance Break the Siege Initiative, Concerned Individual of the Bay Area and more are enlisting daily. Ghammache says, “This latest invasion and the destruction of Lebanon and the Lebanese civilians have spoken to everyone. We put aside our differences when so many are suffering, so many civilians are dying. And why?”

Some of the performers are of Lebanese and Palestinian background while others are not. Abinader, who is Lebanese, considers these performances a kind of prayer for Lebanon and Palestine. “When I think of Lebanon, and Palestine as well, I think of poetry, of Adonis, Khalil Gibran, and Mahmud Darwish. And my life has been filled with the music of Fayrouz and Om Khalthoum. We are artists, not warriors.”

Cease Fire is being held at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and while a $10 donation is being requested at the door, everyone is welcome regardless of funds. The Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) is overseeing the event and hopes to raise several thousands of dollars for the victims of the invasions. Diem Jones, Director of VONA says, “As an arts organization that works with writers-of-color, we are compelled to step in and make this evening happen. Before we are stripped of our humanity completely our imperative is to act. And for VONA that means beating the drums with music and writing.”

During the evening’s events, images of the area will be projected providing a visual context for the performances. The organizers hope that this will be the first of many similar events throughout the country.

Leila here - my father and I are honored to be on the roster of artists who will read.

American University of Beirut: Free and Unbowed

Letter from Patrick McGreevey in Beirut, at the American University where my father and many relatives studied, and where my mother taught for a decade in the 90s: Informed Comment.

Partly because of AUB, most Arabs held favorable views of the US, at least until the 1967 War. Even during the horrors of Lebanon’s long Civil War, all sides spared the AUB campus and hospital. The University has walls and gates, but its guards do not carry guns. Its walls serve to designate it as a particular place where students from all of the region’s religions and ethnic groups can openly debate and pursue knowledge. As AUB student Randy Nahle put it in his prize-winning Founders’ Day essay in 2004, the university provided “an open forum where Occidental and Oriental streams of thought could meet and debate and reshape each other.” When AUB’s Center for American Studies and Research that I direct decided to offer a course called “The Holocaust in American Literature and Culture” last semester, we were aware that, though our decision was not without controversy, AUB was a free and open space where even this topic could be approached in a scholarly way. Instead of remaining an isolated island, AUB has continued to evolve. If it is an American institution, it is not because it slavishly serves the agenda of any presidential administration, but because it openly embraces ideals that have motivated the most admired of US achievements.

This is the cultural and institutional heritage that shaped who I am as a Lebanese-American. I am very proud to be the daughter of an AUB alumnus. May the university survive for centuries.

End the War

We need peace now: Nations voice new urgency to end fighting / In sudden reversal, Hezbollah supports Lebanon peace plan.

See details from AP wire in a previous post.

It may be too soon to post this. We have to watch, wait, and for those of us who think it matters, pray.