[Peace-discuss] Letter from Friends of Kostas in Lebanon

Wed Aug 2 12:39:07 CDT 2006

Dear Jan and Durl,
I'm fowarding you a message from a Lebanese friend of mine who's a  
student at the U of I. It includes a letter from one of the Americans  
in Lebanon. It is a bit outdated. If you can circulate it among your  
group it would be great.

This newest flare up of a simmering conflict has hit very close to home  
for me. At one point I had 6 friends 'trapped' in Lebanon. 2 remain  
there. And we are expediting bomb shipments... to ensure a  
'sustainable' ceasefire... The masks have fallen but the media machine  
does an excellent job of keeping us misinformed.

Best regards,

Kostas Y.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sara L. Salloum <salloum at uiuc.edu>
Date: Jul 25, 2006 10:43 AM
Subject: Letter from an American in Lebanon and links for aid to Lebanon
To: Konstantinos Yfantis kostasyfantis at gmail.com

Hello Kostas,
could you please circulate this flyer and letter to your
group and friends.
Thank you so much.

Sara

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Arab Student Association at UIUC" <asa.uiuc at gmail.com >
To: 
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:45:01 -0500
Subject: Letter from an American in Lebanon and some useful links..
We have fellow ASA members both in Palestine and Lebanon.  Please keep  
them in your thoughts and prayers, along with everyone else who is  
suffering.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
~~~~~~~~
July 16, 2006

Letter from Lebanon:  LEBANON IS KIDNAPPED!
Dear Family and Friends,

Ha!  I think I am becoming a reporter now!   First, we are still safe,  
but hardly anyone sleeps. The bombing has been continuous, day and  
night with no reprieve. We are in the mountains and we are awakened by  
the sound of the explosions.  And it's not as if you imagine what it is  
like if you are in Beirut. The situation is extremely serious.
I want to reiterate that we need your help in disseminating this  
information and hopefully getting it to the press.  The news you are  
receiving is skewed.  This is a well orchestrated war that Israel is  
carrying out.  This is not a reaction to Hizbullah's apprehending two  
of its soldiers.  It becomes clearer by the day that there is a master  
plan that Israel is executing. Israel has literally kidnapped the  
entire country.  One by one they are destroying every single road that  
leads out of the country.  Just this evening around 8:00 p.m. we heard  
Israeli planes flying overhead only to hear a few minutes later on the  
radio that they destroyed a mountain road that leads to the Bekaa  
valley.  This road is further up the mountain from where we live, in a  
primarily Christian village.

On the news earlier we heard that of the 93 Lebanese killed, only 3  
were soldiers. As of 8:30 p.m. more than 120 Lebanese are dead and over  
500 wounded.

Yesterday they bombed a small port in Amchit, a Christian village about  
one hour north of Beirut.  Why?  The Israelis got wind that a French  
ship carrying medical supplies was arriving. Damaging the port they  
prevented these critical medical supplies from reaching their  
destination.
Yesterday, my niece was attending a wedding-poor couple-could they  
really delay their wedding after months of planning? The wedding was  
held not too far from Jounieh, a major port about 25 minutes north of  
Beirut, a Christian town (and definitely not a Hizbullah stronghold).  
Everyone was on the terrace celebrating when Israel repeatedly attacked  
the Jounieh port. My niece said that everyone ran into the church and  
prayed. The bride was crying. The groom was crying.  My niece left the  
wedding flying down the main highway while bombs whistled by.  Nice  
memories for the newlyweds.

This afternoon, the Israelis decimated a small Christian village,Ain  
Ebel in the south of Lebanon.  The mayor was pleading with the UN for a  
cessation of the Israeli bombing so they could evacuate women and  
children, and eventually to get food and medical supplies. Again, Ain  
Ebel is far from being a Hizbullah basis.

In the southern suburb of Beirut, Israelis knocked out all  
telecommunications-both land and mobile.

They just struck the airport again, as I have been writing this. This  
must be the sixth or seventh time, I lost count!
Over 1 million Lebanese, that's nearly one third of the entire  
population has been displaced!  Hotels, homes in the mountains are  
packed to the brim trying to accommodate these people made refugees in  
their own country.

Are you still convinced that Israel is attacking only Hizbullah   
targets?
Are you still convinced that Israel has a right to defend itself-and if  
so, in this way?

Even during the 15 years of war, never ever were all roads, ports, and  
airports simultaneously blocked.  When I was in Saudi, we would fly to  
Cyprus then take the boat to Jounieh to visit my husband's family.  Now  
there is no way out. Israel has kidnapped and trapped the entire  
country.
There are more than 17, 000 French citizens, more than 10, 000 English,  
more than 25, 000 Americans and many more other foreign nationals  
trapped because Israel has blown up all major roads, bridges, airports  
and ports. Their actions are barbaric.  The British Ambassador made a  
public announcement on television telling his compatriots that the  
roads are not safe enough to travel on for an evacuation and urged them  
to just remain at home. How reassuring!  You hear news of evacuations,  
but we are all wondering how anyone can get out when roads, bridges and  
ports have been
damaged so severely.

Now, to end with a little story.  A news item that I am sure did not  
make big news in the American press:

On June 21, 2006, about three weeks ago, The Daily Star, the local  
English newspaper published an article about Lebanon expecting complete  
support from the UN Security Council about a complaint the Lebanese  
government was presenting to them. The Lebanese were following proper  
international protocol.  What was discovered? The Mossad, the Israeli  
secret service (like the U.S.'s CIA), has a network in Lebanon and has  
assassinated at least 3 Lebanese citizens which the Israelis believed  
to be "terrorists." I ask you:  What is worse?  Hizbullah's kidnapping  
two Israeli soldiers or Israeli agents coming onto Lebanese territory  
and assassinating its citizens?  It's like having a North Korean secret  
service cell in the U.S. killing American citizens. Would the U.S. sit  
back and do nothing?  It's an outrage.  Yet, Israel destroys Lebanon  
with impunity and no one pays attention to the infractions that Israel  
does. And what right does Lebanon have to defend itself?  If Lebanon,  
dared to do what Israel is doing to it now, it would be labeled  
"terrorist."

I once again plead with you to get this news out. Israel is destroying  
Lebanon while the United States puts its head in the sand! These  
atrocities must stop!
10:10 p.m. The bombs are exploding. Another sleepless night ahead..

Rosie AKL.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
~~~
Pictures of Israeli children writing messages on bombs to destroy  
Lebanon!
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2006/07/17/photo-of-the-day-israeli-kids- 
sends-gifts-of-love-to-arab-kids/

Selected Images of protests around the world against the US funded and  
supported Israeli aggression on Lebanon and Palestine

http://arab-americans.blogspot.com/2006/07/images-of-international- 
protests.html#links

What the US media won't show: images and descriptions from the ground  
in Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon
  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14069.htm
http://uruknet.net
  http://www.palestine-info.com/arabic/child.htm
http://electronicintifada.net
  http://www.maannews.net/en/

UN appalled by devastation of Beirut (text and images)
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5207478.stm

Black Commentator: Israeli Apartheid by Bruce Dixon, The Black  
Commentator Friday Jul 21st, 2006 10:21 AM
  http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/21/18290328.php

Israel's Terrorism by Gabriel Ash
  http://dissidentvoice.org/July06/Ash18.htm

U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis By DAVID S. CLOUD and  
HELENE COOPER
  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/middleeast/22military.html

Israel attempts to isolate and destroy Palestinians take a new twist:  
increased denial of entry to both Palestnians and their supporters from  
Western countries
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/443.shtml
  http://www.alhaq.org

See also: Human rights activist denied fair trial, to be deported as  
"security threat"
  http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/07/23/mariadeport

Green Party Press Release: Press Israel to end attacks on Lebanon
  http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2006_07_20.shtml

Puerto Ricans Condemn Israeli Aggression, Prensa Latina,July 21, 2006
  http://www.plenglish.com

In a heavily attended press conference today at Cosatu House, the  
Palestine Solidarity Committee of South Africa demanded an end to the  
Palestinian genocide ...
  http://www.southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/10727.php

A blog in the Houston Chronicle (please post comments)
  http://blogs.chron.com/gazawia/

Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews activities in support of Palestinian rights  
and against the abomination of Zionism: http://www.nkuk.org/

New US Military Base in Israel: Cementing US-Israel military alliance  
against the people of the Middle East (also at the expense of US  
taxpayers):
  http://www.rense.com/general66/excl.htm

Tom Hayden: Things Come 'Round in Mideast
In this essay, veteran social activist Tom Hayden, drawing upon his own  
rude political awakening to the realities of Israeli and Middle East  
politics during the 1980s, warns that the Israel lobby in the U.S. aims  
to "roll back the clock" and "change the map" of the region and that  
its neoconservative supporters will probably try to use the current  
Middle East crisis to ignite
a larger war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/ 
20060718_tom_hayden_things_come_round/

LinkTV.org  translates and broadcasts unfiltered coverage from  
the Middle East TV channels "on line and in some TV
networks" (they claim to enter 1 of every 4 American houses) .
  http://www.linktv.org/mosaic/streamsArchive/
Jan Kruse
www.dailypracticecounts.com.
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