i say in “a street” and not in “the street” because there is no such thing as “one word” in the street(s).

I live in a building in Hamra where all my neighbors are HezbAlla supporters. and some of my roommates are also HezbAlla supporters. so one of my roommates is a reporter, he is an American and he works for a pro-Palestinian site, he was covering the clashes in Kurnish el Mazra’a. Today he comes and this is the first thing he said as he opened the door:

الله ونصر الله والحمرا كلّا

last night one of our friends came to check on us, she is a foreigner pro-Palestinian activist. everybody knows her here. she is always there for the palestinians, in palestine and in lebanon. and of course, she is there for resistance. also, the first thing she said was this:

الله ونصر الله والحمرا كلّا

she said that things will get calm soon, according to her resources.

i realize these two are not lebanese, but let me say something here..

on the 7th. i was the only person who was worried that things will get worse, my lebanese roommates and friends werent as worried, why? they said that these things always happen and soon things will get back to normal. that’s the problem, memory sometimes messes with our readings to situations and hence with our judgments. and it is happening again now when people call what is happening as “civil war” or “occupation”. why? it is so easy to go back to history and project terminologies that were founded then on every single situation where we have two parties fighting on the streets in lebanon. Nassralla was clear, this is not a civil war, this is an armed political pressure on a party that is trying to control resistance’s abilities to protect itself. if resistance is truly protected as Junblat was saying on TV the other day, why did he along with the U.S.-backed government initiated attacks on a very essential factor that protects the resistance (land lines)? why did he initiated the airport issue? there is a U.S.-backed strategical attack launched by the government on resistance now, and HezbAlla wont go this far if things wont get worse in the future. Nassralla was shockingly clear in his speech, they have two demands and nothing more. The government should start to think locally and stop taking orders from Welsh every now and then.

The government should rethink its resources.

I just came back from the funeral wake of my neighbor’s son. He was 16 and he and his friend were shot this morning in my street. His family owns a bakery and a cafe in my neighborhood. They are also very involved in the local mosque. He and a bunch of other kids always hang out between the bakery and the cafe. They are Hariri supporters by default, like many other Beirut Sunnis. At around 10:30, when the fighting intensity was beginning to decrease, they went out to have a look. The sniper caught them both.

Junblat, who asked for full protection from Berri in exchange of giving up all his positions to the Lebanese army, declares on New TV that he is not going to war.

via friday-lunch-club.

update: via Press TV.

i have just laughed. there are heavy gun-shots going on near us, and my roommate made me laugh amongst the shootings:

these are crazy mother-fuckers, i am happy to be as normal in comparison.

From Dr. Rami Zuraiq:

My children and their cousin hiding after coming under fire in our house this morning.

i realize that i might have a different selfish outlook to all this since I am from syria, i dont have children to worry about, i dont have a family here, it is me, my laptop and my believes. i thought it is only fair to link to Lebanese outlook as well:

from KerbBlog

I just want to give you an idea about those reporters who keep calling the take over of Amal in Beirut as “occupation”. There is an Italian journalist here with us in Hamra who is “reporting” what’s happening in Beirut to her agency in Italy and she is saying that although she hates Future guys and Ja’ja’ yet she is sympathizing with them against “HezbAlla’s occupation”. So I asked her what “occupation” is to her and this is her answer:

This is a Sunni area [Hamra] and when Shiaa take over Sunni area or any other non Sunni area it means they are occupying them. But when Shiaa take over Shiaa area it isn’t occupation anymore.

This is the logic that produces the news spread all over the media.

Al Jazeera says that 8 are killed and 15 are wounded in Beirut.

NTV: Ras el Nabe’ is completely under the Lebanese army’s control.