I'm still reading a lot of blogs & papers in internet to get glimpse of truth of what really is happening in Israel & Lebanon & how the the people in Israel & Lebanon feel about it - German news are really poor to the theme - who builds his opinion by this poor informations is really misguided.
Yesterday I visited my Iranian friend Ghasem - I didn't meet him since the war had started - while we dined & had been talking about a lot of themes it was inevitable that we came to the Israel theme -
well he's Iranian living in Germany for more then 10 years (he's a wrestler sports man & judge for wrestling) - he doesn't like the Islam revolution nor Khomeini, nor Ahmadinejad - but since a half year he has via satellite a lot of Iranian tv chanels - Living in another country makes a lot of people much more patriotic than before - I noticed since some time that by his political opinions get more & more equal to tv Teheran - he thinks everybody here is under evil American influence -
Of course there is a lot of American influence in media - but there is also any kind opposition & people here have still the right to say & write what they think in contrary to a religion-fascist state like Iran
It seems that now a lot of people in the moderate Islamic world frenetically applaude to Jihadist fighters Hezbollah, just because they fight Jews. - Yes they fight the Israelian invasion, but for for a lot of anti-semitic Arabs it's 'fighting the Jews' - you have to look closer to see that, the proverbs & sayings & cartoons against Jews in general that are spread there & gets taught to kids from early childhood.
In my discussion whith Ghasem I wanted to explain to him, that it was Hezbollah, which openly had pronounced it's goal to destroy Israel, had started the war, by not only kidnapping 2 soldiers & killing 8 soldiers, but also shooting about 150 Katjusha rockets into North Israel. - I told him that from Gaza since the Israelis gave there land for peace about 800 rockets were shot at Israel. - Everywhere where Israel gives land back or withdrew it gets attacked. -
But he didn't believe me that there were rockets shots at Israel from Lebanon side - Everything he doesn't hear from tv Teheran seems to him an American propaganda lie. -
The Iranian news I regularly read in such times is www.tehrantimes.com - a typical report this days was, that attrocious aggressor Israel killed so many cilivians, women & chidlren, like they were doing it by spite & telling nothing of the 100erds of rockets that fly every day into Israel not caring whom they attack - (only one single time one rocket by chance hit & killed about a dozen of Israeli reservists) -
I told him the ONLY reason why Israel went into Lebanon was, to stop & destroy those who all the time attack them from the border (a lot of Israelians had already left the North to safer places even before the war, because of the occasionally Katjushas)
But there was no point in our discussion - if even the war party who had started the aggression is not clear - there's no point in discussion at all - he believes in his information & I in mine - well may the difference may be, that I real all kind of informations from the most different sides, while he mainly gets his informations by meager German daily news & Iranian fascist lies tv - by the way on every political theme we talk about he believes 'it's the Americans'
I told him about my lot of internet sources I read (but they're all in English & he hardly understands English) like bbc.com.uk & the relatively neutral news there - but he said: "the chief reporter of bbc is a Jew" - I said: "So you believe Jews are liars?" - If I ask him he sais he doesn't hate Jews - there live a lot Jews in Iran (in fact a much smaller number than before Khomeini) - but of course Iran calls Israelis Zionists & Zionists in Iran has the same contempt for Zionists as Hitlers Nazi Germay for Jews. - well there's also a lot of people who doesn't hate Jews, but think 'there's something wrong with them'
after about more than an hour of heavy fight in discussion we were slightly exhausted & changed the theme (good that we had now weapons in hands while we talked) - & behaved like good old friends again -
usually I avoid them - but from time to time we have these discussions - it clears the air somehow & I see it as good training to express my mind in these things - of course it make me much happier if I could convince & of course his political opinions will never convince me - because - yawn - I heard them all too often before in all those bloggers comments of that area...
This evening I saw in 'arte' the French-German channel an report about a Libanesian cartoon designer who writes a blog since the war began
His name is Mazen Kerbaj - in an interview he told that in his blog were also Israelis writing thing like this: "I don't like what my country does to your country" - or "I'm ashamed to be Israelian" -
- Ok - there may be some voices like this in Israel, but they're a total minority - about 80 or 90 percent in Israel (even a lot of the peace movement) believe this time, that this time an reaction to the never-ending Hezbollah attacks is the right thing to do. - & these responses are not typical - I read a lot of blogs to this theme & in those blogs where also a lot of Israelis write - it's only a small minority who thinks like that -
I read also an lebanonesian blog lebanesebloggers.blogspot.com - you get another picture there if Israelis write there - of course most entries are by Lebanonesians but the opinions to Hezbollah & supporting it are quite different - of course some call everyone who critizises Hezbollah 'traitor' - but there are still - despite the Israelian bombs - a lot of Lebanesians who critisize Hezbollah, Syria, Iran etc. - who started all this trouble in their country, causing by spite the reaction of Israel -
in these blogs the comments of the people are often more interesting than the blog entry -
here e.g. a Hezbollah critical commentator:
"One thing must be clear to all Lebanese and I mean ALL: what has transpired over the past two weeks eliminates all the pretense for Hizballah'hs existence as a military force. - Its proclaimed ability to protect Lebanon from Israel has summed up to nothing more than causing a fraction of the damage to Israel in retaliation. All Hizballah can claim any kind of credit for is its ability to protect itself, and avoid elimination - small consolation to the rest of us."
Well & here is the blog of Mazen Kerbaj mazenkerblog.blogspot.com - of course he expresses with his cartoons the awful, terrible situation he's caught in. - That's the awful situation every neutral cilivian gets, if his hometown gets bombed - that's the same feelings the Israelians in North Israel feel who hide every night in underground shelter - that was the same fears the people here in Germany had, when in Nazi-Germany all big towns were bombed to pieces by British & American air forces -
if you lived in that time - of course about every German (even if not liking the Nazis) hated the attacks & those who threw the bombs. - But of course the Nazis had to get fought this hard to stop them. -
War is always awful & injust - it is a monster who kills a lot of innocent people - just because you can't reach those guilty people you think that are responsible - it would be nice if only the real 2.000 to 4.000 Hezbollah fighters could get hunted down, but looking like civilians & hiding between civilians & having the support of a high percentage of the population - you hardly can get them all without killing much too much civilians - & if ever Israel could eliminate the majority of Hezbollah - they still spread like mushrooms or coming from all directions like once the christian Crusaders in the early dark ages to Jerusalem - from all Arabian countries - like they did to fight for Afghanistan for the Taliban or now in Iraq from Iran & all kind of sectarian forces - but of course you have to fight them if they never cease to attack - because for Israel it's them or us (I hope it doesn't overreact)!
