Michael J. Totten: Followup on the Siege of Ain Ebel

January 18, 2007

Followup on the Siege of Ain Ebel

I'll have another article posted shortly, hopefully later tonight.

Meanwhile, Lebanese blogger Rampurple emailed and sent me some links about Ain Ebel -- the Christian town in the South that was besieged by Hezbollah -- that she posted on her blog during the war.

What she wrote (here, here, and here) matches in part what I wrote about here, as does this article she sent me from the New York Times.

Posted by Michael J. Totten at January 18, 2007 05:36 PM

Comments

Michael: I live in PDX; travel the US for business. This e-mail is good for one meat or veggie mezza at Nicolas in Portland with me and perhaps a friend of mine from Beirut, if OK with you. I found out about you from a friend of mine in Seattle; Stu Williamson. Best regards, and keep up the good work. I will send you a check some time to your PO Box. -dh

Posted by: Darrell Hungerford at January 18, 2007 09:17 PM

MJT -- you might find this article on the Arab internet/blogosphere's reaction to the IDF Chief of Staff's resignation -- and what they are saying about HB's hollow claims of victory -- of some interest. Not saying the article is an accurate representation, since I have no way to know, but interesting.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3354039,00.html

Posted by: Pam at January 18, 2007 09:18 PM

Speaking of interesting news. Here's a little story out of Shebaa. Seems Nasrallah's posters are being torn down. And Saad Hariri is paying for heating oil for the people there. I guess someone else was thinking of how to counter the Iranian cash.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070118/wl_nm/lebanon_hezbollah_shebaa_dc

Posted by: allan at January 18, 2007 10:22 PM

Shebba is Sunni, so of course they don't like Nasrallah there.

Those who say all or most of Lebanon supports Nasrallah are completely delusional. There was temporary support while Israeli bombs fell, and that's it.

I appreciate that Yahoo article for finally making that clear. The Western media is totally behind the curve on this one.

Notice how much the Sunni of Shebba hate Hezbollah?

"Oh Siniora, don't worry, you have the support of men who will drink blood," said one of the residents.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at January 18, 2007 10:45 PM

"Oh Siniora, don't worry, you have the support of men who will drink blood," said one of the residents.

I didn't realize Transylvanians are a Lebanese sect. Unfortunately Nasrallah's support among werewolves remains firm.

Posted by: Bruno at January 19, 2007 06:41 AM

A pity Evans was banned as he could probably answer a question I that has been bugging me for a while that at first I thought was stupid and now I think is not. There are enough Israel critics and Arabs and Muslims on this board that could still, I hope, give me a thoughtful answer.
The question is - why exactly to the Arabs care about the Palestinians? Is it because they are fellow Muslims? Is it because they are fellow Arabs? Why, especially, do the Iranians care about the Palestinians? They are not the same ethnicity (Persian v. Arab) or same religion (Sunni v. Shia)? This sounds stupid, but Arabs have suffered tremendously in the Middle at the hands of other than Israel without the same attendant fixations. And if the Palestinians are so important to the Arab world, why are they locked in to suffer in the refugee camps instead of just being free to walk into the neighboring countryside and become a citizen? Perhaps the answer is as simple as blood ties - we can treat our people like XXXXX, but if you do, we will defend them? Somehow, the fixation on Israel seems bizarre to me in the context of the rest of the region. I always assumed the issue for the Arabs was the Palestinians, but it seems more likely that the issue for them is really Israel. Certainly, Evans made it seem like "it" is the return of refugees to Israel. I don't understand why that would be the case and would like that explained. Why do Arabs care about the right of refugees to return to Israel but not about their lives in general?

Posted by: dontgetit at January 19, 2007 12:17 PM

Sorry. My comment above was in the wrong section. Please ignore.

Posted by: dontgetit at January 19, 2007 12:51 PM

I knew Michael W. Totten who once lived in Izmir, Turkey and we attended the same high school in Virginia! Mike was also military liason to the Shah of Iran.

Posted by: Rick at February 1, 2007 04:48 PM

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