Date: Jul 15, 2006 1:20 PM

Date: Jul 15, 2006 1:20 PM
Subject: update

Dear All,

I would like to thank everyone who expressed concern about me and my family... i just wanted to let you know that neither me or my loved ones are in any physical danger at this point in time... but ask me again in a couple of days and my answer might change as the situtation is progressing at an accelerated rate.

I dont know really how the western media are presenting the issue, i am more concentrating on watching local news for once to get a more comprehensive and accurate position, but from the little i have seen on BBC and CNN it seems that they are portraying the war to be only between Hizballah and Israel while the situation is actually quite different.

Lebanon is a very small country of only about 10,500 Km2 bordered by the Mediterranian sea, Israel and Syria. So really we cannot pretend that what happens in the south is only limited to the south... the noise, smells and sights are carried all over the nation.
The airport which has been under heavy Israeli fire for the last 2-3 days is in the capital Beirut (and about 15 mns away from my offices and home) and is actually the only international airport we have therefore we are all under air siege, so really it is not only Hizballah in the south being bombarded.
The whole of Lebanon is under sea blockade with warships stationed along all the Lebanese shores from south to north all the way to tripoli and syria. They have bombarded all the roads leading to syria in the north of Lebanon (again not only the south is targeted) so now all of Lebanon is under land blockade as well since syria is only other bordering country we have (other than Israel). So we are besieged on all sides with no one going out or getting in.

They have targeted all Lebanese infrastructure, including the airport, electricity plants (so the country is currently in the dark), fuel tanks and gas stations (so no fuel for auxiliary electricity generators), no food can be brought into the country and they are bombarding the Bekaa valley where all agricultural produce are grown and all existing bridges linking villages to the rest of the country. The bombs have not stopped since July 13th and more than 100 Lebanese civilians are died and several hundreds are injured many of them children. People are dying while running away from their homes, on the roads and in makeshift shelters. The economy which relies mostly on tourism is of course heavily hit, tourists in the hundreds of thousands are attempting to leave through syria some with success others who waited until this time are stuck with the rest of us until further notice. Telephone lines are crappy and soon i am predicting that the internet backbone which comes from Cyprus through the sea will be targeted... Also, they have bombarded the GSM sites (mostly in the south and central Lebanon for now) and soon we will be without any means for communications. Israel is threatening to bomb Syria and Iran is threatening a military intervention if it happens... and i will give you one guess on where this confrontation will take place!! The international community is standing on the side lines watching and giving stupid meaningless speeches without consequences or any attempts on exerting any pressure the stop the hostilities from either side. The Lebanese government has no effect on hizballah which is wildly known as a 'resistance' movement. Hizballah (which means "party of God") has an army made up of thousands of militants who believe in their cause, highly trained and educated men, a lot of weapons, leadership and money. The Lebanese government has nothing of the sort: no money, no weapon and no army. And the Lebanese government has no clout whatsoever and cannot exert any sort of pressure on the Hizballah while the Israeli government is refusing any sort of negotiations with the officials of my country even through the UN or a third party.

Some local news are posted almost minute by minute on this forum: http://www.lfpm.org/forum some postings are in arabic but most are in english so you can get a more accurate idea on the situation if you are interested.

I apologize for the mass mailing. Please let me know if anyone would rather not receive such emails.
Love to all... I will try to stay in touch.