This is natural.

Women want a strong man to protect them. Some think about it, most just react positively to a man that projects strength. I’ts a darwinian thing. Add the fact that western men treat women far better than ME men do.

Do you think Lebanese men project strength? When Lebanese men project weakness (Ohh, we can’t do anything about Hezbolla, they are too strong, Ohhh, those Jews are opressing us, what can we do but fire missiles and hide behind women and children, Ohhh, we are under the thumbs of the Syrians, what can we do?), or leave the country rather than stay and do what is right, of course women will look elsewhere.

But don’t feel too bad, pretty soon they will realize how Frenchified and useless the UNIFIL troops are.

Smarterthanyou, please continue with your inane and sweeping generalizations regarding lebanese men, what women want and how women are treated in the “east” vs. the “west”. I find them oh so instructive, perceptive and clearly grounded in first hand experience…

Hummbumm, those common Lebanese/Arab excuses, prejudices and moral failures deserve to be constantly mocked. ie. “Ohh, we can’t do anything about Hezbolla, they are too strong, Ohhh, those Jews are opressing us, what can we do but fire missiles and hide behind women and children, Ohhh, we are under the thumbs of the Syrians, what can we do?”

You don’t like it when these failures are mocked? I’m crying buckets for you, really.

To smarter whatever your name is,
Leave it to a bigot from a got forsaken potato growing village mentality in a couple of hundred year’s old country to give opinions about countries with millennia of civilizations. Mr. smarter…, you are an insult to the adjective in your name. I would stop here and not stoop to your racist xenophobic mockery of an opinion (on this and previous posts), enjoy basking in your ignorance.

anonymous said:
Leave it to a bigot from a got forsaken potato growing village mentality in a couple of hundred year’s old country to give opinions about countries with millennia of civilizations.

who’s being a racist xenophobe now?? i’m not saying smarterthanyou was exactly right, but…it seems like after a few millennia under your belts, you would have figured alot more things out that has only taken us a couple hundred years. grant it, we still havent figured out that “suicide bomber” thing. that one stumps us pretty good, but give us 6 or 7 hundred more years and i think we’ll get it. oh yeah, and that freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, equal rights for all citizens and that voting stuff…well, we got lucky i guess.

Ow, so now you realize how it hurts to be stereotyped, I guess you get my point then. We can have dialogue only with mutual respect, and the very first comment, together with his many down the articles, lacks any respect for the rest of us.
However if you prefer I can throw couple of those at you, let me remind you that you are still in the land where you can defraud 40000 people out of their 401k and walk free, ow, doesn’t that seem backward to you, or how about having people walking into schools and shooting kids, or let me think, what about your multinational companies support for your sweat shops, very civilized, or maybe making bombs and killing indiscriminately count as civilized? Let’s not forget the freedom of speech that turns singers or TV anchors from heroes to traitor overnight for saying the wrong thing, or how about firebombing mosques and racial profiling, is that civility?
I am certainly against such rhetoric, and believe only dialogue and mutual respect to the others is what breaks boundaries and stereotypes. None of us is perfect, and we have no business slagging the other off, a simple look in the mirror is enough towards self improvement.
I have respect to the people of whatever nationality or persuasion, but when you get statement “like all Arabs are blood thirsty” one stand dumbfounded.
Best.

No you don’t get respect by just demanding it. And with strong, free people threats don’t work either.

If you want respect, then be respectable.

You get the reputation you’ve earned.

How inane, first as someone lucky enough to be born American I do benefit from the great system here in the States, but of course this does not make me any stronger or more freedom loving or courageous than my lebanese side of the family. Lebanon’s pop is 4m, syria is 17m. Leb is surrounded on all sides by dictatorship, syria and Israel. Yes the collective political system is broken, but please individuals in leb are as strong and freedom loving as anywhere. Let us just look at the States, we are currently poking holes in our wonderful constitution for fear of “terrorism”. If freedom is worth dying for, than why the rush to circumvent our constitution. Of course you hear “freedom isn’t a suicide pact”. Please the truth is, the electorate in the States is driven by fear, a mostly imaginary fear (the odds of any individual in the States being involved in a terrorist attack are so small, much smaller than the odds of a lebanese being killed by Hizbullah or Isarel or syria). Imagine what sheep we would be if we had a stronger neighbor threatening us. Let us not confuse the strength of the American nation with individual strength. As individuals Americans are as chicken shit as anybody else. We cross the street to avoid street thugs, and we would wet ourselves if some guy pointed a gun at us, with us unarmed.

Lebanon is not surrounded by dictatorships. Israel is a Democracy. If the Lebanese would get past the self destructive behavior and make a non-agression/mutual defence treaty with Israel, you guys would be as safe as a bug in a rug. But you choose conflict.

The other anon pointed it out, with your millenia of “civilization”, what have you to show for it? Maybe you should try to learn from others who are successful.

hummbumm, maybe you are a city boy, because in the conservative areas of the country, we don’t cross the street for anyone. Just because you think you are chickenshit, don’t claim we all are just to soothe your ego.

As for Israel, you are correct I forgot a comma, so it should have been “dictatoship syria, and Israel”. Yes Isarel is not a dictatorship. Conservative areas, you are so funny, what does that mean? Big tough conservative areas, what are you talking about, do you mean the guys running around like chicken little, thinking anyone with a funny accent could be a terrorist? All those guys suddenly supporting wiretapping and a host of other big government intrusions into one’s daily lives, all those guys looking to scrap geneva conventions and common decency, willing to cede the moral high ground. Those conservatives? Because the small government, freedom loving conservative of the Reagan mold, where “we are from the government we are here to help” was deemed scary, has gone away replaced by ludicrous big government intrusions in the name of the War on Terror. I guess when I see a lot of people walk away from supposed cherished principles, I look around for a reason and the reason is fear. you may be a tough guy but on the whole we americans are acting pretty scared.
On the culture thing, I am with you the past is the past, who cares what happened in antiquity, and anyways the idea that US culture is only a few hundred years old is stupid as well, since the founding fathers clearly tapped into Blake, Hume and british common law etc… US culture is as much part of the Western tradition as France, UK, Italy.

Israel is a democracy? This must be a joke right. Well, unless you mean a democracy like you have in the US where you are free to say what your leaders tell you, (Politically), otherwise you get thrown out of the party of isolated by the people around you. Or the type of democracy and tolerance that unless everyone is of your own creed, otherwise you give them names and call them intolerant, and yeah they can worship freely as long as they are as far away from you as possible is not such civility. Maybe you ought to read more about democracy from those who created it, Ancient Greeks, not 50 years old Israel, where you have right only if you are of the Jewish denomination, by right I don’t mean basic human rights like drinking water etc.. Israel is an Apartheid state, came to existence by displacing millions (I bet to the horrors of the ancestors that vanished in Auschwitz and Birkenau) and still force them to live below any human standard. Please wonder no more why people are revolting and going to extremes as they literally have nothing to live for. I would like to see what you would do in such circumstances.
It is tough for you smarter… to figure out what the millennia of civilization have to show for, as this means reading literature and history that predates the age of you recent state existence. High speed internet or daily conveniences are not what make you civilized. Maybe you can pass by some projects in the big cities or see the vast differential in standards (and don’t give me, they work more nonsense).

So, smarter… you slag hummbumm for being a city boy, what are you a potato growing peasant stuck in the middle of a 10 people town and playing with guns all day thinking less of any stranger? If so it seems that you have been too far away from reading some real history, and maybe it is time for you to be grateful for the ME oil, because if they stop selling it to you, you will have to bring the potato you grow for selling in the city on you bike, or the back of mules.

Lebanese women disgust me… Im Lebanese myself, and they sometimes have no self-respect at all

what a hoe

@ anonymous (2:27 pm)

“(…) Israel, where you have right only if you are of the Jewish denomination”

Please get your facts right. All Israeli citizens have voting power and can be voted upon on equal condition, no matter what religion, ethnic background or political affiliation. (I am not speaking about the occupied territories but about Israel proper. If you are saying that in the long run, occupation and democracy cannot go together, I would agree with you).

When I compare Israel to the only other country in the Middle East that comes close to democracy, namely Lebanon, I think Israel compares quite favourably, looking only at the democratic system. Whatever you can accuse Israel of, saying it is not a democracy doesn’t make sense.

But if you want to accuse Israel of not being a real democracy, can you explain to me what democratic rights the Palestinians in Lebanon have? Are they allowed to vote, and can they form political parties or be active in politics? I am just curious.

In Lebanon the Palestinians are refugees, and have little rights. I dont think they should be repatriated and should end up in their own country that they aspire to. My point was not whether Lebanon is a democracy, mine is that Israel is an apartheid state and if you look closer and behind the smokescreens you will realise that it is the place established where the jews are thought as 1st class citizens… come on use your critical mind. Let me remind you democracy is not only about being able to vote freely. Having said that, I have no problem with any state being run anyway it wants, but i have a problem being lectured and given irrelevant examples, in this case about democracy.

Dear Omar (The so called Great)…

You shouldn’t insult Lebanese girls if you are not able to get one… I went to your blog and I read your chat with your sister and all the the lovely words that you both use with each other and this showed me the social level that you are coming from… No wonder why Lebanese don’t like you…

Thank you Mustapha…

Why be grateful that oil happened to exist under a bunch of barbaric people? I wish we could deal with civilized nations instead.

Ive been to the ME, Asia, Europe, I’ve taught geography BTW.

And if we stopped buying oil from the ME, we are educated enough, free enough and civilized enough to work our way around it. We have the largest coal reserves in the world, and have plenty of offshore gas and oil to go after. I wish we would, then you guys would be back to putting burkhas on your favorite goats, rather than pretending that you are our equals. All men are created equal, yes. But when children are raised in ignorance, hate, arrogance and with nothing resembling civilisation around them, they don’t stay equal.

I don’t know, but I find this entry hilarious. I guess it seems natural for a woman to do such things. Who wouldn’t want a good looking Italian? If I were in her shoe maybe I would do the same thing!

It is quite possible that some of the soldiers i) have a better financial status than Lebanese men ii) have more charisma iii) treat women with greater respect.

Looks are not the most important element when it comes to selecting men (according to women)

The UN soldiers probably would have attracted less attention from local women if they had travelled to say, the US, Canada, Germany etc

Very funny!

To be fair, Italian men are sexy. And that accent…ooh la la!

@ mr smarterthanyou

You are repeating yourself and you are becoming annoying.
You accuse others of being uncivilized but at the same time you are using insulting language yourself. Do you expect to civilize people this way?
Please try to use convincing arguments rather than insults.

You still haven’t answered my question by the way why you have such strong opinions about Israel and Lebanon and yet have not visited either country.

@ anonymous (7:22 pm)

My point was that you were incorrect in saying that only Jews have democratic rights in Israel.
You seem to have taken that point but go on to say that Israel is an Apartheid state.
Again, apart from the occupied territories, that is not true. Israel is no ‘apartheid state’.
Yes, there is racism in Israel, which is a very bad thing in itself and with no excuse for it. But Israel is not unique in this respect, racism occurs almost everywhere.
If you don’t agree with me, list some examples of Apartheid that would apply to Israel in your opinion and we’ll see if you are right or not.

“i have a problem being lectured and given irrelevant examples, in this case about democracy”
I was not trying to lecture you, I was asking a genuine question as I was not sure whether the situation might have changed since the last elections.

@Smarter..

I guess the types of totalitarian comments and insults you level towards people speak volume of your nature. I have refrained from stooping to your level and will still do so. It is unfortunate that people with actions and manners like yours are plenty at large drawing resentment and repulsion from many towards America.

@Traveler,

It is refreshing to still be able to meet people with true appetite for dialogue.
I don’t know how appropriate is to keep this running in this spot of the blog, but I will return my point of view for the sake of your question.
You chose to call it racism and I might agree with you that academically speaking some restrictions for using the term apartheid must be exercised. However, I consider a nation built on the right of return for people of a certain creed, together with granting them most privileges is apartheid in my opinion. When racism is infused in the institution it can’t be just brushed aside; it is no secret what the reason and definition for the establishment of Israel is, therefore the discrimination against the rest. I find it difficult to put aside or ignore the immoral results on Palestine that the establishment of such a state had led to.

wow, hasnt this turned into something totally different…if you want me to respond, here goes cause you dont know me or what I stand for:

anon on sept 29 @ 6:50 said:
“However if you prefer I can throw couple of those at you, let me remind you that you are still in the land where you can defraud 40000 people out of their 401k and walk free, ow, doesn’t that seem backward to you…”

yeah that is criminal and that infuriated me beyond belief. my father worked for a multinational company(GE) for about 20 yrs. he was laid off several times while the CEO made hundreds of millions of dollars. at a young age (12 yrs old) i decided i would never work for a place like that where CEO’s are made wealthy at the expense of the employees. i started my own business at age 23 and payed my employees 80% of my income. if you look in a recent Forbes magazine, you will find that the average CEO makes 114 times more money than their employees. now what would i have done about enron? (although you did not mention that european company that ended up being worse than enron) i would have taken everything those involved owned and sold it to repay those lost 401k’s. our court system is not perfect, but in alot of countries, i bet such wrong doings would never even be made public.

then you said: “or how about having people walking into schools and shooting kids…”

its sad…plain and simple. how should i attempt to address this accusation?? i am still lost at the point you are trying to make?? there is violence in every country.

again you said: or let me think, what about your multinational companies support for your sweat shops, very civilized…

to bad you dont know me as an individual, not just some “stupid american” cause you would know that I am a business owner who, as part of my business, also does clothing. and as a matter of fact, I DO NOT USE SWEATSHOP CLOTHING. i use a brand called AMERICAN APPARREL which is sweatshop free. we (my wife and i) also buy/consume intelligently. we look at where things are made and often pay more to be responsible. we as a family are reducing our dependency on oil from the middle-east and venezuala by getting more fuel effecient car and walking and riding bikes.

then again you said:”or maybe making bombs and killing indiscriminately count as civilized?”

who makes AK-47’s???? not the US. who makes the IED’s or homicide vests??? lets talk about indiscriminately killing innocent people.

then:” Let’s not forget the freedom of speech that turns singers or TV anchors from heroes to traitor overnight for saying the wrong thing…”

actors/singers are both entertainers, what they sing or act about often isnt neccessarily what they believe. however, when they make a public statement that clarifies what they do or dont stand for, their point of view is taken and from that exact moment all people make their decision. sometimes (in the dixie chicks example) a majority of their fan base opposed their point of view. kind of like if a muslim decides to eat pork. that would instantly be cause for alot of people to call that person a traitor. although they would probably be severly punished.

you also said:”or how about firebombing mosques and racial profiling, is that civility?”

i guarantee that more churches have been destroyed here in the US since 2001 than mosques. not by muslims, just by hateful, disrespectful people. i cant even remember the last time a mosque was burned…and i try to keep up on that. and anyone who claims to burn either a churh, synagoge or mosque in the name of god is absolutely false.

and finally, you said:”I am certainly against such rhetoric, and believe only dialogue and mutual respect to the others is what breaks boundaries and stereotypes. None of us is perfect, and we have no business slagging the other off, a simple look in the mirror is enough towards self improvement.”

you just stated how wrong i was and made suppositions about me, without knowing me, then come back by saying only dialogue and respect breaks the boundaries and stereotypes. well now you know a little about me. i am not what most of the world considers a “typical american”, but i am an american and what i feel america is becoming. i have looked in the mirror and continue to look and evaluate what i am doing and who i am effecting both here and abroad.

by the way, sorry for the long post and my initial post was anonymous sept 29 6:17 am.

Why dont you guys chose a name instead of being anon? It gets confusing.

To the anon loser that referred to me:

There is a difference between being insulting and being uncivilized, as a culture.

I care because I hate to see people live in shit, and I care because Muslims, with an uncivilized culture, but with modern money and technology are having a very negative impact on the entire world. Look at a map of world conflict. In almost every one, there are muslim agressors acting like complete animals against their fellow man.

Apparently what you call dialogue is when you and fellow leftists pat each other on the back and stroke each other’s egos. Not uncommon.

hi Anonymous (1:41 am)

Thanks for your response.
Basically you are saying that Israel has institutionalized racism by its immigration policy, which favours Jews over other religions.
As an outsider I admit that at first sight it looks peculiar.
But when the UN divided Palestine in 1947 into two, it did intend one Jewish state and one Arab state. Unfortunately, as we all know, the Arab state still does not exist until today. But let’s assume that, 10 years from now, a Palestinian state exists on the West Bank and Gaza, connected by a corridor. Would you then accuse the Palestinians of racism if they wouldn’t allow Jews to settle in the Palestinian state?
All countries have immigration policies and put restrictions on who they allow into the country. On first sight it might look racist to grant more rights to Jews than to other religions. But if you consider yourself the Jewish homeland then I think it is only logical to do so.

By the way, Israel is not the only country in the region which could be accused of institutionalized racism. For example, as a non-Muslim I am not allowed to visit Saudi Arabia (except on transit or for business reasons). Why do I never hear any protests against that discriminatory law? Why does everyone seem to take it for granted that Saudi Arabia bars non-Muslims? Imagine how the world would respond if Italy would close its borders to all foreigners except Christians.
Or another example. Many countries in the Middle East, including Lebanon, don’t allow Israelis into the country. But in practice Israeli Arabs are allowed in. So effectively only Jewish Israelis are forbidden to enter those countries. Wouldn’t that count as racism too?

“I find it difficult to put aside or ignore the immoral results on Palestine that the establishment of such a state had led to”.
It would be inhumane to ignore your conscience, and I don’t ask you to look away from immorality. But why is it that so many people in the Middle East seem to be so obsessed with one particular unjustice, and ignoring all the others? I am not saying that no injustice has been done to the Palestinians. But instead of collectively looking for a constructive solution I have the impression that some people are devoting all of their lives to hatred and condemnation. Thereby ignoring the real needs of the peoples of the Middle East.

“I don’t know how appropriate is to keep this running in this spot of the blog”
Probably this isn’t a good spot.
We are getting far off the topic raised by Mustapha. And moreover, Lebanon is the topic of this weblog, not Israel. Anyway thanks for your response.

anon sept 29 6:17 am and oct 2 4:55 / 4:57… anthem boy

Mr Smartyass said :
“I care because I hate to see people live in shit, and I care because Muslims, with an uncivilized culture, but with modern money and technology are having a very negative impact on the entire world. Look at a map of world conflict. In almost every one, there are muslim agressors acting like complete animals .”"

“Muslims with uncivilized culture ,” Mr. Smartyass ? Now don’t you try too hard to pull that drag of Mr. Humanitarian over your racist inbred tribal hatred of all that refuse to bend over for you land thieves. You are not fooling anyone here.

Was it uncivilized Muslims that murdered 6 millions of Jews that now the illegitimate state of parasite land that did not even exist back then is milking the world in the name of its victims? Have you recently checked the number of prisoners in that so called beacon of democracy, Israel’s “Uncle Sucker,” that holds the most prisoners in the world? Have you checked how many woman are raped per second in your United Slave of America? Have you checked how many woman are battered by their boyfriends and husbands? How many rape and armed rubbery took place in 4 hours of NEW YORK City black out in 1978 ? How many rape and violent crime takes place every day in those “Uncivilized culture” that have daily black outs ?!!

So now fighting for ones OWN land and trying to free it from the oppressors and colonizers that either for monitory reward or due to some mumbo jumbo 5000 years old pre historic kosher voodoo have dragged themselves across the world makes one’s culture “uncivilized” ?

traveler :”All countries have immigration policies and put restrictions on who they allow into the country. On first sight it might look racist to grant more rights to Jews than to other religions. But if you consider yourself the Jewish homeland then I think it is only logical to do so.”

Hardly any country kickes the native out of thier land and automaticly gives citizenship based on religion to people that have never seen the land , all this will not white wash the racist policies of Israel . What gives right to Iranian Jew that for 2500 years lived in Iran to become the citizen of Israel and take over the land of people that were kicked out only 60 years ago ? Does any other cpountry in the world gives authomatic citizenship based on religion or race ? Name one that does .

traveler :”It would be inhumane to ignore your conscience, and I don’t ask you to look away from immorality. But why is it that so many people in the Middle East seem to be so obsessed with one particular unjustice, and ignoring all the others?”

What other are you talking about ? Which country in the modern history has ever thrown out its native population that have lived there for 1000’s of years and has invited people from across the world to give them free stolen land ?

Amazing that you try to make the wrong looks right by implying that there is something wrong with people that see the ethnic cleansing committed by Israeli as crime .

Mr Smartyass :”But when children are raised in ignorance, hate, arrogance and with nothing resembling civilisation around them, they don’t stay equal. “

So that means that 50% ignorant arrogance yanks that still after 5 years think Saddam had something to do with 9/11 are not equale to the rest of the world and they should just stay home in Rednekia and educate themselves before following the orders of their head office in Jeruselam to go liberate the Muslim ! Ayman to that .

@ anonymous (9:02 pm)

“Does any other country in the world gives authomatic citizenship based on religion or race ? Name one that does”

Here’s one example. In the 1990s, Germany granted automatic citizenship to many thousands of Russians of German descent whose ancestors had lived in Russia for centuries.

@ anonymous (9:02 pm)

“What other are you talking about ? Which country in the modern history has ever thrown out its native population that have lived there for 1000’s of years”

What about the genocide committed by Turkey on about 1 million Armenians in 1915, to name just one example?

But actually I don’t like to compare suffering and injustices. All suffering and all unjustice is bad. What I was trying to say is that it would be so much better if people in the Middle East tried to cooperate instead of cultivating hatred.

Look at the Germans after World War II. Four million Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia and Poland in ethnic cleansing operations in 1945. That was grave injustice that was never undone. Yet all countries in the region have made peace again, because people realize that the past cannot be undone, and that if people would try to undo it, new unjustice would be done.

I just wish there would be peace in the Middle East.

No wonder you post as anon, you know how unhinged and stupid you sound. Your arguments are not arguments, just flip accusations, moral equivilency and a demonstration of your ignorance of facts and even the common definitins of words. “Women raped per second”? Gimme a break. At least here, we don’t murder women who have been raped for “honor” purposes.

I am a Lebanese, I went to the UK in 1990 and I decided to stay. Why, because our people are not patient, if you have a girl in Lebanon, they want to have a nice car, nice house, nice cloth, clubs, and taking them to the restaurants and oh they won’t eat sandwich or take away, this and that etc…, and I was only 19 years old, student. In Europe it doesn’t matter if you wear old cloth or you don’t have much money, or have a take away and eat it with your girl on the street, women will like you if you are genuine and have a good manner and good heart. Not for how you look or money, like most Lebanese women!