The Departure
July 21, 2006

The last day in our apartment in Beirut was harrowing to say the least. My very large extended family were all still trapped in the South and under heavy, heavy bombardment. Al'ham'dullilah for cell phones and Libancell who managed to keep the system working throughout the entire ordeal or we would have not known anything about them. My husband's sister Ghada was with me and my three children in our apartment in Khaldeh. Her husband (a member of the Shia Amal militia) was assigned the duty of traversing the abandoned streets of Beirut in order to bring us whatever we needed. Our neighborhood had mostly escaped the devastation that so many in the southern suburbs of Beirut had thus far endured. Dahyeh was already rubble and just that morning an incredibly large shell had hit Chamoun which was just above us, not more than a half mile away. An evening or two before, my son and I had gone up to the roof of our four story building to watch the tracers and to listen to the sound of the Israeli jets in the night skies of Beirut. We noticed several bright objects floating down in the air above the southern end of the Hariri International tarmac. I thought they were remnants of fireworks. The Lebanese are odd people and manage to maintain a sense of celebration even through the darkest of tribulations. My son and I laughed a bit.

They weren't fireworks however. Not at all. There were twenty or twenty five Israeli mortars, the type that float (with little parachutes) slowly to the ground. They landed inside of their target. Their target was the airport jet fuel depot tanks. As they landed the explosion rocked the entire building and then, it just kept exploding and exploding and exploding. Huge plumes of smoke were visible for thousands of meters into the sky. It was simply unbelievable. My son asked me about death and if he would go to paradise. He was afraid that he wouldn't because he didn't know how to pray to Allah in the proper fashion. He thought he had committed sins in his past that he would be punished for. I asked him what those things might be and I had to laugh at his pure innocence of the sins that people commit that actually get them into Hell. Not turning in one's homework isn't one of them.

The night before we were to begin our journey across Beirut to camp at the house of a friend before we would make the early morning dash to the port in East Beirut, I had finally managed to fall asleep for an hour or two when suddenly at dawn my bedroom lit up like a roman candle. The sound of that shell was enormous, deafening. I shot up in bed and it was the last sleep I had. The next four days I'd not sleep a wink because I had accepted the decision of my husband's mother who wanted us to evacuate. I realized that if I stayed in Lebanon she would have the added burden of worrying about her American daughter-in-law....besides her usual role of Commander in Chief of the rest of the Sweid clan. Although she was under the heaviest bombardment the South has ever known, she managed to keep things in order down there but just barely. Our home there had already been without any electricity for several days and there was no way to extract water from our internal well. She was managing a household full of her son's wives and their children, a total of around 30 people in all. I could tell by the strain in her voice when she said to me, "If I fall apart then everyone will." I knew that I just could not add to her numerous concerns and I'd have to leave. It would give her some peace of mind.

This is the last post from my home in Khaldeh and I am including the comments made by an Israeli soldier. The statistics regarding the support of the Israeli people for this War Crime were taken directly from the Jerusalem Post that day:


This is where this story ends for now. I hope all who get a chance to really read through some of the essays here will understand some of the big picture of Islam now. That it was never ever about Osama. You were just ignorant of it...too busy with the vanities in life to take the time to read what it says and connect the dots to history and the books of other religions. My work here is really all I have now save for a few bits and bobs.

Nevermind....poetry is temporary. This life is only a vanity.

What is more important is that I am now separated from my truly wonderful family in south Lebanon who are only a km or less away from the battles (in Bint Jubail). All of them TRAPPED in a house...thirty or forty of them, mostly children with no escape. Israel occupied our home for two years in 1982 but things were different then. There were still a few REAL believing Jews in their armies. What they now have in Israel as reported in the newspapers today is this:

85% Israelis AGREE WITH THIS ACTION
15% JUST SORT OF DISLIKE IT.

Wow. You've got to wonder what that old Jewish tradition is and what is WAS and what it is supposed to be. I'm relatively sure it isn't to murder and maim people who are simply fighting for their lives, their fellow muslims and truth.

Well, when I am asked about my bitter battles with the Silliman racist blog and with my own good friends who failed to be able to look up a word or two on their own (ZIONISM) by Allah...then this will be documented as well.

85% of all Israelis believe in SERIAL KILLING.

Posted by Meg at 3:17 AM

2 comments:
y360 said...

I'm an Israeli soldier. You obviously posses intellect (and beauty if I may say so) but your hatred is frightning.
I'd like to remind you that we have left Lebanon in 2000, never to return.
We are not willing to have rockets massed against us and fired at our cities.
We are not willing to be attacked and destroyed, have our existence questioned by Iran or Syria or anyone else here.
I'm sorry for the loss of innocent life, it is not our intent. It is clearly the intent of those firing rockets in our cities.
What 85% of the Israeli public say to you is that any Arab organization that attacks our country will pay a dear price.
Maybe in the end you will learn to accept us in the Middle East.
Maybe you will be able to see us as fellow humans who deserve to have our own independent nation state in this region.
If not, suffering is our shared destiny on both sides of the border.

4:12 AM
Lady Jane said...

Like I said, 85% of Israelis believe in the brutal torture of those whose only crime is to cry FOUL. Here, we have an example of one who is not only wearing the uniform of the murderer but telling me I haven't the right to even cry FOUL.

Well, let me tell you this....everyone and everything returns to the creator. You too and now you've gone on record as agreeing with war crimes.

Good luck on Judgement Day. You'll need it.

I refer you to Sura 109 which will inform you of my feelings. Go your way and I go mine. You've got your beliefs and I've got mine and clearly, they are not the same. I'm willing to be accountable for my thoughts and accusals and you should be too.

And remember pal, no one touched you especially me. You just feel guilty. I know how it is...I'd feel pretty bad too if I was backing a holocaust.

BTW, when they eradicated 6 million Jews in that holocaust, they basically got rid of the best ones leaving few behind who actually follow the Torah. I'd wager you don't follow it nor have you read it. That much I'm certain of and am also certain that the Torah does not condone disproportionate violence. Eye for an eye....remember that one?

We all know it.

Peace on those that deserve it.

I have to wonder where that guy is now?

I know where I am. I remain with the success and the successful.