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"Speak Out" and be heard through saveleb.org. Share your ideas and thoughts on how you think this war may develop. Send your entries to mosaad@mac.com

Monday, July 31, 2006

Khalil Hibri

Amman - Jordan | July 16

 I hope you are all doing well and that your families are fine. Whether you are in Lebanon, glued to your television sets, or abroad trying to find news online, I am quite sure we all share the same sense of frustration. We are bothered by the fact that all we can do is just huddle together and pretend the bombs are not bothering us. Let us face it, neither Hizballah nor anyone else can beat the Israeli 'war machine', and Chirac and Bush will not come on a white horse to save us. Iran and Syria are just as impotent with their flaming rhetoric and empty threats.
We have become a victim to Geopolitics. Our international supporters do not take tough stands on this issue because they do not want to upset each other, meanwhile Lebanon's infrastructure is systematically destroyed.
I am not emailing you to bitch about this, I am emailing all you guys from AUB, IC, and the US to propose a plan of action that may be an alternative to watching the news all day. It is obvious that Lebanon needs international support. Sadly, international pressure is very hard to come by unless you have oil (just look at what is happening to Gaza). However, another way to gather such support is to have domestic groups lobby for some sort of intervention. What we can do is reach student groups (or any type of group or individual) in relevant countries that will try and put pressure on their governments to take a stand or to intervene.
The beauty of democracy is that politicians want to get elected to have their nice cars and degree of prestige, and in order to do so they much comply with what the 'people' want. If we can get enough support from groups abroad that will start contacting their representatives, and maybe even have a demonstration or two, these politicians may take a stronger stand. In the most ideal situation they may even do something about it.
If this is convincing you might want to help out with this. Bilal Khreiss, my good friend, sent an email out to his friends suggesting the idea of contacting youth groups abroad with regards to the reconstruction process. I thought it would be more relevant to do so, with regards to our immediate situation. The bombing of Lebanon has to stop, and it is obvious that the Israelis will not stop unless they are forced to. What I am suggesting is helping put Lebanon on the national agenda of countries like France and the US. Here are some of the things we can do:
ONE Launch a website that would list a set of objectives and suggest ways different organizations can help out. It would have contact information and it would coordinate between Lebanon related activities activities in various countries (so if there is a mouzahara, we would provide the time and place). We can also post what some organizations are doing to help Lebanon while encouraging others to follow suit. We can create a banner that people can put on their websites and blogs that would link to our site, and would inform individual visitors of opportunities to support Lebanon as part of an organized strategy. Do not underestimate the power of the Internet.
TWO We can start contacting student groups and individuals all over France, the UK, and the US and urge them to show support for Lebanon. Support can vary from getting them to send emails to their members and friends, to calling their representatives, to even organizing a demonstration. when we know who wants to help, we can have  the same template to send to every organization.
THREE Eventually we can even try to raise money for a reconstruction effort.
This type of grassroot efforts tends to be effective, especially in the US. If we can get americans and french to lobby for lebanon in an organizaed way, it can be great.
Please contact me by email if you are interested in helping, we can divide tasks among us so that no one will have to do too much.
By the way, neither the UN or the US have really condemend Israel yet, despite what has been happening. So we are starting from rock-bottom, and it can only get better from here (this is supposed to encourage you)
Take care, I am looking forward to hearing from you. I really hope this ends soon. Please forward this to anyone you think can and should help.
Khalil Hibri
Email: hibrii@gmail.com
Tel (Amman): +962799298135
P.S. If you managed to make it down here, I salute you. Let's get to work.
posted by SAVE LEBANON, @ 8:01 AM, , (0) comments