- Once again, humans become an ephemeral detail. Devastated civilians, mourning loved ones they have lost, homes that have been destroyed, and lives of poverty and deprivation they will face... these are all mere numbers, or scenes we watch as they unfold on our television screens.
No one takes these people into consideration as they lay out their war plans. The more numerous dead people are, the better, because in the mayhem of war, their only utility is to serve as evidence of the enemy's brutality. They validate "what we told you," and have been saying for a hundred years.
- Dignity? The displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from the South and the Bekaa (after the mass displacement in Gaza) is the epitome of dignity. Where is the problem? In a year, or two, or ten, another leader, or perhaps the same one, could invite them to return to their homes, only to be displaced again. We heard and saw this call just a few weeks ago, superciliously dropped on residents from above like it were largesse.
That is how we have approached dignity since the late sixties; we have never once failed it and it has never failed us. That is how we, the people of Lebanon, became the most dignified on earth!
- Declaring defeat is ugly and painful, and it certainly entails a high cost on those who do so. However, that cost pales in comparison to the costs of resistance and steadfastness. Do you want numbers, or is this a matter of a stray spirit that cannot be measured in figures as it looks down on any data and all that is concrete?
- Sometimes it seems that all our history does is repeat itself, providing those who essentialize us and paint us rigid with enough arguments to make their point. We are occupied, so we resist; we resist, so we are occupied, and so on until the end of time. When this cycle winds down, we find ourselves in limbo, surrendering to our ordinary life that lacks honor and dignity. Resist then; you are guaranteed to be occupied, and then to resist and be occupied again... and to keep living in an endless epic.
- Can anyone tell us the point at which we would stop fighting or declare defeat? How many people would have to be killed? How much land has to be occupied? How many homes have to be destroyed? How many harvests have to be burned? Any one of these criteria could be binding, assuming there can be a criterion?
The Iranian regime, it seems, has set a standard for transitioning to "moderation." The Syrian regime preceded it, setting a standard for passivity and disavowal. In Lebanon, our standard is the will to resist, and naturally, this will is unbreakable because it is "God’s will." Is there anything visible in this world of spirits?
- After the liberation that some promise us, and the erasure of the usurping entity that the more flexible wing of this same cohort promises us, what will we do? What is our program? Program? What a dull word!
- The tragedy of the Palestinians is compounded by the tragedy of how Palestine has been exploited, so much so that the word has become synonymous with disaster for the people of Lebanon and Syria after it had already been for Palestinians. The culture of proposing disaster to the two nations has become mainstream in Arab political culture.
- Something significant has ended, even if this finality continues to be denied. Together, the end and its denial compound death.
In Lebanon, at least, the current tragedy should be expected to broaden and consolidate an existing majority. This majority does not want to live haplessly, generation after generation, with no say on their lives or deaths merely because "a handful of honorable men have decided to resist." What this majority builds is destroyed, and its dreams are shattered for the sake of this sheer absurd madness, crested with lies and hot air. These are people who love both their country and life itself.
- Anyone who takes even a quick glance at social media is horrified by the intensity of sectarian hatred (which often intersects with national or factional divisions) that has been unleashed by this war. Haven’t the knights of war promised that nothing would unite us like a conflict with the Zionist enemy? It is yet another prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes!
This war, within the confines of its Lebanese theater, is the culmination of a long and diligent effort to destroy Lebanon: its destruction as a space with modest freedoms, peace, and openness to the world, and as an entity capable of reform and change, as was evident when the 2006 war was instigated to eradicate the climate that arose after March 14, 2005, and when honorable youths who coming back home from their genocidal mission in Syria were called on to eradicate the movement that arose on October 17, 2019.
Yes, this is how we should be and should remain. We should keep resisting and being occupied, and then be occupied and resist, turning into a mass cemetery that mainstream Arab culture calls a great epic of melting in the love of Palestine.
