Two Young Women Reporting from Beirut and Gaza)

In my signature below appear some group lists reflecting my concerns. They run more or less on their own, as I do not moderate and only intervene to remove the occasional spammer. To one of them, Israel_Palestine, I post a variety of reports from a wide range of sources -- more than 70 links on the list that I scan daily, ranging from publications over there to activist groups on all sides. In my postings I have tried to pass along the voices of the new generation -- particularly those of the young women on the scene who are both expressive and caring. Two of these are Zena and Lailia El-Haddad.

Zena from Beirut, is an exuberant painter who has been exhibiting both in NYC and Beirut, but has been silent since her last reports of her despair at both the destruction of her country and the death of a dear friend. She was involved in trying to clean up the ugly mess on the beaches from the oil unleashed into the sea by the Israeli bombings: http://beirutupdate.blogspot.com/ Some might wish to view her paintings available on her web site.

Laila El-Haddad http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/ is not publishing her blog as frequently, but some may have noticed that she was the author of a recent report passed along from Aljazeera on the indirect Israeli occupation of Gaza (to which she has recently returned from the U.S.). The article was low key, but persuasive. The lives of Gazans are now pretty miserable, as the Israelis have destroyed much of their infrastructure and more or less cut them off from basic resources and exchanges with the wider world.

Needless to say there are Israeli equivalents to Zena and Laila, I am sure, but I have not found them yet -- only peace workers mainly of my generation. I wonder what is what there? I did post a caring report about two guys who met in a Seeds of Peace camp in this country, but the Jewish member is American: http://www.seedsofpeace.org/site/PageServer

Perhaps the Israeli counterparts are literally under the gun as conscripts in the Israeli military? --
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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