Lebanon Quotes

“1. Bangladesh.... In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy in East Bengal and their armed attack on India from West Pakistan.... This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt. Kissinger’s undisclosed reason for the ‘tilt’ was the supposed but never materialised ‘brokerage’ offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China.... Of the new state of Bangladesh, Kissinger remarked coldly that it was ‘a basket case’ before turning his unsolicited expertise elsewhere.

2. Chile.... Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA’s plan to kidnap and murder General René Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces ... who refused to countenance military intervention in politics. In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms ... who warned him that a coup in such a stable democracy would be hard to procure. The murder of Schneider nonetheless went ahead, at Kissinger’s urging and with American financing, just between Allende’s election and his confirmation.... This was one of the relatively few times that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him ‘Doctor’ is greater than that of most PhDs) involved himself in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of anonymous thousands. His jocular remark on this occasion—‘I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible’—suggests he may have been having the best of times....

3. Cyprus.... Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists for the murder of President Makarios, and sanctioned the coup which tried to extend the rule of the Athens junta (a favoured client of his) to the island. When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger’s, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support an even bloodier intervention by Turkey. Thomas Boyatt ... went to Kissinger in advance of the anti-Makarios putsch and warned him that it could lead to a civil war. ‘Spare me the civics lecture,’ replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions.

4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with ‘deniable’ assistance also provided by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that the Kurds were not to be allowed to win, but were to be employed for their nuisance value alone. They were not to be told that this was the case, but soon found out when the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American aid to Kurdistan was cut off. Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger ... for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees who were thus abruptly created.... The apercu of the day was: ‘foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.’ Saddam Hussein heartily concurred.

5. East Timor. The day after Kissinger left Djakarta in 1975, the Armed Forces of Indonesia employed American weapons to invade and subjugate the independent former Portuguese colony of East Timor. Isaacson gives a figure of 100,000 deaths resulting from the occupation, or one-seventh of the population, and there are good judges who put this estimate on the low side. Kissinger was furious when news of his own collusion was leaked, because as well as breaking international law the Indonesians were also violating an agreement with the United States.... Monroe Leigh ... pointed out this awkward latter fact. Kissinger snapped: ‘The Israelis when they go into Lebanon—when was the last time we protested that?’ A good question, even if it did not and does not lie especially well in his mouth.

It goes on and on and on until one cannot eat enough to vomit enough.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“Of course all such conclusions about appropriate actions against the rich and powerful are based on a fundamental flaw: This is us, and that is them. This crucial principle, deeply embedded in Western culture, suffices to undermine even the most precise analogy and the most impeccable reasoning.”
― Noam Chomsky, Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians

“فكَّرتُ أنني أستطيع أن أخلق مشهداً ملحميّاً ابتداءً من جورب معلّق على حبل غسيل.
لا سحرة ولا غجر ولا بطريرك ولا جنرالات ولا شيء، ولا حتى مدينة متخيَّلة أو قرن يمر على العائلة الموصوفة. لا شيء من كل هذا.
فقط جوارب، والأرجح أنها مخططة و.. مبللة.
”
― هلال شومان, ما رواه النوم

“We were all trapped in stories, she said, just as he used to say, his wavy hair, his naughty smile, his beautiful mind, each of us the prisoner of our own solipsistic narrative, each family the captive of the family story, each community locked within its own tale of itself, each people the victims of their own versions of history, and there were parts of the world where the narratives collided and went to war, where there were two or more incompatible stories fighting for space on, to speak, the same page. She came from one such place, his place, from which he had been forever displaced, they exiled his body but his spirit, never. And maybe now every place was becoming that place, maybe Lebanon was everywhere and nowhere, so that we were all exiles, even if our hair wasn't so wavy, our smiles not so naughty, our minds less beautiful, even the name Lebanon wasn't necessary, the name of every place or any place would do just as well, maybe that's why she felt nameless, unnamed, unnameable, Lebanonymous.”
― Salman Rushdie, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

“The beauty of the sea is that it never shows any weakness and never tires of the countless souls that unleash their broken voices into its secret depths.”
― Zeina Kassem, Crossing

“ لم يُكتب قط نصٌ في الدنيا إلا وكان له موسيقاه الخلفية.”
― هلال شومان

“سألاحظ الأشخاص أسفل نافذتي الموجودة على يميني. البائع الذي يصبِّح على جاره علانيةً ويهمس شاتماً لما يدخل إلى محله. نسب التنزيلات الملصقة على واجهة محلات الألبسة وهي تكثر وتقل، تكبر وتصغر. زمير أبواق السيارات وزحمة الشارع. النزلاء في الفندق المقابل وهم يغلقون ستائر غرفهم. أسراب الحمام في سماء الشارع الضيق، تمر سويةً وترحل معاً بإشارة من رجل على سطح بناء قريب. تلك الجارة التي لا تنتبه إلى الستارة المفتوحة إلا بعد أن تخلع بنطالها، ويبين لباسها الداخلي. طاولة الطعام التي يتجمع عليها أفراد عائلة من ذووي الملامح الصامتة. الولد الشقي الذي يدخل رأسه في فتحة الدرابزين الحديدي وينادي لأخته كي تساعده في إخراج رأسه الذي علق. عادةً ما يستغرق الأمر خمس دقائق قبل أن تدخل الفتاة لتخبر أمها وتأتي الأم مستشيطة غضباً. سأشاهد الخادمة، سريلنكية الجنسية، وهي تتواصل مع صديقتها السريلنكية في البناية المقابلة. الكلمات في لغتهما الهجينة تمر في الفضاء بين البنايتين. سأتابع "سيدتها" وهي تخرج مجابهةً إياها بشتائم من العيار الثقيل، لأنها "تقلل من مستواها". ”
― هلال شومان, ما رواه النوم

“أعرف مثلاً أنني -يوماً ما- سأقضي حياتي متنقلاً بين شقة وأخرى في المناطق التي لم أعش فيها يوماً في هذا البلد وتبدو لي غريبة. برج حمود مثلاً. المجتمع الأرمني يجذبني. ربما لأنني لا أعرف عنه كثيراً. يجنح بي الخيال لأرى نفسي في حضرة عجوز أرمنية في كرسي هزاز فيما أنا تحت قدميها، أجلس القرفصاء وأستمع لحكاياتها التي لا تنتهي عن بطل أرمني ما ذبحه الأتراك.

وستخبرني العجوز الأرمنية عن الرمّان وهي تقدم لي بعض حبوبه. تقول لي أن كوز الرمان يحوي 365 حبة. تقول لي أن الرمان أنقذ العائلات الأرمنية من الموت المحتم في زمن الأتراك. في الكهوف جلسوا. كلٌّ بيده رمانة. حبة واحدة كل يوم. حبة تبعد الموت لعام كامل. هل هذا صحيح؟ الأرجح لا. لكنّ قصة الرمانة تبقى، شأنها شأن كل القصص، شأنها كل المشاهد التي رأيتها والتي لستُ حتى واثقاً من حدوثها فعلياً.
”
― هلال شومان, ما رواه النوم

“For decades, Lebanon had lured not just revolutionaries but also poets, ideologues, artists, and all types of opposition figures and plotters. A weak state was both a blessing and a curse. In Beirut, there was no dictatorship to muzzle opinions—or your guns. The war had made the small Mediterranean country even more of a haven, a live training ground with a casino and restaurants that still served smoked salmon and caviar during cease-fires. There were breadlines and economic hardship, massacres and literary conferences. Every spy agency was in town: the CIA, the KGB, the Mossad.”
― Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

“Arab' is the new four-letter word, didn't you know?”
― Anissa Rafeh, Beirut to the 'burbs

“خلف كلَ تذكرة سفر يرقد وطن لم يُؤمَن به كفاية. وطن لم يُحَبّ كفاية. وطن لم تُمَد له أيّ من أيادي العون.
خلف كلَ تذكرة سفر ينام وطن لم يوقظه أحد من أبنائه. أبنائه النيام على عجزٍ، من كثر ما استغرقوا فيه بان لهم مستعصياً كمرض مخفي.
خلف كل تذكرة سفر وطن يستغيث. وطن لا يكف عن السعال. وطن كلّ من سمع لهاثه، دار له ظهره غير مبالياً.
خلف كلَ تذكرة سفر، وطن نتجاهله هرباً، نتجاهله كي لا نرى جروحه، كي لا نتألم لألمه، كي لا نركع أمامه ململمين جروحاً قمنا باقناع أنفسنا أنّها لا تعنينا، كي لا نلطخ أيدينا بدماء أسميناها "دماء غيرنا."
خلف كلَ تذكرة سفر، خلاص مؤقت وساعة رملية تقيس الوقت وتعاتب. نعم، تعاتب وتذكرنا بوطن لم نهرع لنجدته سوياً، وطن لم نقم باعطاء أنفسنا لأجله حتّى شرف المحاولة.”
― Malak El Halabi

“I don't remember the last day of the war.

But I remember the first time you could take a shower.”
― Zeina Abirached, I Remember Beirut

“ابيضّ شعر يوسف في عمر السابعة حين شاهد الثلج يهدم حجرة أخيه الأكبر، فيسقط السقف عليه وزوجته وتوأميه، الأجساد الأربعة يراها يوسف بعد ذلك ممدة على السرير الحديد في القبو. وتظلّ تزوره في أحلامه حتى عمرٍ متقدّمة. كان يقضي يومه متأملاً ويفكّر إمّا مُعلّقًا على غصن التينة ومأرجحًا أحد ساقيه، أو تحت ظلّ شجرة التوت بجوار قبر أمّه سارة.تعلّم يوسف إبراهيم خاطر جابر الكتابة، أراد أن يشغله والده عن ساعات التفكير الطويلة. “تعلّم يوسف كيف يكتب اسمه، تعلّم كيف يكتب الأرقام، تعلّم كيف يكتب “الله جلّ جلاله” تعلّم كيف يكتب إبراهيم بالألف الطويلة كشجرة في الوسط، تعلّم كيف يكتب سارة بالراء التي تكرج كالمياه من “هارب قناة المير” وبالتاء المربوطة التي نلفظها كالألف بعد راء إبراهيم، تعلّم كيف يكتب نور الدين، وأحسّ حين كتب اسم أخيه الصغير أنه يسمع صوت بكاءه خارجًا من الحروف”. كان يمرر يده على الحروف بعد أن يكتبها فيشعر أنها تتنفس تحت أصابعه.”
― ربيع جابر, يوسف الإنجليزي

“It's not that you were memorable,
but you had the quality of eternal details,
like faded graffiti, abandoned newspapers,

or a few smudged notes,
almost an offbeat line,
scribbled as if by mistake
amid the frenzy of Bliss Street.”
― Zeina Hashem Beck, To Live in Autumn

“Middle East by the Arab Muslim caliphate, ending with Muslim fragmentation and the Iranian Buyid capture of Abbasid Baghdad, saw Muslim and Maronite establishment in Mount Lebanon.”
― William W. Harris, Lebanon: A History, 600 - 2011

“Beirut port, confirmed as the principal port of the Syrian interior, was enlarged and modernized, a second dock was constructed and the city, provided with an airport, progressed to become a center for international communication. According to a new urban plan, the city was re-centered around Place de l’Étoile, designed on the model of that of the French capital, and the Parliament and a new business quarter were inaugurated there on the occasion of the French Colonial Exposition of 1921. These projects contributed to the development of a tertiary sector dominated by a merchant/financial bourgeoisie, which was becoming more and more embedded into the mandate system. This was supplemented by the expansion of education, another mandate policy, which helped create a middle class destined for liberal professions and the bureaucracy.”
― Fawwaz Traboulsi, A History of Modern Lebanon

“Hysteria! And grief and bitterness. That's what goes on. Not satisfied that our fighters evacuated the city, the enemy went after their women and children whom they left behind in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, slaughtered them, and left their bodies stacked in grotesque piles in the muddy lanes, fly-covered, rotting in the sun. They went after our Palestine Research Center the repository of our culture and history in exile, whose treasures we had been collecting since the day we left Palestine, looted it then burned it to the ground. Fifteen thousand of our people, including boys under the age if twelve and men over the age of eighty, were picked up and put in a concentration camp called Ansar. Our community in Lebanon, half a million men, women, and children found itself suddenly severed from institutions (educational, medical, cultural, economic, and social) they had depended on for their everyday living, which the enemy destroyed. Our fighters, the mainspring of our national struggle, were shipped to thre deserts of Algeria, the outback of Sudan, and the scorching plain of Yemen. Our leadership sought refuge in Tunisia. And when the choked psyche of our nation gasped for air, some months later, we lunged atat each other in civil war, because we had failed our people and ourselves. Our promises had proved illusory.”
― Fawaz Turki, Soul in Exile

“She smiles to herself. I can imagine her memories of the novel, or, more likely, of who she was and how she felt when reading it. She blushes.”
― Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman

“My name is Sami, and I live in the time of the troubles. It is a time of guns and bombs. It is a time that has lasted all my life, and I am ten years old.”
― Florence Parry Heide, Sami and the Time of the Troubles: A Moving Story About a Lebanese Boy in a War-Torn City for Kids

“I find a piece of wood that looks like a gun and help Amir find one, too.

"My brother has a real gun," he says.

We run, we hide, we pretend to shoot, we pretend to die. I see my mother at a stall buying flowers, and she frowns at me. She does not like for me to play this game.”
― Florence Parry Heide, Sami and the Time of the Troubles: A Moving Story About a Lebanese Boy in a War-Torn City for Kids

“Et c’était effectivement d’une beauté à couper le souffle. Une de ces beautés infernales qui glacent le cœur, mais qu’on ne peut s’empêcher de contempler.”
― Aïda Irani Dahan, Du Levant au couchant: Partie 1

“We are batting away the pesky wasps that have come to take a dip in the jams-- apricot, fig, mulberry, rose-- that sit shimmering in pressed-glass dishes in the sunshine. We sit in the shade of a mulberry tree overlooking a field of damask rose bushes and sumac trees.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“My lesson on which blooms to pick and how to do so to preserve their scent is followed by lunch on the stone terrace. We eat flatbreads, warm and patchily charred from the griddle, folded over crumbled white cheese, tearing them apart and dipping the smoky bread and salty cheese into bowls of rose-scented jam.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“Direktör Benschop is a semi-double milky-white rose with egg-yolk-yellow stamens bred by German breeder Mateus Tantau in 1939, though not commercially available till after the war. The garden is also home to Alchymist, the crumpled honey, white and gold climber.
I have always struggled with the notion of stripping a rose for its petals, though I do occasionally bring one into the kitchen in June, scattering them over an oval platter of raspberries, a sponge cake dusted with icing sugar or, most memorably, a vast fig meringue the size of a hat at a June wedding.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“The fruits scorch in the fierce heat. The smell of plum jam fills the kitchen. Flesh bubbles, edges blacken, plum juices burst from their skins and mingle with the honey and lemon. Twenty minutes later they emerge, collapsed in a pool of deepest purple-red. I twist the lid from a bottle of rosewater, hand-made, no label, and shake drops over the scorched fruit. A scent of rose, sweet fruit and honey. We let the fruit rest for ten minutes.
The roasted plums are served on an old tin dish, a mound of salted labneh at their side, the juices seeping into the soft, thick yoghurt like lipstick into a pantomime dame's pancake make-up. I rain a pinch of dried rose petals over the surface and offer them up. We spoon the soft fruit and labneh into our mouths, then lift the dishes to our lips to drink the last drop of rose-perfumed juice.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“When Israel invaded in 1982, there’d been a lot of recent violence across the border, all from Israel north. There had been an American-brokered cease-fire which the PLO had held to scrupulously, initiating no cross-border actions. But Israel carried out thousands of provocative actions, including bombing of civilian targets all to try to get the PLO to do something, thus giving Israel an excuse to invade. (44)”
― Noam Chomsky, The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many

“We know what happened after Israel invaded Lebanon. They were driven out by what they call “terrorism” — meaning resistance by people who weren’t going to be cowed. (44)”
― Noam Chomsky, The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many

“Smell this, Ahm!” He continued with delight, “This resin is from the cedar trees of Lubnan, the Cedars of the Most High! They grow atop sacred peaks, where only the breath of gods is known. Their scent is holy.”
― Joseph Moukarzel, The Travelers: An Ancient Adventure of Gold, Magic and Forgotten Worlds

“Il y a plus de deux cents bateaux dans le port qui attendent de décharger leurs marchandises et comme ils sont tout allumés, les nuits, Beyrouth a l'air de s'être déplacé, d'avoir glissé sur la mer.”
― Etel Adnan, Sitt Marie Rose

“The Christians of Lebanon therefore see the confessionals state, not as a means to maintain their domination, but as the only foundation for political order that would enjoy the loyalty of all the Lebanese.
- A Land Held Hostage, Lebanon and the West”
― Roger Scruton, A Land Held Hostage