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Title: Hundreds March in L.A. to Protest Lebanon and Iraq Wars
Source:
LA Times
URL Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/l ... 7.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Published: Aug 13, 2006
Author: Ted Rohrlich
Post Date: 2006-08-13 09:01:13 by Eoghan
Keywords: None
Views: 690
Comments: 18
Some participants are former Lebanese angered by the Israeli invasion Omar Abdallah, a 38-year-old North Hollywood convenience store owner who emigrated from Lebanon as a young man, was one of more than a thousand people who marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest Israel's bombing of his native land, its treatment of Palestinians and the U.S. war in Iraq. Abdallah, who marched up Broadway and through the Civic Center holding a Lebanese flag, said he was drawn to the event because he is "against all war" and, in the case of Israel's war against Hezbollah, he has had family members in harm's way. He said he spoke by telephone Saturday with a sibling who said Israeli warplanes had just bombed the town of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, where his brother and sister live. Other family members have fled, he said, leaving almost all of their possessions behind. The Associated Press reported that the Israeli target in Baalbek on Saturday was the headquarters of a Hezbollah charity organization. The Los Angeles march — organized by a group called Act Now to Stop War & End Racism, the National Council of Arab Americans and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation — took place as a United Nations-brokered cease-fire was being accepted by Lebanon and Hezbollah. Similar marches took place in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Many of the local marchers, including organizer Ahmed Azam, president of the Muslim American Society's Los Angeles chapter, were skeptical that a cease-fire would lead to lasting peace. "I'm not optimistic," said Azam, who teaches at DeVry University in Long Beach. Many ethnicities and age groups were represented in the peaceful protest. Toni Arenstein, 56, a nurse, said she marched because "I am a Jewish woman and I stand in full solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance, and also I am outraged at the billions of dollars … the U.S. government is spending to fund the Israeli war machine when people here are suffering." The marchers appeared united in disdain for President Bush. Some carried printed signs with his photograph and the label "warmonger." Simone Missirian, 35, of L.A. wore a sandwich board purporting to show Bush's "policy checklist." It began: "Save Embryos. Kill Muslims and Arabs." But Houda Itani, a 19-year-old American of Lebanese descent, said she came out of disgust for political leaders in general who make war but "don't realize" that most Muslims and Jews just want to live in peace.
Poster Comment: Thousands protest Lebanon war outside White House With AP photos.
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#4. To: Eoghan, robin (#0)
great post, thanks!
Interviewer: "Let's talk about the 'birth pangs' mentioned by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, when she talked about the Middle East plan, with its various names. Who suffers pain here?" Colette Khuri: "If I were asked, as an author, to portray malice, I would sketch an image of Condoleezza Rice. This woman is grim, both in the way she looks and in the way she is inside. I don't know why she is always malicious from within. Malicious over what? What have we ever done to her? This woman has no right to talk about birth pangs, since she does not know the meaning of birth pangs. "I want to explain to the viewers that birth pangs are that painful yet delightful moment that precedes the most important moment in life - childbirth. The birth of a child is the birth of hope, the birth of love. Birth pangs are a delightful moment. It is a combination of pain and delight. That is the moment that precedes creation - the creation of life. How can she possibly call the destruction and crimes in Lebanon birth pangs? She is killing children, and calling it birth pangs. This phase leads to the destruction and the death of the Arabs. How can she? How come she has the right to talk about birth pangs? This is nauseating. More than rage, I feel nauseated. True, I am enraged, but I feel nauseated." [...] Interviewer: "In any case, her external ugliness reflects her internal ugliness..." Colette Khuri: "It's the other way around, my dear. It is the internal ugliness that is reflected in one's face. A woman can only be ugly from the inside." Interviewer: "True." Colette Khuri: "Any woman can be beautiful, if she is beautiful from within. It is the internal ugliness of this woman that reflects her looks." Interviewer: "She has the right to feel pain, because her baby-plan was stillborn."
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#5. To: christine (#4)
#6. To: Ferret Mike (#5)
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD123606
Replies to Comment # 6.