It is both heart-breaking and worrisome to hopelessly see Beirut aching and burning.
It is also sad, beyond words, to see tiny Lebanon being destroyed once again.
Bambi sends her heart to the injured, displaced, lost, scared, tired, frustrated, and grieving citizens and/or residents of the land of cedars.
Last but not least, it is surreal to hear the STRONG Israeli shelling in the background of a voicemail with her sister in the middle of her sleepless night. May God protect her et al.
This being said, this post will now offer five songs to the Lebanese capital, which is Bambi’s beloved place of birth.
A first song for Beirut in Standard Arabic (with beautiful images):
2. A second and moving patriotic Lebanese-Arabic song with a ray of hope for Beirut:
3. A third, older, and powerful song for Beirut in Standard Arabic (with English sub-titles):
4. A fourth, old, and heart-warming French song from a lover of Beirut, Mr. Enrico Macias:
5. A fifth and lovely Lebanese-Arabic song dedicated to Beirut:
This young activist is free to think and also say whatever he wishes, of course (same for different opinions or no opinion). Bambi defends his right to freedom of expression. However, she would like to reply to him in this post, if she may.
If there is one word that she dislikes, and cannot stand anymore, in the Arabic language, it is actually the overused term martyr (or shaheed). Here is why: Innocent people of the Middle East (in all its beautiful countries, including both Palestine and now Lebanon) do no want to be “Shouhada” (martyrs). They want to live rather. They are struggling to survive this absurd war. So, please stop and think before educating your fellow Canadians about the value of death through this concept.
As an alternative, how about telling them about the will to simply live (ideally in dignity), to be safe, to dream of solutions, peace, and prosperity for a change? To live and be able to go to school, to innovate, to earn a living, to spread compassion and love around them and to the world, by extension?
If some want to die as “martyrs”, it is their own choice. They must not impose it on others who do not want to be caught in the middle of the shelling between Israel and the other fighters (Hezbollah, Hamas, and their Islamist sister organizations). For those specifically, your explanation of martyrdom applies well, especially from their point of view: “Martyrdom, to be killed fighting for a cause greater than yourself, is the most honourable thing you can do, and this is in itself is a victory“.
To say things more bluntly, if anyone from Bambi’s circle of dad, family, and friends die in this conflict, she refuses to call them martyrs. She will call them victims like the innocent people of Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Irak, Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries, and… by extension the entire world where there are wars, including but not limited to Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, etc. Enough of violence and stop to the culture of death, please.
When Bambi was about 8 year-old, growing up in the middle of civil war in the so-called former “East Beirut“, the shelling hit a nearby school. Her dear cousin was badly injured among many other young friends. Thank Goodness he survived. His only peer who died happened to be Muslim, ironically…. with a bomb coming from the former “West side of Beirut“, predominantly (but not only) Muslim. Do you see the irony?
The tragic story shared above is not surprising given that bombs (or violence) do not differentiate between people’s characteristics such as ethnolinguistic background, age, sex/gender, religion, sexual orientation, height, weight, political affiliation, etc. The latter was one of Bambi’s lessons from the school of life, especially in times of armed conflicts.
However, the Mollahs of Iran, blinded by hate or excited by their nuclear adventure, do not seem to see the irony of their escalating action of yesterday (about 200 ballistic missiles targeting Israel), which resulted in the death of a Palestinian man. May his memory be eternal (https://tinyurl.com/3kaa72vy).
In the same vein, the second irony is Hamas that “praises ‘heroic’ missile attacks launched by Iran” (https://tinyurl.com/ycaswhba) and who cares about the poor Gazan who lost his life?
When will the bloody nightmare of revenge and hate end in the Middle East? When will we will find a solution to this absurd conflict that is burning Lebanon, so peace can finally prevail there and across all the nations? And what about compassion, especially in “spiritual men”?
A picture taken from the CBC: “A cleric clenches his fist as he celebrates Iran’s missile strike against Israel at a gathering at Felestin (Palestine) Square in Tehran Tuesday. Israel has vowed retaliation and the nature of the response will undoubtedly have far-reaching implications, writes CBC’s Chris Brown from Jerusalem. (Vahid Salemi/The Associated Press)”
This morning, Bambi started the day with news of shelling in Beirut, perhaps five-seven minutes away from her dad’s place. She rushed to the phone to call and check on him.
Now, at the end of the same day, she is hearing yet other worrisome escalating news from the Middle East. This time about missiles from Iran toward Israel. Who pays the price of any conflict? As usual, innocent people on all sides. Make no mistake about it.
May God/G-d/Allah of love have mercy on everyone. May God know how to protect the aching and apparently sinking boat of Lebanon with ALL its innocent people, along with those who have played with the fire.
Even if her mind, soul, and heart are with the people of her birth country as well as with her family and friends there, Bambi’s heart has enough room to also feel for all those suffering from this insanity. This includes the innocent people of both Israel as well as Palestine, the people of Syria as well as those in Iran (minus their unwise and illuminated Mollahs), those of the entire Middle East, and the whole world.
Enough of cruelty toward innocent people. Enough of playing with their lives and sanity.
When Lebanon is not under the occupation or hegemony of Syria, it is an Iranian colony (through its alliance with Hezbollah). When it is not under the influence of Iran, it is under the occupation or at the HARSH mercy of Israel.
When will Lebanon become sovereign again, from within, and then regionally or internationally?
When will the government of Lebanon finally courageously take the leadership (of decisions of wars and peace) from the Hezbollah?
May J. Fla’s song bring moments of inner peace to your hearts, dear readers.
May music know how to heal the pain of all the innocent civilians who are surviving armed conflicts around the world, especially the people of Lebanon. Bambi is thinking of each of the 1 million displaced persons across her birth country. This includes MANY Beiruti families who are sleeping on the streets or in their cars right now.
Healing wishes and love to all the injured, grieving survivors, scared or traumatized folks.
May peace prevail in Lebanon, in the Middle East neighbourhood, and in the entire world.
Thank you very much, Mr. Anthony Samrani, for your brief and excellent analysis of three possible scenarios of the assassination of Mr. Hassan Nasrallah. Following the YouTube video in French, you can find Bambi’s efforts for an English translation for you, thanks to her friend Google Translate.
As you can guess, it is Bambi’s hope that the third scenario, the optimistic one, will finally take place in Lebanon. Until then, she sends her heart to her birth country and to all those traumatized by the HARSH Israeli shelling, including her own family.
As for Mr. Nasrallah, she has had many former posts related to him. Some where direct virtual chats with him. The latest one took place on June 19, 2024 when he had threatened Cyprus. In this older post, Bambi urged him, along with Mr. Netanyahu, to stop the machine of war.
Obviously, Mr. Nasrallah cannot reply to the imaginary chats with Bambi anymore. For those who love, adore, or just respect the latter, especially to his family, friends, community, and all the peers of the different political parties, even the opponents, she extends her condolences.
Although she did not agree with him on many topics (e.g., the 2006 war, the overpower of his group, which is stronger than the Lebanese state, the Beirut port explosion, the Syrian war, the current war, and above all his continuous loyalty to its Iranian creator/donor (i.e., ideology/war mindset, funds, and weapons), she will say the following now: she has the utmost respect for something that differentiates him from some of his financially corrupt Palestinian friends: Mr. Nasrallah was an authentically principled man. He did not live in palaces outside of his country. He lived according to his principles. He died according to the latter. He was on the battle ground and maybe, as some say, he lived under earth for many long years. He lost his son in the past and yesterday, if Bambi understood well, he lost his daughter. Her name is Zaynab. May their souls rest in peace… and especially the souls of the MANY innocent people who died in this unwanted and senseless armed conflict.
“The death of Hassan Nasrallah is an earthquake for Lebanon and the region. The most adored and most hated character in the land of Cedar, he was both the voice and the face of the axis of the Resistance and as such will be extremely difficult to replace. After its elimination in an Israeli strike on Friday, we can imagine three types of scenarios, depending on the calculations of the Islamic Republic, and to a lesser extent, today of Israel.
First scenario: that of escalation: Iran and Hezbollah believe that Israel has gone too far and feel forced to try to rebalance the balance of power somewhat. This would require Hezbollah to use, if it is still capable of doing so, its high-precision missiles and for allies within the Resistance axis to come to its aid in a conflict which would, very quickly, become total and probably regional, with however an immense risk, that this war ends up endangering the survival of the Iranian regime.
Second scenario, the one where Hezbollah and its Iranian godfather accept their defeat and consider that the balance of power is far too unfavourable for them today. In this case, Hezbollah would take on a new dimension on the Lebanese scene. Less regional, more Lebanese, but probably more paranoid, less inclined to compromise and more determined than ever to reimpose a balance of power with the other parties.
Third scenario, the optimistic scenario, which however seems extremely fragile, the one where the different Lebanese communities learn lessons from history. After the assassination of Bachir Gémayel, Rafic Hariri and Hassan Nasrallah, will the communities finally overcome their differences with the aim of building a state worthy of the name?“
