Peace. Salam. Shalom
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I was born in Lebanon, a country that has been at war with the country of Israel. In fact, Lebanon still officially considers Israel "an enemy". In 1982 when i was 7 my father took me to the roof of the apartment building we were living in in Mseitbeh, West Beirut to see Israeli jets bomb "the Sport City" stadium which was a hideout for Palestinian PLO militias... They were kicked out of Lebanon. But the refugee camps remain to this day... I grew up with stories about courageous resistance fighters fighting the Israelis in Southern Lebanon which was under Israeli "occupation". Also there are some real beautiful songs about the resistance by famous musician/composer Marcel Khalife that my Communist dad was really into... I will tell you a story though. Some of these resistance fighters were not so courageous. Some of them came to our apartment in 1982 to ask my dad for shavers so they can shave their beards off. This was in light of the fact that Israeli soldiers were on the ground in our neighborhood and I remember seeing a scary Mirkava tank rolling down our street. These same fighters dumped weapons in the garbage heap down the street and my dad recovered some weapons for a souvenir. I still remember a bayonet knife was one of them. We kept a pair of binoculars too. In 2006 I was again in Beirut when Israeli jets bombed the southern suburb of Beirut which is a Hezbollah stronghold... A lot of infrastructure was destroyed and over 1200 Lebanese lost their lives over a stupid skirmish in the South of Lebanon that Hezbollah, now a listed terrorist organization, instigated. In Lebanon, I grew up listening to speeches by this and that and every other Middle Eastern politician spinning conspiracy theories about the Israelis and preaching hate... The Middle East is rife with conspiracy theories targeting the Israelis, the Jews, the Zionists. The reason for this is that Arabs are weak and they are pathological liars and they don't trust one another or their governments. In fact there is a verse in the Koran that says that Arabs are the worst liars and infidels. In fact, lying is a cultural thing for Arabs. If it gets you out of a pickly, it's OK to lie. It's called "taqiyya". However, I believe all this has to end... Lebanon and Syria need to sign peace treaties with Israel just like Egypt and Jordan did many years ago. Arabs need to learn to respect and appreciate their Jewish intelligent neighbors. Ignorance, corruption, and lack of freedoms are the real enemies of the Arabs. Why forgive and love? Because it takes a greater than life strength of mind and breadth of soul to love one's enemy... Because the only way to really defeat your enemy is to learn how to love them. Only then are you truly free. Hate and revenge that is easy. But it is self-destructive. To forgive that takes guts, that takes courage, and is the only path to freedom... In fact I dare say that the only way to defeat your enemy is to LOVE them ! Another reason is that Arabs and Israelis are half brothers and it is time to bury the hatchet. God is Love. . . Sincerely, Rami Elias Kremesti M.Sc., CSci, CEnv, CWEM founder AMALID |