I think by reading that article I got to know another Lisa Goldman. I read every word of it and loved it.

At the risk of sounding like a psychobabbler, I think, from reading your honestly revealing article, that your feelings reflect the ups and downs of all people's personal security, fear, and shame. For example, as my sense of self moves to the strong side, I am flexible, tolerant and open: when it swings to the weak side, I become rigid, intolerant, and closed. I am not consistent because I am influenced by external events. The idea that I could myself influence those external events through blogging is tantalizing.

Sorry for writing what should be a blog post as a comment.

Too bad you couldn't write about the french blogging experience during this wartime...French bloggers in France,french bloggers in Israel and finally lebanese french speaking bloggers.(there are so many)

We had been through such a special period...

excellent article .

Alain, why don't you write about it? Many of us non-French speakers are very curious to know what went on...

Glad you decided to post it. Great article, definitely worth sharing.

I truly think that is one of the best articles I've ever read. the fact that you examine the issues on such a personal level make it all the more humane. Thank you for linking this.
With publicized views and efforts like this maybe we can be at peace

Ah Lisa,

And more bad news from Lebanon this morning (evening for you). I feel we are all pawns pushed about by the people of hate. Some of us are farther away but I can still feel the push.

How does faith, hope, and love stand against fear, anger, and hatred and the power of the dog? Is it war again in Lebanon? Was that the plan all along?

Sincerely,
Bill

Lisa - A great article, beautifully written. Thank you so much for posting the link.
xo
adina

Thanks for posting this link, Lisa. There was much that I recognized in your article, and I think enough time has now elapsed that I can begin to think about this stuff again, tentatively.

:D D D Can you see my smile?
Can you, can you?!
;)

I'm really glad you posted the link to the article. It's a great read and it's very raw and emotional and resonates at a very personal level.

Dreaming Forward

Dust settles
nights fall
the mind slips
into semiconsciousness
called sleep
where
short-term memory
moves
to long-term remembrances
and the heart prepares
for our dreams
of tomorrow.

Dear Lisa,

I agree with your other readers on the merits of this article. You certainly told an important story, and as usual, the writing was wonderful. Like many others, I followed the various conversations on the blogs you mention with great interest. It was fascinating to sneak a peek at the "real" interactions behind some of those discussions in the blogosphere.

There was one paragraph, however, that I found a little...condescending. You write that,

Over the following month a few bloggers managed to remain detached. Most, however, did not. Some of the Israeli bloggers devoted enormous amounts of energy to exposing media bias towards Israel, or to blanket condemnations of all Muslims, or to excruciatingly detailed descriptions of Israeli suffering.

There is no doubt that you are right in your characterization of some of the Israeli blogs. I'm sure there were hateful things said about Arabs and Muslims - they deserve our unqualified condemnation. However, I couldn't help but detect a certain snideness in your aside about those bloggers who "devoted enormous amounts of energy ... to excruciatingly detailed descriptions of Israeli suffering." I am not sure who in particular was the object of that description. But it seems a little uncharitable to those bloggers in Haifa and the north who really did have their lives put on hold and who were forced to grow accustomed to rockets landing in their neighborhood.

As for those who spent so much time exposing media bias to Israel - I think their efforts could also be evaluated a little more generously; certainly, they should not be automatically classified as right-wing fanatics. It doesn't seem very fair to lump them together with racists either. A more generous reading of these bloggers' work might focus on the profound disappointment they felt over the blindness of some media outlets (by no means all or even the majority) to the experience of the people in northern Israel. Maybe these people were too self-centered, but does the representation of one's own suffering necessarily imply the exclusion of the other's pain?

I hope this is making a bit of sense. Being personally connected to someone whose posts might have ostensibly fit your characterization, I felt that I had to speak up. At least in the case that I know, the description was inaccurate and a bit unfair.

Best,
Amos

Hi Amos,

I was just as disheartened as you were by the media's coverage of the conflict; and, as you probably know from the comments I left in response to your wartime posts, I'm a big fan of your blog.

The line you quote is not meant to be a criticism of you specifically, nor is it meant to be condescending in general. I was disheartened by some Israeli and/or Jewish bloggers who defended the Israeli position uncritically, at the expense of acknowledging the suffering of the people on the other side of the border - my point being that there is always a "yes, but" in politics and media coverage, and it's more effective (I think) to go beyond that and look at the complexities of individuals and at the suffering war causes for everyone.

Also, I did not (and would not) use the terms "racists" or "right-wing fanatics."

Best,

Lisa

Still good second time aound!

A few clarifications, if you'll allow me.

"when he struggled to overcome his racist feelings toward Jews."

Actually, that's a bit unfair. I never had racist feelings toward Jews. I had racist feelings towards Israel and Israelis. That is obvious from my posts. There is a clear distinction between the two.

This moves me on the seamlessly to the next point.

"and I began to wonder if he saw me as ‘Lisa, my friend’ or ‘Lisa, my Jewish friend’. I suspected it was the latter,"

Former, actually.

"On the final night of what turned out to be his last visit (although we didn’t know that at the time)"

2nd last visit (although I didn't know that at the time).

I'd be more than happy to open another bottle of wine (or two) and discuss things in much more detail. I know a great place run by Lesbians that reminds me of Beirut. Off the record of course.

You're right. Some people don't like to be publicly exposed, even behind a 'nom de blog'.

A beautiful, moving article, Lisa. It must have cost you to write it, but good on you for doing it.

I followed the war on the blogs as well, and watched PR turning away. As the war went on the blogs got ugly on both sides. I walked out of one Israeli blog because it turned quite evil. But there was a lot of rotten stuff on the other side as well. But generally I was much impressed with the Lebanese bloggers and their ability to find poetry even amid the carnage.

You wrote:

"It seems that we are hostages to very old, deeply held prejudices, to geopolitical interests and perhaps even to human nature. Perhaps, I thought one day, the desire to make peace is in fact contrary to human nature. Perhaps the need to hate is something that we must constantly examine and struggle against, again and again and again."

I think all of this is true. The struggle to redeem ourselves from our own worst instincts is the most important of all; to understand and share our common humanity; to understand that a bullet or a bomb hurts "you" as much as it hurts "me".

I doubt we will ever succeed against the men with guns, the politicians and the bureaucrats. And sometimes there is no choice. But we have to keep trying, or there is no point in being human.

I think it was Primo Levi who said that the war against misery and injustice will never be won, but we still had to keep fighting.

Keep fighting.

Beautiful article, Lisa.

Regarding this: "I think it was Primo Levi who said that the war against misery and injustice will never be won, but we still had to keep fighting. Keep fighting."

I don't know, but Albert Camus had also the same image in his mind in 'The Myth of Sisifus". Only now I understand this book.

PR is a pancake and bogus. I was a reader also of his blog until his post 'cleansed'. He says here in the comments that he is not racist against Jews, but he felt anymosity towards religious Jews, who are not more Zionists than me, and I consider myself an atheist Zionist Jew. Should I wear a kippa he will not dare to touch my "Zionist" hand.

I just wanted to thank you. That was one of the most beautiful articles I have read. I hope you haven't given up on perpetual refugee; I know he hurt you with his comments, but he could probably use your help and support right now. He seems to be trying the right things to improve his own country; a huge task which keeps getting bigger.

Hi Lisa,

Thank you for posting to that article. You kept many of us longing for your words while you were not writing much, but the wait was worth it once you unraveled this beautiful quintissential-Lisa prose. It is this type of writing and this type of personal reflection that made me fall in love with the blog. I first started becoming addictied to this blog when much of what you described in this article was taking place - during the amalgamation of the Israeli and Lebanese blogospheres. Just want to let you know that I appreciate your writing in both the good times and the bad.

Lisa - can I just add to the congratulations on the article. It was excellent - with just the right combo of personal reflection and information. There was a session at the IPCRI conference in Turkey this week about blogging and peace education (separate from my workshop) - and your article was mentioned during the conference. I can give you more details if you like. Keep up the good work - you are obviously inspiring many people. Leila

The Internet sure brings up problems that previous wars didn't have to deal with.

In WWII messages from the troops that were sent home to love ones in America had to go through a specific department whose job was to censor out information that could be useful to the enemy. Most letters home had a significant among of sentences just blacked out.

But now days with the Internet, there is no department that the information goes through first and with Blogs the enemy can read the stuff practically real time.

We must remember that Keyboards can kill.

I feel you behaved yourself responsibly during the war.

But bloggers in general can be quite dangerous during wartime.

I keep thinking of those WWII posters. One said "WANTED FOR MURDER" and the picture was the average American housewife of the 1940s. The point was that as much as women might like to gossip you never know who might be listening and loose talk about what their husbands might be doing in the war could give the enemy information they could use to help kill our soldiers.

One of the most memorable sayings to come out of that time was the saying "Loose Lips Sink Ships" which meant that the times that ships would sail out of harbor was a very important piece of information for the enemy to know and so people who knew when the ship was going to leave should not carelessly go about saying things that might allow the enemy to know that piece of information.

http://www.nh.gov/ww2/loose.html


Today there is a more modern version of that saying. "Keyboards Kill" This means what one Blogger might post may be used by the enemy along with what other bloggers post to allow the enemy through matching these pieces of the puzzle together to get some key piece of information that the enemy needs to do harm.