Blogging Under The Radar
As War Raged, Lebanese and Israelis Found Common Ground
By Delphine Schrank
Monday, August 28, 2006; Page C01
The fragile cease-fire still holds, but for wary Lebanese and Israelis the barrage of noise continues — in cyberspace. By provoking a trade in words, the 33-day war in Lebanon didn’t just wreak death and destruction. It also helped knock down a wall of silence.
“I think it’s the start of something. In a way, it’s a revolution,” said Mustapha Hamoui, the blogger behind Beirut Spring. “Communication is never bad. It’s better to tell someone, ‘I hate you.’ Then you have to ask, ‘Why do you hate?’ Then you have to have a conversation.”
The Lebanese government forbids its citizens contact with Israelis. But keeping a lid on the Internet is a bit like trying to shovel sand with a sieve. And in the midst of war, scouring online for views from the other side has been one way for Lebanese and Israelis to alleviate the terrible sense of the impotence of standing by as their countries bled. Thousands of people, often posting in English, seem compelled to try to make some sense of the chaos — or, through personal narratives, to help debunk stereotypes and misperceptions.
“Bloggers from both sides of the border . . . have been providing live updates, commenting on one another’s blogs and sometimes linking to posts by bloggers on the other side of the border,” wrote Lisa Goldman, a Canadian-Israeli blogger and journalist, on her site On the Face six days into the war. …
“Actually before this, the Israeli society was a big question mark for me,” Souc said in an e-mail. “This blog helped me assert a little bit more the idea that all the fuss and all the propaganda in the Middle East are really plain lies when it comes to the ‘historical animosity,’ or ‘the bad Jews’ or ‘the deadly Arabs.’ ” …
After all the blogosphere has done to whip up fear and hatred, it’s a reprieve to hear that the tool can be used other ways as well.
Ploughshares are so played. Let’s beat those swords into keyboards, everybody.
Peaceblogging
What a concept (via the Washington Post):
After all the blogosphere has done to whip up fear and hatred, it’s a reprieve to hear that the tool can be used other ways as well.
Ploughshares are so played. Let’s beat those swords into keyboards, everybody.
This entry was posted on August 28, 2006 at 12:08 am and is filed under Color Commentary, Foreshadowing. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.