Archive for February 20th, 2021
US and Israel: Fighting it out for the control of Lebanon “politics”
Posted by: adonis49 on: February 20, 2021
Swapping Punishment and counter Revenge at the expense of people in Lebanon, including the refugees, Palestinians and Syrians)
Note: This idea came to me in a flash and made plenty of sense given the many concording evidences, months and years after the events that happened in Lebanon. This conjecture is Never approached in articles and news, on the ground that the “active” feuds between Israel and US administration should be taboos.
The US embassy in Lebanon does Not need many secret agents: It receive intelligence pieces directly from the sources: ministers, deputies, Central Bank, private banks, and all its institutions.
The employees “agents” in every Lebanese institution are trained to recognize the kinds of fresh information that the US desire to obtain for the control of Lebanon “politics”
Most of the other embassies, with a few exceptions, receive the intelligence that the US wants to share with them, and in return they also share their intelligence with the US embassy.
Lebanon is ideal carrefour for collecting and swapping intelligence pieces in Lebanon and mostly of the “Arabic’ and Islamic States. That is why this pseudo-State is Not to erased from among the UN States.
Actually, most Lebanese “politicians” and in high level positions prefer to play double and triple agents, which is fine if they “register” as such with the US embassy, as long as they have “no direct contact” with the other agents without the approval for certain events and for a period.
Occasionally, and for local politics in Israel, Israel likes to forget that it is a tiny State and totally dependent on the US and has to plan a priori with the US in Lebanon politics.
In these circumstances, when Israel decide to play the strong partner in Lebanon or the adjacent States without the approval of the US, Israel is punished for tarnishing the “standing” of the US in this strategic turntable of intelligence swapping for the entire Middle-East, once Israel activities turn sour and it is the US that has to pay the dear price in the region.
Israel had deliberately targeted the US Liberty intelligence ship during the 1967 war, for 3 hours and killed 33 navy men. The US buried this bloody “accident” to the public, but I conjecture that is why the US didn’t build or sold any warships to Israel. It is the job of Germany to fund Israel war ships and submarine and built in France.
The US never forgot the heavy casualties it suffered in 1983 to its marines for the blowing of their headquarter close to Lebanon airport. Israel reneged on the deal to vacate Beirut and most of the occupied territories, and to quickly withdraw to the stretch of land in the south, a land that it occupied for 23 years.
The US responded by allowing Syria to get a mandated power over Lebanon politics in order to clip Israel control over many politicians.
And the resistance against Israel forces was launched that ended in Israel withdrawal in 2000 without any explicit pre-conditions.
The pre-emptive war in 2006 that lasted for 33 days is another tragic events.
I conjecture that the US was Not ready to launch this war on Hezbollah and Lebanon at this time, but Israel, for local politics, lied that it can destroy Hezbollah military forces.
A week into the war, Israel discovered that the morale of its army was Not at par with the goal of the war. Israel wanted to stop the war, but the US was outraged for being lead/dragged to this war and pressured Israel to resume the war, against all odds.
Israel ended up begging the US to quickly demand a cease fire.
In retaliation for this fiasco, the US got its revenge in 2008 by leaking the “safe havens” of Israel Mossad locations in Beirut to Hezbollah.
Within 3 days, Hezbollah had “closed” all of Israel spy networks in Lebanon and pressured the dual Lebanese political agents to desist from direct contact with Israel. And the US regained some of its standing with easy direct intelligence from Lebanon institutions.
Feeling safe, the nonchalance of the US control of Lebanon lead to the total bankruptcy of the State of Lebanon at all levels: US policies encouraged Lebanon civil war “leaders” to loot the wealth of Lebanon and its budgets since 2008.
Note: Israel is at odd with US policies in Lebanon. Israel has decided that “No more military pre-emptive wars on Lebanon, Not even on a smaller scale”. Israel desires a “stable” Hezbollah. Otherwise, Israel will be sucked into successive nightwares.
Not sure who was the first Love for this modern Don Juan: Gibran K Gibran
Posted by: adonis49 on: February 20, 2021
Who is Josephine Peabody?
Posted on March 11, 2010
Scores of women fell in love with Gibran and vice versa, in the US and abroad (France, Egypt and Lebanon) and love letters on both sides kept the post office pretty busy.
May Ziadi, a Lebanese author who settled in Egypt and who was a deeply literate, polivalent and a female activist, and respected by the literate Egyptian circles. Gibran and Miss. Ziadi swapped all kinds of letters until his death. She didn’t travel to the US to ever meet with Gibran and she wrote in one of her latest letters: “I refuse to be a mere flower in your garden“
The Lebanese author Salim Mujais published “Letters of Khalil Gibran to Josephine Peabody”.
It is an Arabic book and the author decided on a new style: Gibran 82 letters are translated and Josephine diary “Psychic” is included, date to date, so that you are reading a joint diary of two people in love with no interference of the author’s opinions or comments.
When Josephine poems relates to Gibran, they are included in the daily commentary. In addition, when Gibran’s works relate to Josephine, excerpts are attached to the joint diary. It is unfortunate that Josephine’s letters to Gibran are still not found, although Gibran’s letters were gathered by Josephine.
Gibran (Jubran) sent her a drawing through his mentor F.H. Day with these words “To the dear unknown Josephine Peabody”.
In the meantime, Gibran had traveled to Lebanon to learn Arabic and French at the college of Hekmeh (Wise) in Beirut. Three months later, Gibran receives an unexpected letter from Josephine.
The letter says, in weak English) something to the effect:
“Mr. Day showed me many of your drawings and paintings in his possession; we talked about you. I felt ecstatic the whole day after seeing your drawings because I could understand you through them.
I think your soul lives in a beautiful space. This is the fate of people who can create beautiful things in arts; they enjoy complete happiness when they share their bread with others. I live in an environment of noise in a crowded city. I feel like a lost child seeking his true self. Have you seen any deserts? I think you listen to silence. Forward me your news and I will tell you mine”
Gibran, still not mastering the English language, replied on Feb. 3, 1899 from Lebanon. The letter says: (words in brackets are as they were written)
“(When I received your letter) O, how happy, I was? How glad? So happy that the tongue of poor pen cannot put my joy in words. I feel (discontent) when I come to write (English), because I know not how to translate my thoughts as I want, but perhaps you (want) mind that, and I think I know enough to tell you that will keep your friendship in (midest) of my heart, and over that many miles of land and sea will always have a certain love for you and will keep the thought of you near my heart and will be no separation between you and my mind.
You wrote in your letter “I always keep things of that sort” and for a certain thing I am just like camera and my heart is the plate. I will not forget when you spoke with me that night in Mr. Day’s exhibition. I asked Mr. Day “Who is the lady in black?”. He said “She is miss (Beabody), a young poet and her sister is an artist”…
I wonder “do you ever sit in a dark silent room listening to the music of the rain so calm that is”… With this letter I send a little drawing for remembrance.”
The correspondence lasted till 1908. Many letters are not dated and Josephine must have thrown away many letters during period of disagreement. Josephine died in 1922; she was married to Lionel Marx and had children.
Probably, Josephine was:
1. the first person to organize Gibran’s first drawing exhibition;
2. the first who compared Gibran drawings to Blake’s;
3. the first to translate his poems to English;
4. the first who wrote poems on Gibran;
5. the first woman in Gibran’s drawings and paintings;
6. The first woman hero and main character in Gibran written works.
Josephine Peabody was Gibran’s first true love and muse (his genie).
Josephine is the woman who made Gibran to experience love, pain, sorrows, chagrin, and ecstasy.
Born in 1874, Josephine started to publish poems in magazines at age 14. She received a grant to study at Radcliff (1894-96). Her first book is “Old Greek folk stories told anew, 1897”, then a book of poems “Wayfarers, 1898”.
In 1900, Josephine published a one part play “Fortune and Men’s eyes” and a poetic play “Marlowe, 1901”. She taught at Wellesley till 1903.
Josephine Peabody married Lionel Marx and they moved to Germany where Lionel was teaching at a university. The couple returned to Boston.
Josephine published her poetic play “The Wings” in 1907. Josephine had her first daughter Allison in 1907 and she published a book of songs for children “Book of the Little Past” in July 1907.
In 1909, she published the play “The Pied Piper” and won the Stratford award among 300 participants.
Josephine published “The Singing Man” in 1911 where she included the poem “The Prophet” that she had written around 1900 and in which she imagines Gibran’s childhood period.
In 1913, Josephine toured Europe, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria and published on her return “The Wolf of Gubbio”. WWI generated her book of poems “Harvest Moon”
Josephine didn’t meet Gibran again until 1914, while attending the play “The mask of the bird”.
In this month of February, Josephine invited Gibran to tea and showed him the album of her children. She had dinner with Gibran at Mrs Ford; and dinner at Edwin Robinson.
Gibran wrote to Mary Haskel “Josephine appears to belong to Cambridge and not the world. Josephine didn’t change: she wore the same cloths”
Josephine published her play “The chameleon” in 1918 and then “Portrait of Mrs. W” in 1922. Josephine diary “Psychic” where she talks about Gibran is of 51 pages and span from December 1902 to January 1904. She died in December 1922.
Gibran had to kill the “genie” of Josephine.
He wrote in an Arabic article titled “A ship in the fog”: “Hover over this white corps in white cloth amid white flowers the silence of time and the dread of eternity”
Note 1: Gibran was enamored (platonic) with several women much older than him, before he met Josephine Peabody. For example, Louise Guiney (1861-1920) who was FH Day girlfriend; the artist Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933) who painted Gibran in Arabic attire (painting at Savannah museum); and the gifted photographer Sarah Choates Sears (1858-1935) who arranged to send many artists to Europe.
Note 2: East of USA in the early 20th century was very different from today. People had this renaissance streak; they were polyvalent, spoke many languages, and traveled to Europe to acquire knowledge and arts. People encouraged young foreigners with talents financially and with contacts.
Note 3: Gibran’s English was still tentative, and it will take him years to master this language, thanks to Mary Haskell who made it a point to edit all his English works. Gibran bequeathed his English work to Haskell after his death.
Note 5: Unfortunately, he missed to bequeath his Arabic works to May Ziadi. Miss. Ziadi would have spread Gibran works faster and wider in the Arabic speaking world and might have earned a new phase in her active life. Ziadi returned to Lebanon to be harassed by her relatives for her fortune, and even attempted to incarcerate her in a mental hospital.
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