This is an article about a student in my town, and the impact the Israel/Lebanon situation has had on him and his family.

Kendall 

An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950


Violence hits close for UW student
By JARED MILLER
Star-Tribune staff writer Thursday, July 27, 2006



Richard Semaan, a Lebanese man studying at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, is struggling to keep tabs on family and friends displaced by the bombinig in his home country. Photo by Jaren Miller, Casper Star-Tribune.
 
 
LARAMIE -- Richard Semaan is a busy University of Wyoming doctoral student, but these days he spends most of his time watching TV and surfing the Web.

The 26-year-old Lebanese man carefully monitors 24-hour news channels and scours Arabic and English Web sites for any scraps of information about his embattled country.

"If you have somebody in the line of fire, how productive can you be?" said Semaan, who studies a specialized engineering field called experimental turbulence.

Semaan's parents and his older brother last week fled the Beirut suburbs for the mountains after food and water became scarce and a bomb exploded nearby. They're betting Israel won't target the rural, Christian area, he said.




"Something must go terribly, terribly wrong to be hit there," Semaan said.

Contact with his mother, a retired teacher, and his father, a retired accountant, has been spotty since the move. He said Israeli forces have attacked communication towers, and the family's rented apartment has no telephone service.

However, Semaan regularly discusses the war with friends in Lebanon who say they feel helpless against the bombardment. Semaan struggles with conflicting emotions as he watches coverage of Israeli warplanes pummeling his country.

"I can't tell you I wish I was there -- I'll be in the line of danger," Semaan said. "But at the same time, for some reason I'm wishing I was there."

Semaan is no stranger to war. He's too young to remember the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, but his family suffered major losses in the subsequent civil wars that made Beirut a poster child for Middle East violence in the 1990s.

"Our house got totally destroyed in that war," Semaan said. "It was burned to the ground, and we virtually lost everything there, and we had to rebuild.

"From that experience, I can relate to what's happening now. It's a big tragedy."

Semaan was vacationing in Lebanon a day before Hezbollah guerillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Within hours, Israeli forces unleashed a nearly relentless assault on Lebanon that has killed roughly 400 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and displaced more than 500,000, according to wire reports. Hezbollah continues to shell parts of northern Israel in retaliation.

Semaan said Hezbollah made a strategic mistake by snatching the soldiers, and now the Lebanese people are being "collectively punished" for its actions. The proof, he said, is the targets Israel is choosing.

"Some of the targets are unexplainable," he said. "They're hitting lighthouses, wheat silos, farms, factories. What does that have to do with Hezbollah?"

Israel, meanwhile, says Hezbollah fighters use civilian areas to conceal their arsenal of missiles and take human shields.

What's more demoralizing, Semaan said, is that Lebanon had been undergoing massive rebuilding since the end of the civil war in 2000 and was expecting a strong tourist season.

"We just want to be in peace, and Lebanon has paid a really, really heavy price for the conflicts in the region," he said.

Semaan also is saddened by the U.S. government's position on the war, which is to allow the Israeli bombardment to continue until Hezbollah is crippled. President Bush has declined to call for an end to the bombing.

"What I learned when I arrived here is you have to make a difference between U.S. foreign policy and the American people," Semaan said. "But it's apparent that the United States has always backed Israel in all its wars and all its conflicts with its neighbors."

Semaan said many Lebanese, including himself, would like to see Hezbollah disarmed and a lasting peace in the region. But he predicts the destruction will deepen sympathy for the radical Islamic group, and could embolden a new generation of guerilla fighters.

The Bush administration views Hezbollah as a terrorist group, but many Lebanese see it as an army of "freedom fighters" credited with ending the Israeli occupation, Semaan said.

The violence "will only increase radicalism," he said. "What's happening is despite a lot of people in Lebanon not wanting Hezbollah to remain armed, now people are having sympathy for them because basically if you're looking at your country being destroyed, you don't care who's hitting back."

Over the next few days, Semaan knows he must return to his studies, but he fears a humanitarian crisis and worries that his country won't have the means to rebuild again.

"There is nothing left standing," Semaan said. "I can see the only way for us coming back is with international help."

Semaan believes an end to the immediate violence will require work by the United States and all the regional players.

He is less optimistic about the chances for sustained peace in Lebanon and the Middle East.

"I don't see it now," he said, shaking his head. "I don't see it now."

Reach reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at [log in to unmask]

Kendall Corbett
Coordinator of Consumer Activities 
Wyoming INstitute for Disabilities - WIND
College of Health Sciences
University of Wyoming
1000 E. University Avenue, Dept. 4298
Laramie, WY  82070
(307) 766-2853
[log in to unmask]
www.wind.uwyo.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Kendall David Corbett [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 1:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [C-PALSY] Disability Rights (now mideast crisis?)

If I remember correctly, the present Israeli/Hamas conflict started when
Israel attacked Lebanon after the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.
Soldiers go into the service knowing that they'll be in harm's way.
Poorly targeted mortar attacks don't seem to be an appropriate response
to that.  

This link gives a pretty good timeline of events in the present
Israel/Lebanon situation:

http://www.counterpunch.org/lin07252006.html
   

-----Original Message-----
From: ken barber [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 6:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [C-PALSY] Disability Rights

what do you think would have been appropriate reaction
by isreal to the rocket attacks?

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