More of a mom than a blogger this week

The last week of the summer vacation... counting the days now. I get so little time to work nowdays. Sigh. At least their dad is home, and spends a lot of time with them. He is on his last week of his current place of work, then off to seek new adventures, career wise. We'll see how this goes.

I have to say, the new Middle East forums are taking up a large chunk of whatever computer time I do find. It's quite addictive, obviously not just for me lol, we just went over 1,000 posts already in a relatively short time. I find it very interesting to view things from new perspectives. Sure, sometimes those perspectives are so foreign to mine, that it can be almost frustrating. Also, people feeding from different sources of information can be challenging. Thankfully, there are still some relatively objective resources online, for us to compare notes every now and again. I am still looking forward to getting more people from the Middle East involved. We have quite a large number of Americans, Europeans and even Australians. All are very welcome and add a lot to the discussions, but I was hoping for some direct dialogue between people from the Middle East themselves.... so, if you have some "Middle Easterners" in your contact list, please drop them a word about our new hangout - http://www.metalks.com !

The New Middle East Forums

I've been asked by a fellow blogger to tell some more about METalks.com - the Middle East Forums that I launched a few days ago. So... here goes...

A bit about the forums themselves. So far, we have only two forums, one for political/ideological kind of threads, and another for social interaction/fun threads. We have 27 members as of right now, and growing daily. Members are from around the globe, many from the Middle East. It is actually not easy placing them on the map, as some are originally from the Middle East, now living elsewhere.

The site staff currently consists of myself and two others: JeanSouc and Janjo. Jean is Lebanese, living in Paris, and Janjo is Iranian and living in the UK. Both of them I met through this blog here, as they commented about posts I made. I always enjoyed their comments and their ability to keep things polite and even friendly, despite major disagreements with other commenters. I felt the would make great team members at a site like METalks.com and I still do!

So, what is METalks.com about? I want it to be a platform to allow people of the Middle East a place to interact and create some sort of positive dialogue. The emphasis here is certainly on the positive. I don't think we need yet another place where people will bicker, fight and insult each other. I want a place where opinions can be expressed, yet an overall respectful tone be maintained.

I also want to bring together those voices of the Middle East that call for peace, human rights, democracy and the associated values. Being an online forum, I realize that we're going to have all kinds of people joining, not all of them necessarily promoting those ideals, yet I hope that we will be able to create a strong community where diverse opinions can be heard, discussions can be held and yet a general line be maintained promoting these ideas, at least by the site's staff and core posters.

I was looking for such boards before and couldn't find quite what I needed. Some nice initiatives out there simply didn't have the right platform, IMO. I felt that these forums deserved some investments, in the form of their own domain name, a proper software and appropriate hosting. Hey, I guess it's the webmaster in me ;)

We are working things out as we go along. These days we are seeing our first threads where moderator intervention is actually needed. I bring with me six years of experience managing large forums, so hopefully that will help. There will be bumps along the road, of that I am sure, but I also hope that a strong and valuable community will be formed, where people of the Middle East will learn to actually know each other and, well, Talk!

Why not join us at www.metalks.com ?

Lebanese Army finally deploying

I wonder how this looks to an outsider. Two militaries, very peacefully switching positions. The Israeli tanks moving south, as the Lebanese tanks take their place. If there's anyone in Lebanon, or out of it, that still believes that Israel has any plans or wishes in regards to Lebanese soil (or water), I hope that these pictures show them how wrong they were. Israelis don't want to occupy Lebanon. Never did. Not for land, not for water, not for anything.

I hope Lebanon grabs the chance it's been given and make the most of it. This is their chance to finally get rid of the Iranian de-facto occupation of the South and reclaim their land. Current decision to allow Hezbulla to stay, and armed at that, even if their weapons are concealed, doesn't look very promising. I hope this is only phase one. I hope that the Lebanese government will have the sense to gradually and thoughtfully, yet decidedly and not too slowly, disarm the Hezbulla and take real control over the region.

He's back!!!!

After more than four weeks (seasoned with a couple of short home leaves of a few hours each), my dear man is back home!!! He surprised us this morning and just showed up at the door, looking extremely tired, his face covered with stubble, but very very happy to see us.

Our yonger son, aged two and a half, woke up first, and was very hesitant about this man that suddenly showed up... It took a few minutes of convincing that this is actually is his dad and he is back for good lol Then we woke up the older kid, aged four and half. He was thrilled.

I haven't even checked the news yet this morning. For now, all the news I needed is right here :)

Ceasefire Holding On So Far

Like most people here, I check on the news as often as I can this morning. Is it really over? Is the ceasefire still in place? IDF officials have said the the ceasefire is "fragile", and we all hope we won't hear the sound of shattering glass today...

So far, so good. There has been an incident earlier this morning, but looks like it's been contained. Just an isolated incident where, according to Israeli sources, a Hezbulla gunman shot at an IDF force.

Keeping our fingers crossed here. The kids are anxious to see their daddy back home. They've been told that the war ended today. "So, Mom, did we beat the enemy?", my 4 years old son asked. Good question. I told him that the enemy and us decided to stop shooting at each other, so that the dads can get back home. Told him everyone was tired of the war. He was happy enough with this answer. Now, they want to know why daddy isn't home already. I told them the army is waiting to make sure that everyone plays by the rules and that the enemy really did stop fighting.

lol, not trying to offer any of the above as sophisticated commentary here. This is what I explained to a 4.5 year old kid, that's all ;)

On another note, I am looking for interesting blogs from the Middle East. I want to focus on the ones that promote peace and sanity in this region, not war mongerers. I want to start a blog reviewing other blogs and recommending the ones that I like. If you know of any, they can be your own, please either comment here or email me - israelimom@gmail.com. Cheers.

Crazy last day?

How strange. Since yesterday, everyone's been counting down to the ceasefire (supposedly tomorrow morning). At the same time the IDF tripled its forces in Lebanon and Hezbulla seems to be firing eveything they can at us. It's strange, to say the least.

Yesterday afternoon, when both Israel and Hezbulla had announced that they agree to the UN's proposal, my sons were thrilled. We told them that the war will soon be over and daddy will be back home. We decided to celebrate by doing a small "BBQ". That means we lit a small bonefire and I made them some hot dogs at home and let them eat them on a stick by the fire. As we were sitting there, singing songs, the choppers began flying above. Flying in formations, they kept coming and coming, heading north. We knew something big was going on, as dozens of helicopters flew over. My sons were jumping happily and waving "at the pilots". The adults were worried, wondering who on board the aircraft will be coming back home in a coffin :( We heard later that evening that Israel had indeed expanded the operation. Dozens of soldiers already killed, probably some of them were indeed in the helicopters flying over our heads. How tragic. To lose a dear one when the sides have already decided on a ceasefire.

Then today, Nassaralla, joining in on this crazy race to "prove we won" just before the ceasefire, seems to be shooting everything he has left in his arsenal. Record number of rockets landed on Israel today, huge damage all over the north, coming close to where I live again, as well. I was taking my walk this afternoon, when my mom phoned me, in panic, saying I need to get back home and be with the kids, since the Hezbulla are going crazy on us today and shooting their long range rockets again. I tried to explain to her that they are as likely to hit our home, as they are to hit me during the walk :P

It's like in those horror movies really. You think the monster is dead, but then, at the last minute, the ugly monster of war raises its head for a final bite. My heart goes out to everyone affected, on both sides of the border. Stay safe everyone, hang in there for just a bit longer, and hopefully this will be behind us tomorrow.

Peace to all.

Oh, and if you are looking for a dose of something positive, hop over to the new Middle East Talks forums!

Introducing METalks.com - the Middle East Talks Forum

I've been toying with this idea for a while now, as some of you already know, and last night I decided to take the plunge. I set up new forums to carry out discussions about the Middle East. Everyone is welcome, only please read what I had already posted there. No rules are set in stone as of yet, but I do intend on keeping Metalks.com a friendly place. The idea is to promote communication and build bridges, not to spew hatred and feel all superior.

Everyone is welcome, from any place in the world. It shoud be a place to ask questions, talk and exchange views. Politely please :)

So, just head over to www.metalks.com, register for your account (it's free, of course) and start posting. Either reply to my threads or start one of your own. Let's get talking :)

A Ceasefire seems closer than ever

I was happy a few minutes ago, as I've been told that Nassaralla has basically accepted the UN's terms for the ceasefire. Very surprised, I think, but pleasantly so (if that word can be used in the same sentence with this guy...). Then I read the full quote from his speech -
Hizbullah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, said in a speech broadcast on Hizbullah's television network al-Manar that "if a date for halting all hostile operations is agreed upon, Hizbullah will uphold this decision."

Well... not sure if he really does accept all of the terms. But at least we may have a ceasefire during which things might be negotiated further. The Hebrew version of that piece of news did say that Nassaralla has accepted the UN resolution. It just seems a bit odd to me. Too much like wishful thinking.

Israel, on its part, supports and accepts the UN resolution and I guess a truce will come into effect as soon as Nassaralla will say the same. The official Lebanon also supports the UN resolution.

For now, though, the fighting continutes. The IDF seems to be making huge progress within Lebanon with some impressive operations being carried out yesterday and today. Some are already revealed, others were only hinted at. I guess the IDF will try and make the most from everyday now, before the ceasefire is declared, making life even harder for the Hezbulla and making sure that when the UN soldiers arrive, they will have an easier time.