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Sunday, August 09, 2009

Sunday Morning on the Dunes: Why Hezbollah and Americans Joined Friends and Cleaned Lebanon’s “Free Gaza Beach”

Franklin Lamb's interesting article about Lebanese kids trying to clean up a beach, now dubbed the "Free Gaza Beach" that Israel destroyed by bombing an oil tank during their attack in 2006. Mentions that Washington staters, along with other individuals, filled in an incentive gap when USAID failed. Linda J.

Part of article below; whole thing here: http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/08/08/sunday-morning-on-the-dunes-why-hezbollah-and-americans-joined-friends-and-cleaned-lebanon%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cfree-gaza-beach%E2%80%9D/

No help from Uncle Sam this time

The US Embassy was asked if USAID might donate water or ice cream for the kids cleaning Beirut’s beach. USAID apologized and told the Sabra Shatila Foundation representative, lovely Ms. Nancy from Cape Cod Massachusetts, that after 3 days careful study of the subject that USAID “regrettably does not have the budget to provide water (cost? maybe $50) for Palestinian and Lebanese children who will be cleaning Ramlet el Baida beach on August Second”. During a follow up call by one of the American Boy Scouts who looked forward to joining fellow scouts from Muslim Sunni Jarrah Scouts and the Muslim Shia Madhi Scouts of Hezbollah, “that ice cream is a luxury these days and not in the USAID budget. However we are able to supply an American flag for display if you would like”.

Bless its heart; the American Embassy in Beirut did indeed present a fine large American flag which flew proudly on the beach next to the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Norwegian People’s Aid, and Big Blue and Cedars for Care, Lebanese environmental groups.

As the thirsty camp kids contemplated “water, water everywhere and ne’er a drop to drink”, and trudged east to west, with the rising Lebanese morning sun on their backs, picking up trash, God shined his grace upon them and with the help of cash donations from American citizens from Florida, Washington State and New York and a Palestinian scholar in Oxford, England, 600 bottles of Lebanon’s finest ice cold pure mountain water, Sohat by name, as well as delicious Lebanese Cortina ice cream, and “Keep our Beaches Clean!” T-Shirts and Baseball caps appeared just in the nick of time.

In defense of USAID’s apparent stinginess it should be conceded that the Agency is not without its own issues. Giving anything to a Palestinian these days requires lot of analysis. One can imagine the hullabaloo in the Israeli occupied US Congress if USAID had provided water for this particular mixture of beach cleaning kids. Which member of Congress would be the first to complain of aiding potential future terrorists? A Congressional investigation might be demanded by close to 20% of its Members beefing up the AIPAC campaign to destroy President Obama’s Middle East initiatives in Palestine.

To excuse USAID further, in its 8/5/09 edition, the Washington Post suggests that decision making at “the main U.S. foreign aid agency(USAID) is in limbo, entering its seventh month without a permanent director despite pledges by the Obama administration to expand development assistance and improve its effectiveness in poor countries.

Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have said how important helping foreign countries with environmental problems is.

“Increasingly, it's a painful contrast between their rhetoric and the reality of having no leadership at USAID”, according to Carol Lancaster, interim dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, who served as deputy administrator of the aid agency under President Bill Clinton.

Lancaster claims that USAID assistance oversees doubled, to $13.2 billion in 2008 and the agency has become a conduit for money flowing to contractors, who have limited supervision from the agency.

Reverend David Beckmann, president of the aid group Bread for the World, describing the plethora of political claims attached to USAID helping grassroots projects such as beach cleaning. The development program, he said, "is a mess. In the USAID budget, every dollar has three purposes: help build an Air Force base, support the University of Mississippi, and get some country to support our projects.

According to Reverend Beckmann, “The waste of billions of U.S. reconstruction dollars in Iraq and the growing role of development in the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan have given new urgency to long-running debates about reforming the USAID system.”

Sometimes cheery in outlook, the Sabra Shatila Foundation US Embassy contact noted that “after we finish our Iraq and Afghanistan work, and depending on what happens with the US economy, we may have more funding available for projects such as Lebanon’s environment. Next time gives us more notice and we will see what we can do.” No hard feelings.

The beach project was good event. Some volunteers called or emailed the Sabra Shatila Foundation this week and reported, ”we want to do more stuff”.

Slowly, slowly maybe mutual understanding in the Middle East is deepening.
One example, perhaps unrepresentative:

Last year, a former American Ambassador, part of a delegation from a Washington DC based US delegation who had served in the region at the time of Hezbollah’s birth, explained that he had changed his views of the Party of God. “Lamb, he said, “if the average American could come here to observe what is going on in Lebanon today and the ‘human face’ of Hezbollah, I am sure 85% of them would support the Lebanese Resistance and its work.”

Another former US Ambassador recently told a gathering of Americans in Beirut, relaxing with a drink or two following a long day of briefings: “Not only is Hezbollah the most secular of the Lebanese groups in my opinion, Hezbollah is as American as Apple Pie! We are very similar in many ways how we think and analyze problems.” He continued, “Our peoples are much alike. It’s no less than a goddamned shame that our government is currently at odds because if we worked together, with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, we could solve many Middle East problems from Iraq, Afghanistan to Palestine. We should also calm down about the Iran is seeking nuclear weapons b——-! That’s a red herring if ever I saw one! Hell I don’t claim to know what the Iranians are doing but if I was Iran facing that bunch running Israel I would sure get me a couple for self defense if I could! And while I am on this subject, when and if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, Israel is likely finished. Not because Iran will use it, but because its deterrence will stop Israel from threatening the region and you will see and international resistance bloom like Mao’s thousand flowers!”

Then the retired American Ambassador, who had served in China in the late 1970’s, downed his third scotch on the rocks and fixed his gaze on a svelt Lebanese beauty who entered the Hamra bar and smiled at him.

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