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Reading all these articles in the Lebanese media slamming Saad Hariri for replying by mistake to a “good morning” tweet by the Israeli ministry of defense spokesperson Avichay Adraee was quite normal. It just proved that some Lebanese journalists have really nothing to do sometimes other than “philosophizing” a two words tweet!

But has anyone found it weird how it’s very acceptable in Israel for a high ranking official to initiate a conversation with a Lebanese person? Don’t they consider us their enemies?  I just tried searching for an article in Israel criticizing Avichay Adraee for his tweet to Saad Hariri and failed to find any!

Even if you check his twitter account now, you’ll see that Adraee went on and simply apologized to Saad Hariri for disturbing him!

Oh and did you notice how whoever took the screenshot above, supposedly to criticize Hariri for that tweet, is following Avichay Adraee? Hypocricy much?

Parallel lines are so 2011! Israeli pilots are flying with style this year.

Photo via ramla8

Most of the international bands/singers/DJ’s who came to Lebanon for a performance have at some point performed in Israel as well, and because of that you see some activists calling for boycotting some concert every now and then. The way they choose which concert to boycott is beyond my understanding, but for some reason they decided to protest against Armin’s upcoming Concert NYE-1. knowing that he has performed several times in Beirut before.

The NNA reported that youth organizations and supporters of boycotting Israel staged a sit-in on Monday night, facing ‘MacDonald’s” in Ain Mreisseh, in protest against “DJ Armin Van Burren’s” visit to Beirut after partaking in concerts in Israel.

Van Burren is scheduled to perform in Beirut on December 30. Source

I might be wrong, but I feel like someone is just trying to irritate Mix FM (the organizers of this event) with this move, I mean If these people are serious about what they’re doing why don’t they protest against every single performer who has been to Israel, or better yet, why don’t they call for boycotting their albums as well?

Believe it or not, I just found out that Haigazian university and the Lebanese army have cooperated back in the 1960′s to produce a series of surface-to-surface missiles called “Arz-1″, “Arz-2″, and “Arz-3″.

It all started with a project led by Professor Manoug Manuogian at Haigazian university in 1960 resulting in a single-stage rocket that reached an altitude of 2 kilometers. The Lebanese president at that time, Fouad Chehab, decided to finance the project with 25,000 L.L, which allowed the group to build tw0-stage rockets in summer 1962, and a three-stage rocket later in November 1962. By the end of this year rockets were able to reach an altitude of 20Km!

However, the project was halted shortly after the French President Charles de Gaulle told President Chehab that the Lebanese abilities were proven in the scientific field, but the project might put Lebanon at risk if further researches are done! (WTF!!!) i.e. These missiles are a threat to Israel, and it will not remain silent towards the advancement of the Lebanese army in missile technology!

That’s actually a summary of the article I found on Wikipedia.

If we have worked on this technology back in the 1960′s, and if resistance movements in Palestine are currently using water pipes to produce the Qassam rockets, then we can definitely resume working on the project and come up with much more enhanced versions of Arz to arm the Lebanese army and make it capable of defending our land when necessary. But then again will Israel remain silent about it? This definitely leads us to the defense strategy issue that our buttheads have been discussing since 2006, Israel simply doesn’t accept Lebanon having any means of self defense, so how can we disarm Hezbollah and still be able to protect ourselves against any possible invasion..? Oh wait this isn’t a political blog! END OF POST!

We’re currently receiving VERY worrying news from the south! From what I’m reading on news websites and twitter, it seems that Israeli soldiers were trying to cut some tree at Adayseh village in order to install some surveillance camera when the Lebanese army stopped them.

Following that, an Israeli tank bombed an LAF base and an exchange of fire erupted between the two on the borders. Now there are some news about Katyusha missiles fired at north Israel… let’s hope it wont get any worse than that!

Via Naharnet

12:43pm OTV: 10 artillery rounds fell in Adeisseh, one of which near a Lebanese army post.
12:40pm Future News: A Lebanese soldier and another civilian were injured in the fighting.
12:38am VDL: The clashes erupted after the Israeli army tried to cut some trees inside Lebanese territories.
12:36pm LBC: Israeli tank hit a house in Adeisseh.
12:34pm NNA: Exchange of gunfire between Lebanese and Israeli soldiers along the border town of Adeisseh.
12:31pm MTV: An Israeli tank fired an artillery shell on a Lebanese army position on the outskirts of Adeisseh.

Via Now Lebanon

12:42    Al-Arabiya: Two Katyusha missiles fired at North Israel
12:31    MTV: LAF base at Aadaiseh village bombed by Israeli tank
12:29    AFP: Exchange of gunfire between Lebanese and Israeli soldiers along border

Via Tayyar.org

12:55  الجيش اللبناني يرد على العدو الاسرائيلي باطلاق قذيفتي RPG ورشقات نارية (المنار)
12:46 سقوط 10 قذائف اسرائيلية على بلدة العديسة بالقرب من مركز للجيش اللبناني (OTV)
12:42 جريح من الجيش اللبناني وآخر مدني في الإعتداء الإسرائيلي على العديسة
12:35 اشتباكات بين الجيش اللبناني وجيش العدو على الشريط الشائك تتمة
12:30 دبابة اسرائيلية اطلقت قذيفة باتجاه مركز للجيش اللبناني عند مدخل بلدة العديسة واصابته اصابة مباشر

Update (8/3/2010 2:38PM):

Via Tayyar.org

14:36  Two Lebanese army soldiers were killed in the Israeli shelling on Al-Aadaiseh.
14:32 A high-ranking Israeli army officer was killed in the shelling and Israeli soldiers were trying to pull him out. (Al-Manar)
14:30 Israeli troops called through loudspeakers on the Lebanese army to halt fire so that they can evacuate the wounded.
14:02 UNIFIL urged Lebanon and Israel a maximum restraint. (Future News)
13:55 Apache helicopter fired two missiles on the hill of Al-Aadaiseh. (NTV)
13:35 Two houses are burning in Al-Aadaiseh village. (Future News)
13:21 Israeli snipers are firing at the Adassieh- Kfar Kila road. (AL-Manar)
13:20 A Lebanese soldier identified as “Hasan Nazzal” and a civilian “Ibrahim Abboud” were injured in the clashes at Al-Aadaiseh. (MTV)

Update (8/3/2010 7:11PM):

The situation is calm again in the south for more than 3 hours now, god bless our soldiers and may our martyrs that fell today rest in peace.

I just saw this video of 6 Israeli soldiers performing a cool dance to Keisha’s Tik Tok in the West Bank on the Ouwet blog (they’ll be disciplined though).

Compared to Israel, we seem to have a boring army! I hope to see them or the internal security forces doing such stunts one day!

All hell broke loose after Octavia Nasr expressed sadness through a tweet over the death of a person she had great respect for, Sayed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.

“Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot..#Lebanon”

With all the criticism she got, Octavia had to explain what she really meant in a blog post on CNN blogs.

Mustapha from Beirut Spring, and Liliane from Independence ’05 wrote about the issue and explained that there’s a big difference between showing support and showing respect. I won’t go with repeating their words since I believe the Israelis know very well what the difference is, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah himself once said in one of his speeches that he respects the Israelis because they’re known for not leaving their injured and dead soldiers behind. Now do you think Nasrallah supports Israel?!

The thing is that the Israelis were just waiting for a small mistake from Octavia Nasr to start firing at her, which forced her to eventually explain herself in a blog post. If that shows anything, it’s how great is the Israeli influence over the world media in general and the US media in specific…

Update (2010/7/8):

She got fired…!!

The issue has been raised on the Tayyar.org website two days ago. As you can see in the snapshot below taken from the regulations page, Samir Kassir’s contest is open to journalists in several countries including Israel!

I have no idea what journalists from Israel have to do with this contest, and I am surprised that until today those who are responsible of it still have not fixed it or even provided an explanation. Oh and please don’t blame it on a copy paste mistake!

Lebanese chefs, minister of tourism, people of Lebanon, I beg you not to respond back with another silly world record, instead try to really work on a plan to penetrate the world market with our traditional Mezza dishes!

An Arab-Israeli village is planning to make the world’s biggest hummus, a chickpea dip that stirs passions across the Middle East. Lebanon may not like it.
On Friday, residents of Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem, will mash up 4,000 kilograms of chickpeas, sesame paste, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.

That is twice as much as the Guinness world record set in October by chefs in Lebanon, Israel’s neighbour and rival.

While surfing Naharnet today I came across this dangerous news:

Lebanon in War with Israel but this Time on Falafel

Director General of the Lebanese Industrialists Association Saadeddine al-Owaini is urging Arab countries to participate in the campaign launched against Israel for “stealing the region’s dishes.”
Owaini announced that he will start contacting the region’s ambassadors to urge them to take part in the campaign after a tehini-filled falafel marketed under the Ta’amti brand won the prize for the best food from Israel at the Kosherfest food and beverage trade event, held in New Jersey last month.

The trade fair is held once a year in New Jersey under the slogan “Where trends emerge and traditions continue.”

Owaini further complained that Israel is exporting the boxed falafel to make huge sums of money and without having played any role in the appearance of such a dish in the region.

Owaini said he will send a letter to the Lebanese economy and trade ministry to urge it to complain to international authorities. To retaliate, he vowed to prepare the biggest falafel and enter the Guinness book of records to remind the world that falafel is not Israeli.

Source

It seems that the Israelis are really enjoying this food fight! In brief, an Israeli company is marketing a tahini filled Falafel under the name of Taamti, and they won a prize for it being the best Israeli food. Now guess who started complaining! Mr. Saadeddine Owaini.

But since we, the Lebanese people, are known to quickly respond to any threat, and since setting a world record became a piece of cake to us, Mr. Owaini decided that we will be making the world’s biggest Falafel to enter the Guinness book and remind the whole world that the Falafel is indeed Lebanese.

I wonder how is this big piece of Falafel going to fit into a sandwich? Or are we going to also make the world’s biggest Arabic bread?

By the way, how about a better idea other than setting records to defend our Lebanese cuisine? I suggest “striking” the Jewish cuisine and start exporting some of their cooking as Lebanese products. That would be cool!

The Falafel photo is via Flickr.