Lebanon: Before and After the Cease Fire · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

Cease fire in the Israeli-Lebanese war officially began on Monday 14th August. Enteries in the Lebanese blogosphere were diverse starting from what went on during the last days of the war to predictions and analysis about the political consequences of the war on Lebanon. Some bloggers wrote about the effect of this conflict on their personal lives and attitudes. Others wrote about the reaction of their Jewish friends during the war. There are also some war jokes, anecdotes and war dialogues. Blogging and the reading of blogs turned out to be a source of solace and therapy for at least one blogger.
Let’s start with  Charles Malik who said that the Lebanese are unhappy and predicted a change in the domestic political scene in the coming days. While  AM bluntly mentioned the shifts she experienced in her feelings and attitudes as a result of the war.
Walid Moukarzel makes use of soccer terminology to evaluate the players in the war.
Bob at 1TooManyPeaches compared the announced goals of the war at its beginning and at its end and asks:
So again, can someone please tell me what was this war all about? […]
But wait, there are still more good news. Olmert said that Israel has the right to respond to any violation of the truce, which will mean that another round of destruction and killing will take place. However, he vowed to hunt down Hizbullah leaders and kill them. So in a way, he has the right to violate Lebanon’s sovereignty and kill Lebanese people, but if God forbids Hizbullah would violate the truce, he has the right to respond. It is a logic i still fail to absorb much like the whole logic of this war.
In one of her many satires  EDB wrote about symptoms of impending internal strife as a result of the war:
We've barely made it to day four of the ceasefire, and already the usual suspects (Syrian President Al-Assad, Jumblatt & co) are trying to stir the shit pot. And many Lebanese are falling for it– the old sectarian trap, and the blame-Syria-for-your-bad-hair-day game.
Jamal had this to say hours before the cease fire came into effect:
13 hours to go until the promised ceasefire.
Just over a month ago, a man by the name of Ehutzpanim Olmert declared war on Lebanon to send it back 20 years, to free 2 Israeli soldiers, and to destroy Hezbollah.
Instead he earned himself war criminal credentials, strengthened Hezbollah considerably, and caused damage to the Israeli army image that not even 20 years would fix. Not a very successful war, is it?
Have you ever thought of translating one of your dreams into a drawing?  Amal did just that.
Wars also bring out the sense of humor in some people. Many jokes were circulated in Lebanon during this war.  Ahmad posted one about Abu Abed and Olmert.
Wars also touch people on the personal level. Here Sophia wrote about shattered lives in Lebanon
Who was Salwa Wehbé ?
Most of the time, when we see pictures of people killed on TV or in newspapers, our perception of the life that is behind is always abstract. A life is a story and not everybody has the ability to construct a story out of a picture, especially when often such pictures are clouded by political, strategic, military or simply spin […]
Reading blogs was one way  Jamil found some peace of mind:
It was actually reading the blogs of fellow bloggers that helped me the most. I don't know anyone of them by face, but I felt connected, as if I knew them for a long time. Reading blogs has become a daily ritual and I have come to really enjoy it. On these blogs, I saw many talents. I laughed, teared, read poetry and listenned to forgotten tunes that lived in me for a long time.
An interesting new blog in the Lebanese blogosphere is  A Lebanese Cafe during the WAR which posts views and dialogues of visitors to Younes café in Beirut.
RoxieAmerica listed some statistics on the Israeli Hezbollah war.
Mustapha called for a new Lebanon in which:
We should have an internal belief that modern wars are fought economically, by competing in production and innovation. A prosperous, plural Lebanon is a stronger foe than a militant, xenophobic Lebanon. Prosperity is about uniting families by preventing immigration. It’s about dignity. It’s about prestige and influence. A militant Lebanon will only create destitute, wretched and scattered citizens who feed off other people’s charities.
Prof As’ad proposed the following equation for those who are interested in knowing the outcome of the war:
If you really want to know the answer to that: just see the Israeli press, the Zionist propaganda media, and the fanatics in the comments’ section of this site. They are pretty angry, are they not? They are quite frustrated and disoriented. They are fulminating and babbling incoherently.
[…] fortunately, this war has also discredited the suicide bombings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad: aside from ethics, it has been clearly revealed to be ineffective and worse. And Arab popular self-confidence is much more threatening to Israel, in strategic terms, than large Arab armies. The small size of the Hizbullah army will only add to the growing mystique.
Mirvat wrote about the reaction of her Jewish friend when this war began:
“What can I do? What can I do?” she screams to me in the most humane almost apologetic way trying to make me understand that she is as heartbroken about the dead children and mothers and fathers. She tells me how she stopped talking to half of her family who can’t see what she sees. She tells me how she attacked a rabbi telling him that a state that loots, tortures, confiscates land, undergoes ethnic cleansing and mass killing and war crimes is not a state that should represent her or her children or the religion she believes in. She told him a state built on racism and greed and religious fanaticism is not better that the enemy we try to demonize and to finish off. She tells him we adopted the techniques of the Nazis and what kind of hope will that leave our children with even if you don't care about their children? She then tells me the rabbi looked her dead in the eye and told her, “Every dead Palestinian child is a step forward”. She says she is not surprised, i say i'm not either for these are the hopes of those leaders who are exploiting the religion to their political interests and who exemplify the civilization of hate and the culture of death.
A call on Nassrallah to retire came from  Raja:
Lebanon, today, is at a very clear juncture, Nasrallah. You either “retire” your military component while it is at the “top,” leave a solid legacy behind, and save Lebanon in the process. Or, you persist in your obstinate ways, and drag all of the country into oblivion. Starting today, the real battle for Lebanon's survival begins.
Michael Totten reported from Northern Israel on events that took place on August 11 and 12.
Finally UrShalim posted some photos of the destruction of the areas where he spent a major part of his life in addition to commentaries on events during the war.