some guy in lebanon

Uri Avnery was born in Germany, a Jew who immigrated to Palestine in the 1930′s. When he was 15 he joined the militant Irgun. Avenery once remarked, “don’t talk to me about terrorism, I was a terrorist.”

In the early 1990′s, he started Gush Shalom, a left wing, secular Israeli party. Avenery first served in the Israeli Knesset in 1965, so he knows Israeli politics well.

BEIRUT: A Carnegie Middle East Center Seminar Thursday at the Rotana Gefinor Hotel in Hamra discussed the effects and repercussions of the Gaza war and the two-year Gaza siege. The discussion did not break much new ground, pointing familiar fingers and shying away from serious analysis on the role of civil society and the prospects of legal challenges to this latest Israeli action on the people of Gaza.

This most recent conflict began in late December and has cost hundreds of Palestinian civilian lives, despite broadly defined, and according to an American lawyer attending Thursday’s event, “ill-conceived,” military goals. Hours after the end of the seminar, the UN passed a resolution calling for a conditional cease-fire, subsequently rejected by both Israel and Hamas.

I had my first “Ah-Ha” moment as a journalist today. It helped me in many ways define what it is that a “Journalist” is supposed to be. First the moment itself – I was writing an article this afternoon on a seminar regarding the current Gaza conflict and the 2 year old Gaza seige. I [...]

Possible correction to the note below: Lebanese military personnel have arrested members of the Hamas in Lebanon organization, suggesting that the Lebanese government does not believe the PFLP was responsible for the rocket attacks on Israel. To put everyone at ease, it seems that World War 3 will not be happening this morning in Southern [...]

Note (8/19/09) – This post has been getting a lot of attention recently due to a link from a blog called ‘Dances with Klingons‘ – So I wanted to add a remark. Something that I didn’t understand when I posted this article, is the degree to which it is possible, if you have no dependents, [...]

From the Daily Star, by Your’s Truly – Published on December 27th, 2008 – Click here for the original BEIRUT: A strategic partnership between Lebanese technology companies EDM and eSharing is breaking the “go-it-alone” status quo of the Middle East IT sector. eSharing will develop enterprise resource software that interfaces directly with EDM’s new Global [...]

Dear Israel, Congratulations. Since you’re so good at starving a caged population of almost a million and a half people to death and then, to add insult to injury, kill more people in one day than they’ve killed with their toy rockets in a year, only to be asked politely by the Bush Administration to [...]

By Yours Truly, Published in the Daily Star on December 24th, 2008 – Click here to see original BEIRUT: The Education’s Ministry decision to make intellectual property rights (IPR) the theme of its SchoolNet project in 2009 highlights the growing prioritization of anti-piracy initiatives in Lebanon. Education Minister Bahia Hariri delivered a speech to a [...]

I spent this afternoon at Microsoft Lebanon’s beautiful offices in Downtown Beirut, discussing Open Source Technology, software piracy, and several Microsoft initiatives. Their publicist also sort of offered me a job…! Prior to my meeting I had lunch with Nick in Martyr’s Square – We didn’t have much to say to each other, but it [...]

So Bernard Madoff has admitted that the Financial Services and Management division of his company is essentially an enormous Ponzi Scheme. $50 Billion U.S. is at stake, as are the subsequent investments of hundreds of millions of dollars hedged on money, debt, and guarantees from Madoff’s organization. In the end, charities are being closed, and [...]

You’ll find a deck of pictures from my trip to the Cedar Reserve in Shouf, Lebanon, here: http://williamcurtisdonovan.com/photos/?album=1&gallery=10 – the first half of the gallery is of pictures on the way from Beirut to the Reserve, with some amazing pictures of the Shouf area where Karma is from. There will be a second gallery shortly [...]

This afternoon I took the time to import my blog that I kept while I was in Jordan. You can now find all the posts at http://www.williamcurtisdonovan.com/category/jordan This way everything’s in one spot and I should get a noticable boost from the content. It is funny to look back on all those posts – In [...]

Was looking for something more straightforward and utilitarian. This just sort of came to mind – thanks to the guys at theme hybrid for making the transition so easy – Things are well in Beirut. Still waiting for decisions from on high but other things have kept my attention. I have some photos to share [...]

Link to the Original Article, Published December 5th, 2008, Daily Star BEIRUT: Lebanon is well-positioned to offer web development, digital marketing, and information technology services to local, regional and international clients, according to several owners and partners of companies in and around Beirut. These experts agreed that Lebanon’s global position for IT services, outsourcing and [...]

Hamra pub has weathered 44 years of wars and sieges By yours truly – This is the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything. Ever. Pictures are my own and were not featured in the original article. Click here for the Original Article from the Daily Star, Published December 2nd, 2008 BEIRUT: The speakers filter [...]

Waiting waiting waiting – Patience patience patience. This is my new mantra, and I’m not very good at it. Waiting to see what will happen at the Daily Star with my proposal, waiting for other people to make decisions about various other business ventures, waiting waiting waiting. This weekend I spent Saturday morning finishing Robert [...]

Update: Please note that this is a follow-up article to a previous post, “The Coming American Diaspora.” This post is now two years old – if you’re interested in the consequences and/or realities of living in the American diaspora, see this post about my life this past year, and this post about the year before [...]

Given that our government is in the process of radically socializing the American economy, and also given my increased interest in Libertarian Socialism, I am of the impression that we are about to witness a market-driven rapid growth of communes here in the United States. My general assumptions for such a communal movement include, Prior [...]