A Zionist spy in Beirut?

Me reporting from Beirut in Hebrew, for Channel 10 news. This photo is taken from the Al Manar (Hezbollah) website.

**Scroll down for update.

I waited to write about my trip to Beirut because I found out a few days after returning to Tel Aviv that Channel 10 news wanted to send me back to do a report for them. Figuring I should try to keep a low profile until after it was broadcast, I left a few loyal readers hanging, without explanation, as I maintained radio silence – so to speak.

And so I went back to Beirut for a whirlwind 36 hours (Monday and Tuesday of this week), recorded a couple of interviews and some footage of various street scenes, flew back to Amman, spent the night at the airport before boarding the 6 a.m. flight, drove straight from the airport to the Channel 10 studio to drop off the raw footage, went home, showered, and returned to the studio to help edit the piece. And then voila, it was broadcast – two minutes after we finished editing.
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To view, copy and paste the following URL into your browser: http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=1015892 (Thank you, Andrey!)

For non-Hebrew speakers, I will try to put in English subtitles and upload to YouTube in the next few days.

Anyway, one hour after my report was broadcast on Channel 10, Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station in Lebanon, broadcast its own interpretation of my trip to Beirut on its 9 p.m. news broadcast. And man, were they angry. Apparently, a Zionist agent penetrated security at Rafic Hariri Airport! God knows what I really did in Beirut, because there's no way I just went to do an innocent human-interest story about the mood on the streets of Beirut, one year after the war. Imagine! A possible Mossad agent walked around Beirut with a camera in her hands and no-one stopped her! (for heaven's sake).

I wrote a rather rushed report about my second trip for Pajamas Media, called Beirut, a year later. I'm going to write a series of more in-depth pieces that will be published over the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Sandmonkey summarized for Pajamas Media the outraged reactions amongst readers of Al Manar website and Tayyar, another news site that is allied with the Hezbollah against the current government.

For more anti-Lisa reactions (with a few tempering voices of reason) on a Lebanese message board in English, click here.

And just to counter all that paranoia and hate, I'd like to add the following:
a) Today I received several supportive and encouraging emails from Lebanese who read about or watched my report and liked it.
b) One of those emails came from a guy who thought I was still in Lebanon, and offered to help me leave the country.
c) Never forget that the extremists always have the loudest voice.

Oh, and for readers in Israel: I will be interviewed on London and Kirshenbaum tonight, at 7 o'clock on Channel 10.

More – much more – very soon (as soon as I catch my breath).

Update: To view my interview on London and Kirshenbaum, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=1020775&ak=null&st=00:33:01.289&dr=01:55:58.553
There's a 60-second report on Qaddafi before I come in.

Again, I will upload a version with English subtitles next week.

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This entry was written by Lisa Goldman and posted on July 12, 2007 at 1:43 pm and filed under Main Page. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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38 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Haven't had time to finish this or the Pajamas article as I am super busy (laundry, Costco, cooking, critical stuff like that) and I want to give them my full attention.
Just wanted to say:
a. So glad you got these out in timely fashion.
b. If it wasn't you, I wouldn't have gotten past the great big advertisement for Ann Coulter that was plastered in the middle of your article.
The things I will do for friends.

1. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Update.
a. Ann Coulter advertisement gone. Hooray!!
b. Great article, wanted about 20,000 more words. You have a few days to deliver.
c. The Lebanese forum had quite a few nice things to say about you when I read it.
d. Waiting for the You-tube version as my Mac isn't helping me out (funny, cause I watch Mabat sometimes on the same system).
e. Sounds like you could do with some sleep. Congratulations and enjoy your moment.

2. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Holy Moly! Must have been intense couple weeks, to say the least. Sad you probably won't be able to quietly visit again, with all this coverage.
Love the subtle European accent, Lisa (you're not secretly Quebecoise, are you?)
And my favorite quote from the last, English-Lebanese-comments site (page 3):
“…I must tell that she is very cute…..
Yet she should get arrested.” Priceless

3. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
LOL on Lisoosh's comment.
Great stuff (though can't see the video on my mac).
Selfishly glad you can't go back again.

4. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Wow, you entered Beirut *twice*?!
And even after you wrote about it here?
Amazing. Way to go.

5. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
You're a brave woman. I look forward to your future reports. Some spy…..

6. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
I can't wait to read your coming posts Lisa. i added your blog to http://news.beiruter.com a Lebanese blog aggregator.
For those interested in Israeli Lebanese relationships, i'd like to mention the
good neighbors blog at http://gnblog.com
and the perpetual refugee's blog http://perpetualrefugee.blogspot.com/
Good luck Lisa, we need more people like you to speak up.

7. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Lisa I admire you courage because you could have been taken as hostage anytime during your visit. The Israeli government must not be very happy. About Al Manar outrage that an Israeli visited Lebanon, I say to them Israel does not need to send its citizen to spy on Lebanon, there is a lot of Lebanese mercenaries who would do it for the money. Remember that the South Lebanese Army was 70% shiite?

8. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Gaaaaahhhh!
I'm too livid about the Al Manar reaction to this whole mess to even try posting a coherent comment. Not that it was unexpected. But talk about obfuscating the truth. And the thing that ticks me off the most is that there are countless people out there who are going to believe that bullshit (as you so indicated).
Well, I'm glad you're back home safe and I hope you made the most out of your visit, seeing as you probably won't be able to go back anytime soon thanks to some of my idiotic compatriots… I feel so freakin proud right now (sarcasm)!
Good to have you back and hoping to read more soon.

9. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Wow! Amazing report. I don't have a television, so thanks for posting the video. It was very courageous of you to travel to Lebanon for the sake of journalism. That was a huge risk on your part and the country's, but when you get the time to put the feet up and look back (if you have not already done), know that this small segment was quite the accomplishment as well as a great help to us as the Israeli public in knowing what's going on over there.
Give yourself a pat on the back. Now. I mean it.
כל הכבוד!
~דניאל

10. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Lisa I just saw you on L&K..
I've found your “story” rly inspiring n amazing, although seems to be pretty edgy and risky (ani polani)..
I've heard many stories about the rural side of south Lebanon from my father, an ex paratrooper, and i'm very intrigued with this switzerland of the ME, as my father refers to it..
Anyhow have a big chapeau for the courage and good will..
Tul

11. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
It was a great reportage of Lisa from Beirut , for Channel 10 news. It was very interesting and a very courageous trip.

12. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
I'm sure the seething jealousy that Israeli passport holders have of your Canadian passport will be tempered by the fact that, with the publishing of your story, you probably can never go back to Lebanon again.
Unless the situation changes in a revolutionary way, of course.
It was a great report, very humanizing and honest, as if you were from any other country. You really brought out great responses in people, too.
I think it's fucking fantastic that Al-Manar has you on their list! Lisa, *now* you have arrived!
The obvious questions of course are: 1) how did you get a video feed from Lebanon to Israel (or is that why the “answers” to the “questions” weren't live)? And 2) How did you get away with speaking in Hebrew in front of a camera without arousing suspicion? *That* I want to know.

13. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Hello Lisa,
Bravo and well done. You did what i have been wishing for since many years; wander the streets of Tel Aviv, meet with the people to tell them we are similar however, i would not want to hide my true lebanese identity….
Sadly, the local media will exploit your visit for political gains and miss the essential message of dialog which begins by what you did, meet the neighbors.
Trust this will start a more meaningful dialog..
M

14. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Way to go, lisa. Your incredible courage, guts, and savoir faire on the air, in the cab and bar, everywhere. Your hebrew is gorgeous; i have never heard you speak the holy tongue. Your photos showed a beautiful city — buildings, squares, incredible palms, and the sea. And the people. Everything so wonderful… if not for the horrors.

15. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Thank you your report was very interesting. Kol Hakavod

16. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Apparently this caught the attention of Iranian state media. From Kamangir's blog:
http://kamangir.net/2007/07/12/lisa-in-the-iranian-news/
Unfortunately I think that people who hate Israel are going to respond to your trip with an outpouring of paranoia rather than seeing it as an attempt to meet “the other side” as human beings. Then again, they tend to do that with all basically positive developments.

17. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
“the essential message of dialog … begins by what you did”
hear hear
i am a huge fan x x x x

18. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Iranian news agency write about your trip:
http://www2.irna.ir/fa/news/view/menu-153/8604213573203416.htm
Iranian discusse it in the biggest persian online community,balatarin:
http://balatarin.com/permlink/2007/7/13/1090079

19. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Lisa, thanks for a wonderful beautifully written report!
I don't know about your “unrequited” affection towards Lebanon! You'd be surprised how many Lebanese, present company included, have an inveterate admiration towards Israel.

20. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
I meant for Israel!
and btw, the relationship (or lack thereof) between Israel and Lebanon is governed by the regime of the 1949 armistice agreement. Lebanon is not (and in fact has never been) at war with Israel.
Unfortunately, given its delicate ethnic makeup, Lebanon lacks the prerogatives of a sovereign state, which should have ordinarily allowed it to preclude non-state actors, agents of neighboring Arab gangster-states, from taunting and provoking Israel from Lebanese territory. But I suspect you already know the deal Lisa.

21. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Lisa, Lebanon is not only about the trendy Beirut beachfront, I wished you could have gone to the Southern Suburbs and to the South to see another Lebanese reality that was created by the Israelis over reactions since the late sixties. I would like to remind you that in December 1968, Israel destroyed 13 Lebanese civilian airplane at Beirut airport? That ruthlessness was used again 2006, expecting that the weak Lebanese government would crack down on the Palestinians in 1968 and on the Hezbollah in 2006. The result was in 1968 an automatic split of the Lebanese between supporters of the Palestinians armed struggle and opponents. Same in 2006, the Lebanese are split along pro-Hizbollah and pro-government lines. Israel has not learned the lesson, the harder they hit and the harder get its enemies.
Israel did not make any positive move toward Lebanon concerning the Shebaa farms which is the excuse given by Hezbollah to keep their weapons.

22. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Kheir, I find it hypocritical, unscrupulous, mendacious, and outright ANTISEMITIC to taunt DA DJOO, tease DA DJOO, provoke DA DJOO, and ATTACK DA DJOO, then dare him to defend himself, or cry foul when he calls your bluff and DARES defend himself. Whichever way you cut it Kheir, your complaints are CLASSIC anti-semitism.
Reign in your bullies and louts before you pontificate as to HOW should Israel respond to their provocations. Israel is a sovereign state; it responds to injuries as it sees fit, which is alas not the way Lebanese like you see things, it seems.

23. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
I (and many others) would argue that what's been done to the South and to the Dahieh is first and foremost on our heads (us Lebanese). We did this to ourselves. Israel never invaded/bombed/destroyed unprovoked. First we let the PLO do whatever they pleased out of our backyard during the 1970s (and i might add, no other arab country allowed such acts, and Israel didn't destroy or bomb any of them). Then we let Hezbollah do the exact same thing.
This argument you bring up fails every test of logic (yet keeps being used over and over in the Arab world, which apparently has no sense of logic).
I see now destruction in Egypt, Jordan, Syria caused by Israel. If Israel was that keen on destroying stuff for no reason, we would've seen such actions by now. The ONLY Arab country that's been repeatedly destroyed by Israel is Lebanon. Is it any coincidence that Lebanon is also the only Arab country to allow attacks and provocations at Israel from its soil? I think not.

24. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
You know this comment really caught my eye. I'm not as delirious as the rest here over Lisa's visit (I'm somewhat surprised since I never would have thought visiting Lebanon would mean such a great deal, and thought about visiting some friends there myself) – BUT(!) being that her staying at the 'trendy' side of Beirut already provoked such critics from al-Manar, how do you expect or even dare to point Lisa on the 'other side' of the coin? Would she be welcome there? Could she enter?
NO!
So, although I don't agree for example with Rinat's sneaking in bint Jbeil, I do find people hiding behind comments such as yours very, very hypocritical and pretending to be blind to certain facts that are inconvenient for you. Would she (or anyone, even me I would just l-o-v-e to 'talk' with Hizb-supporters/leaders) be able to enter the areas you are describing and actually interview people on basis of their claims? NO!

25. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Ok. In the London and Kirschenbaum interview…uhhhhh yeah..I would undress him with my eyes too.
And to comment on the whole situation: I don't mean to be crass, and this is definitely my eternal inner college student in me, but..
BALLS. OF STEEL.

26. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Very cool interview on London and Kirshenbaum. Despite the fact that they asked the stupidest questions! “But….they were Muslim!”
Despite all that, you kept your cool and gave a great interview. You're my hero, and doubtless the hero of many others.

27. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Hi Lisa
Great work… very interesting report .. (and great Hebrew – Kol hakavod be'met) plus you got to hang out with Zvi
As always looking forward to reading more (I saw Rinat's Ynet reports so I assume you went together on the first trip?)
Shabbat Shalom
Gedaliah

28. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Hello Lisa,
I'm Lebanese and I found it amazing coming here. I welcome you again to Lebanon as a freelance journalist regardless of your nationality or religion. Keep up the good work, I know and sure that there are good, smart and respectable people like you living on the both sides (Lebanon & Israel) regardless of the conflict.
By the way, I loved the photos of Beirut.

29. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Hey Lisa
Good job, it is nice of you to have visited our capital and showed nice pictures of it, as usually journalists only focus on the ugly part of it and on the under-developed areas.
As you may have noticed Beirut is not that bad at all, on the contrary it is a city that has a great nightlife, a cultural & architectural side that people outside Lebanon do not know.
Lebanese in general do not want war at all, and are trapped between a cross-fire of regional powers that are fighting on there ground.
If you had a good tourist guide he would have showed you many interesting and underground places that I am sure you would have been amazed to discover.
I hope your next trip to Beirut will be as a tourist in order for you to enjoy your stay there.

30. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
You've got brass balls kid.
I take it that you won't be returning soon to Beirut?

31. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
I doubt she will ever return to Beirut.
Well perhaps in 30 years or so but not in the foreseeable future.

32. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Hii lisa, i'm Georges, lebanese from beirut and i really like your visit to lebanon like many many lebanese. and i'm glad that beirut have many ressemblance with tel aviv. and i really hope that we'll have peace forever and i hope that u israeli' people will elect politicians who want really peace and love without any occupation. Lisa i want really to watch your video trip in beirut with english subtitles plz…will u upload it in youtube? plz send us the link with the translation…thx…'Shalom from Beirut'

33. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
I'll join the people above in giving you the thumbs up — and glad you made it out of there in time!
BTW, Al Jazeera ran a story yesterday on this – mentioning you and another journalist 'with a latin american passport', i take it it's your friend who was doing that documentary… And the random dude they were interviewing was talking about 'falsifying passports to enter in Lebanon'… =)
And today i found the story on the jazeera website (in arabic).
Gosh, I wish all those over-excited featherbrains would just watch and read you… they'd be grateful you were there
Though part of me understands that some would be upset that you entered Beirut – it is, after all, illegal and therefore what you did was a breach of the law. As always, many facets for a single story…

34. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
As always, many facets for a single story…
uhuh…… it is up to us to chose the best way to go forwards chosing from those 'facets'?

35. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Cool. Now if you had done that from back of a motorcycle…now that would be something!! Of course they are mad at you. Of course they want you arrested. Because they can't control you.
(Which is of course why we love you.)
Waiting for the english trans….
TTFN,
Bill

36. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
And btw, Lis, I disagree with the 'security square' thing. I spent several days in Dahyeh last winter, and I don't know how big this 'security square' but it must have been pretty damn big, because very large areas of the Dahyeh were bombed, and quite spaced – so the bombs weren't 'pointed' as the bartender says on the video… bombing might have been concentrated in certain areas, but the rest of the neighbourhood was surely not spared.

37. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm
Interesting. I'm on the other side of the political spectrum, so let me insert my 2 cents. Firstly, I'd just like to give you my respect as you achieved the unachievable. However, on a more moral, ethical level, you're simply NOT a freelance journalist as biases run deep in your reporting. One quick example, Chiyah neighborhood was also bombed last summer by the IAF, is that part of the Hezbollah security square? Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, you lied. You claimed to many individuals who you interviewed that you were in fact working for a European/canadian newspaper and you also used went under a false name. Clearly, this violates the standard principals of freelance journalism. You're also Israeli, and therefore forbidden by Lebanese law to enter Lebanese territory. Hence, your sympathy among these “lebanese” here is completely irrelevant. Btw, on a quick side note, these so-called “moderate” lebanese are in fact not patriotic at all, so I don't get how you call them lebanese. THEIR interests seem to surpass the nation's interest…egotistical by every sense of the word. You, on the other hand, have shown your true loyalty to your motherland, Israel, and to that I applaud…

38. Anonymous
on December 31st, 1969 at 6:59 pm