(no subject)

Ozymandias


I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.



-Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792-1822

(no subject)

As part of my continuing self-education on the Palestine-Israel stuff, I'm reading a fascinating book called From Beirut to Jerusalem, by Thomas Friedman.

The entire book so far is dealing with Lebanon in the early '80's- well, it was written by a journalist from the NYT who was in Lebanon in the 70's and 80's.

Recently there has been much flap in Lebanon again, regarding Syrian occupation.

I was wondering if anyone could point me to some resources that give me some history/commentary, etc, on Lebanon and Syria, why Syria is occupying in Lebanon, their (both Syria and Lebanon) relationship to Jordan, Palestine and Israel, and anything else that might be related.

Being a child of the 80's who was only allowed to watch TV for PBS and the news, I have recollections of watching stuff about the wars in Lebanon, but obviously at that age, I wasn't old enough to understand what was going on. I'm thinking I should get this background before I proceed much further into investigating Palestine itself.