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Last Monday I wrote a bit about Lebanese bloggers, and throughout the week I went back to the blogs to check how things were going and to pull out a little here and there to back my arguments for an email debate about Israel and Lebanon that raged through the portal of my Outlook inbox.

Some of the most popular blogs, judging by the amount of comments attached are Beirut Springs, the Lebanese Bloggers and The Lebanese Political Journal, two of which I linked to in the post. One, however, which I linked to and which didn’t seem as established as these sites was Wizard of Beirut.

Imagine my surprise then when I noticed a steady trickle of traffic coming from that site in my weekend stats. It turns out that the Wizard site owner had put a link at the top of his site (underneath his Wiki bio) linking to the Dublin Opinion article - as if the DO article is somehow an endorsement of the blogger’s credibility.

He should be so lucky. Considering the speed that these things outdate I’m not sure that my post would be too informative to those who follow it. The visitors are probably wondering, for the few seconds they remain, why they’re reading an Irish site talking about Lebanese bloggers.

Some other Lebanese bloggers either write from outside Lebanon or have recently been forced to migrate. The Wizard, however, still appears to be still living in a residential area of Beirut (so far unscathed by Israeli bombing) and has an interesting neighbour:
“My next door neighbour is Nabih Berri, the Shia speaker of the House of Deputies, and a close ally of Hezbollah. There are only three families still living in our building of nine floors. All the others have gone up to the mountains for greater security. I don't propose to follow them.”

When you link to blogs, especially those outside your own bit of the world, you worry that you will be considered responsible for their content, or that they’ll post something that is diametrically opposed to your own ideas and principles. From what I’ve seen, however, Wizard provides a well written, thoughtful point of view which is resentful of Hizbollah while condemning the actions of Israel on the ordinary people of Lebanon.

Wizard also provides insight on a solution:
“The problem which Rice and her Simian boss have failed to understand is that Hezbollah is part and parcel of the population of south Lebanon, and cannot, but for a few leaders, be identified as such, and that to dispose of the menace which Hezbollah represents, the entire population of south Lebanon will have to be uprooted and pushed some thirty kilometres north of the frontier.

It would seem more logical for Israel, instead of uprooting a whole population, to accept the exchange of prisoners and the restitution of Lebanese territory which is still occupied by Israel. Then and only then would Hezbollah have no further reason to exist, and Hezbollah would have no alternative but to surrender their arms to the Lebanese Government”.

This blog, however, only represents one voice, especially considering the small number of comments. Because the other blogs attract so many more comments they are a much better forum for understanding what is happening at the moment. But that sounds ungracious. Thanks Wizard for the traffic.