LEBANON: A rockin' American messenger of 'peace and love'

This time, the U.S. envoy to Lebanon was not a politician or a security official but a messenger of "peace and love" straight from the world of American rock.

Coming to Lebanon to sing for the "regeneration" of the city of Beirut and to voice her rejection to war, the U.S. singer and poet Patti Smith performed this week in Lebanon a mixture of antiwar and rebellion songs, including "Because the Night", "Gloria" and "Helpless."

The celebrated 1970s rock icon turned political activist performed near the old Phoenician port at the opening of the Byblos music festival, one of numerous music events taking place this summer in Lebanon after violence has subsided in the country and tourists have started to flood in again.

"To all mothers and children who lost children, all unnecessarily in war, which seems to me in our time something we can make obsolete," Smith said before dazzling the audience with "Qana."

The song is pointedly political. It's about the children who died in an Israeli air strike on a Lebanese village during the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Here are some excerpts:

There's no one in the village, not a human nor a stone... Children are gone and a mother rocks herself to sleep. Let it come down, let her weep… Some stayed buried, others crawled free... Little bodies, tied head and feet, wrapped in plastic, laid out in the street… The new Middle East… The dead lay in strange shapes… Wine to blood, Oh Qana, the miracle is love.

At one point, Smith wore a kaffiyeh, a scarf with black and white patterns that has become a symbol of the Palestinian upheaval.

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut

Credit: Patti Smith performs in Byblos, Lebanon. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Jack]

Patti Smith should thank Hezbollah for starting a war with Israel and for hiding rockets launchers among children. 1200 lebanese lives lost. A "divine victory" indeed.

[opeluboy]

Smith has the courage (and morality) to do what many other musicians and artists feel, but are terrified to do. If you have ever worked in the entertainment industry, you know that speaking out against Israel is a guarantee of career suicide. Simply showing support for peace where the Palestinians or Lebanese are concerned is equally dangerous.

Patti Smith deserves a laurel wreath. And if you feel this way, it might be nice to go buy one of her CD's. People like this need all our support.

[Jan Angevine]

Patti Smith is an authentic hero, a person of wisdom. She is a great gift to these times. She continues to articulate the sorrow into which the world declines because of its increasingly, astonishingly horrific violence. And she rocks.