Forbidden Love?

Ya Libnan, a Lebanese News Web site, recently wrote about the discovery of a steamy love letter sent by an Israeli woman to her lover in Lebanon. The letter, sent by a courrier pigeon, thanked her boyfriend for a “terrific night they spent together.” The bird and the message landed on the roof of Ahmed Kamel Zaytoun in south Lebanon’s Kfar Tibnit township on Friday. Ahmed, seeing the Hebrew, realized that the bird came from Israel and may have been carrying a bird flu virus. So he rushed it to the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture to determine whether was in fact contaminated. This received extensive coverage on Lebanese TV and touched off a regional panic as nervous Lebanese awaited the lab results.

Today’s Jerusalem Post added a little clarification to this story. The pigeon did indeed originate in Israel. The message was written not by one but by two (!!) women – seminary girls no less. Before filthy thoughts fill your head, you should know that the love letter was addressed to Uga (Hebrew for cake, not Arabic for Studly) and Uga is the name of the pigeon. This was all part of a field trip organized by the girls’ seminary wherein the students simulated life in Israel during the time of the Mishna – wearing period costumes, riding on donkeys, sleeping in tents and communicating… via carrier pigeon. The pigeon was meant to go to the kibbutz that ran the program as a kind of thankyou note. Instead, as has been happening a lot recently, it got lost and found its way into south Lebanon. Read all about it here.

So all you Lebanese out there can temper your embarassment with the knowledge that the pigeon was not part of some covert Israeli operation to spread avian flu in Lebanon. Also, the seminary girls involved, Detroit teen Rachel Greenbaum and her friend Stacey Gertz of Chicago would like Uga back. No word from the Israeli government yet about how many jailed Palestinian and Hizbullah terrorists will be freed in exchange for the Israeli pigeon.