Compliments of Multitudes List:
What I am watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage
By Robert Fisk in Mdeirej, Central Lebanon
Published: 15 July 2006
The beautiful viaduct that soars over the mountainside here has become
a " terrorist" target. The Israelis attacked the international highway
from Beirut to Damascus just after dawn yesterday and dropped a bomb
clean through the central span of the Italian-built bridge – a symbol
of Lebanon's co-operation with the European Union – sending concrete
crashing hundreds of feet down into the valley beneath. It was the
pride of the murdered ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri, the face of a
new, emergent Lebanon. And now it is a " terrorist" target.
So I drove gingerly along the old mountain road towards the Bekaa
yesterday – the Israeli jets were hissing through the sky above me –
turned the corner once I rejoined the highway, and found a 50ft crater
with an old woman climbing wearily down the side on her hands and
knees, trying to reach her home in the valley that glimmered to the
east. This too had become a " terrorist" target.
It is now the same all over Lebanon. In the southern suburbs – where
the Hizbollah, captors of the two missing Israeli soldiers, have their
headquarters – a massive bomb had blasted off the sides of apartment
blocks next to a church, splintering windows and crashing balconies
down on to parked cars. This too had become a "terrorist" target.
One man was brought out shrieking with pain, covered in blood. Another
" terrorist" target. All the way to the airport were broken bridges,
holed roads. All these were "terrorist" targets. At the airport,
tongues of fire blossomed into the sky from aircraft fuel storage
tanks, darkening west Beirut. These too were now "terrorist" targets.
At Jiyeh, the Israelis attacked the power station. This too was a "
terrorist" target.
Yet when I drove to the actual headquarters of the Hizbollah, a tall
building in Haret Hreik, it was totally undamaged. Only last night did
the Israelis manage to hit it.
So can the Lebanese be forgiven – can anyone here be forgiven – for
believing that the Israelis have a greater interest in destroying
Lebanon than they do in their two soldiers?
No wonder Middle East Airlines, the national Lebanese airline, put
crews into its four stranded Airbuses at Beirut airport early
yesterday and sneaked them out of the country for Amman before the
Israelis realised they were under power and leaving.
European politicians have talked about Israel's "disproportionate"
response to Wednesday's capture of its soldiers. They are wrong. What
I am now watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage. How can there be
any excuse – any – for the 73 dead Lebanese civilians blown apart
these past three days?
The same applies, of course, to the four Israeli civilians killed by
Hizbollah rockets. But – please note – the exchange rate of Israeli
civilian lives to Lebanese civilian lives now stands at one to more
than 15. This does not include two children atomised in their home in
Dweir on Thursday whose bodies cannot be found. Their six brothers and
sisters were buried yesterday, with their mother and father. Another
"terrorist" target. So was a neighbouring family with five children
who were also buried yesterday. Another "terrorist" target.
Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist. There is something perverse about all
this, the slaughter and the massive destruction and the
self-righteous, constant, cancerous use of the word "terrorist". No,
let us not forget that the Hizbollah broke international law, crossed
the Israeli border, killed three Israeli soldiers, captured two others
and dragged them back through the border fence. It was an act of
calculated ruthlessness that should never allow Hizbollah's leader,
Hassan Nasrallah, to grin so broadly at his press conference. It has
brought unparalleled tragedy to countless innocents in Lebanon. And of
course, it has led Hizbollah to fire at least 170 Katyusha rockets
into Israel.
But what would happen if the powerless Lebanese government had
unleashed air attacks across Israel the last time Israel's troops
crossed into Lebanon? What if the Lebanese air force then killed 73
Israeli civilians in bombing raids in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Israeli
West Jerusalem? What if a Lebanese fighter aircraft bombed Ben Gurion
airport? What if a Lebanese plane destroyed 26 road bridges across
Israel? Would it not be called " terrorism"? I rather think it would.
But if Israel was the victim, it would probably also be World War Three.
Of course, Lebanon cannot attack Tel Aviv. Its air force comprises
three ancient Hawker Hunters and an equally ancient fleet of
Vietnam-era Huey helicopters. Syria, however, has missiles that can
reach Tel Aviv. So Syria – which Israel rightly believes to be behind
Wednesday's Hizbollah attack – is not going to be bombed. It is
Lebanon which must be punished.
The Israeli leadership intends to "break" the Hizbollah and destroy
its "terrorist cancer". Really? Do the Israelis really believe they
can "break" one of the toughest guerrilla armies in the world? And how?
There are real issues here. Under UN Security Council Resolution 1559
– the same resolution that got the Syrian army out of Lebanon – the
Shia Muslim Hizbollah should have been disarmed. They were not
because, if the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, had tried to
do so, the Lebanese army would have had to fight them and the army
would almost certainly have broken apart because most Lebanese
soldiers are Shia Muslims. We could see the restarting of the civil
war in Lebanon – a fact which Nasrallah is cynically aware of – but
attempts by Siniora and his cabinet colleagues to find a new role for
Hizbollah, which has a minister in the government (he is Minister of
Labour) foundered. And the greatest danger now is that the Lebanese
government will collapse and be replaced by a pro-Syrian government
which could reinvite the Syrians back into the country.
So there's a real conundrum to be solved. But it's not going to
succeed with the mass bombing of the country by Israel. Nor the
obsession with terrorists, terrorists, terrorists.
The beautiful viaduct that soars over the mountainside here has become
a " terrorist" target. The Israelis attacked the international highway
from Beirut to Damascus just after dawn yesterday and dropped a bomb
clean through the central span of the Italian-built bridge – a symbol
of Lebanon's co-operation with the European Union – sending concrete
crashing hundreds of feet down into the valley beneath. It was the
pride of the murdered ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri, the face of a
new, emergent Lebanon. And now it is a " terrorist" target.
So I drove gingerly along the old mountain road towards the Bekaa
yesterday – the Israeli jets were hissing through the sky above me –
turned the corner once I rejoined the highway, and found a 50ft crater
with an old woman climbing wearily down the side on her hands and
knees, trying to reach her home in the valley that glimmered to the
east. This too had become a " terrorist" target.
It is now the same all over Lebanon. In the southern suburbs – where
the Hizbollah, captors of the two missing Israeli soldiers, have their
headquarters – a massive bomb had blasted off the sides of apartment
blocks next to a church, splintering windows and crashing balconies
down on to parked cars. This too had become a "terrorist" target.
One man was brought out shrieking with pain, covered in blood. Another
" terrorist" target. All the way to the airport were broken bridges,
holed roads. All these were "terrorist" targets. At the airport,
tongues of fire blossomed into the sky from aircraft fuel storage
tanks, darkening west Beirut. These too were now "terrorist" targets.
At Jiyeh, the Israelis attacked the power station. This too was a "
terrorist" target.
Yet when I drove to the actual headquarters of the Hizbollah, a tall
building in Haret Hreik, it was totally undamaged. Only last night did
the Israelis manage to hit it.
So can the Lebanese be forgiven – can anyone here be forgiven – for
believing that the Israelis have a greater interest in destroying
Lebanon than they do in their two soldiers?
No wonder Middle East Airlines, the national Lebanese airline, put
crews into its four stranded Airbuses at Beirut airport early
yesterday and sneaked them out of the country for Amman before the
Israelis realised they were under power and leaving.
European politicians have talked about Israel's "disproportionate"
response to Wednesday's capture of its soldiers. They are wrong. What
I am now watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage. How can there be
any excuse – any – for the 73 dead Lebanese civilians blown apart
these past three days?
The same applies, of course, to the four Israeli civilians killed by
Hizbollah rockets. But – please note – the exchange rate of Israeli
civilian lives to Lebanese civilian lives now stands at one to more
than 15. This does not include two children atomised in their home in
Dweir on Thursday whose bodies cannot be found. Their six brothers and
sisters were buried yesterday, with their mother and father. Another
"terrorist" target. So was a neighbouring family with five children
who were also buried yesterday. Another "terrorist" target.
Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist. There is something perverse about all
this, the slaughter and the massive destruction and the
self-righteous, constant, cancerous use of the word "terrorist". No,
let us not forget that the Hizbollah broke international law, crossed
the Israeli border, killed three Israeli soldiers, captured two others
and dragged them back through the border fence. It was an act of
calculated ruthlessness that should never allow Hizbollah's leader,
Hassan Nasrallah, to grin so broadly at his press conference. It has
brought unparalleled tragedy to countless innocents in Lebanon. And of
course, it has led Hizbollah to fire at least 170 Katyusha rockets
into Israel.
But what would happen if the powerless Lebanese government had
unleashed air attacks across Israel the last time Israel's troops
crossed into Lebanon? What if the Lebanese air force then killed 73
Israeli civilians in bombing raids in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Israeli
West Jerusalem? What if a Lebanese fighter aircraft bombed Ben Gurion
airport? What if a Lebanese plane destroyed 26 road bridges across
Israel? Would it not be called " terrorism"? I rather think it would.
But if Israel was the victim, it would probably also be World War Three.
Of course, Lebanon cannot attack Tel Aviv. Its air force comprises
three ancient Hawker Hunters and an equally ancient fleet of
Vietnam-era Huey helicopters. Syria, however, has missiles that can
reach Tel Aviv. So Syria – which Israel rightly believes to be behind
Wednesday's Hizbollah attack – is not going to be bombed. It is
Lebanon which must be punished.
The Israeli leadership intends to "break" the Hizbollah and destroy
its "terrorist cancer". Really? Do the Israelis really believe they
can "break" one of the toughest guerrilla armies in the world? And how?
There are real issues here. Under UN Security Council Resolution 1559
– the same resolution that got the Syrian army out of Lebanon – the
Shia Muslim Hizbollah should have been disarmed. They were not
because, if the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, had tried to
do so, the Lebanese army would have had to fight them and the army
would almost certainly have broken apart because most Lebanese
soldiers are Shia Muslims. We could see the restarting of the civil
war in Lebanon – a fact which Nasrallah is cynically aware of – but
attempts by Siniora and his cabinet colleagues to find a new role for
Hizbollah, which has a minister in the government (he is Minister of
Labour) foundered. And the greatest danger now is that the Lebanese
government will collapse and be replaced by a pro-Syrian government
which could reinvite the Syrians back into the country.
So there's a real conundrum to be solved. But it's not going to
succeed with the mass bombing of the country by Israel. Nor the
obsession with terrorists, terrorists, terrorists.
