Beirut under Fire
BEIRUT -- It's 2:35 a.m. here and I'm running on little sleep. The Israelis bombed the ports of Beirut, Jounieh and Tripoli tonight. I live near the port, in Ein el-Mreisse, so the bombs sounded like they landed on my neighbor's house, they were so loud.
The lighthouse to the west of me on the elegant corniche was also bombed. I've seen some reports that it was either destroyed or just had the top knocked off it, but since it's dark and I'm on deadline to multiple publications, I've not been able to check that.
Beirut is shuttered, but not yet shattered. It has the feel of a deserted city, though, and at 1 p.m. today most of the shops were closed, there were very few cars on the streets and most people were in a hurry to get somewhere with a reinforced roof over their heads. In Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs, it was worse. I found huge craters in the middle of intersections, shattered glass from the concussion waves and mounds of red earth where Israeli munitions had churned up the clay beneath the street. Bridges are destroyed.
Walking and driving around the streets, I noticed a peculiar trait of Beirut: it's not always possible to know what's old war damage or new damage, and what might just be run down. Beirut is ramshackle and delightfully dilapidated in some parts -- mostly the poor Shi'a parts, which are also the main target areas. It's an interesting challenge to remember that that balcony which appears freshly shorn off is actually from 20 years ago.
Speaking to people from Bourj al-Barajai, a southern neighborhood, revealed a defiance that masked whatever apprehension they might feel. I found a make-shift bomb shelter and spoke with the people inside, who remained defiant.
"Those soldiers will not go back to their home until our people come home," said Ghassam Abduallah, referring to the Lebanese prisoners still held despite Israeli's 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon after 18 years of occupation.
It appears the bombing campaign is designed to seal off the south from the rest of the country. There is a naval blockade. Israel has complete air superiority. From reports, the last remaining bridges connecting the south to the rest of the country have been blown. Israel isn't just isolating Lebanon from the world; Israel is isolating Hezbollah forces from the rest of Lebanon. If this campaign is successful, Hezbollah will not be able to get reinforcements and supplies into the south and neither will it be able to pull them back to protect them from Israeli advances.
All this points to an invasion soon, and I think Israel is going to try to destroy Hezbollah once and for all.
The feeling here, and this is just based on my day in the city running around talking to people, is that Hezbollah plans to stay and fight. For a movement fueled by martyrdom, a glorious final battle with the hated enemy must have some cachet. This might explain their air of confidence rather than desperation when me and a colleague got hassled by Hezbollah's security guys in the bunker. They acted like guys in complete control with none of the twitchy desperation of guys who think the gig is up. Hezbollah may soon be surrounded, but they're going to stay and fight, I think.
Comments
Chris,
Stay safe dude. I’ve been reading your blog for a long, long time.
Crazy times we live in right now, eh?
Brian
Posted by: Brian | July 16, 2006 4:00 AM
I have read parts of your blog every once in a while, and today found it again while doing a Google Blogsearch to find out what is happening in Beirut.
I found your reference to the Wikipedia interesting; If you can still get your hands on “Pity the Nation” by Robert Fisk in Beirut, you will find a lot of similar stories. “Pity the Nation” is the story of the Lebanese Civil war, the book roughly covers 1977 to 2000.
I read the book in december of 2004. As I was reading the book, it felt like I was reading a prediction of things to come. One day I would read about a story on the book and its aftermath; I would watch in the evening news an event just like that one and a day or two later, an almost identical aftermath in Iraq.
It is a very sad book to read, but its contents are invaluable.
We can only hope that this violence ends. History though, is not on humanity’s side.
Miguel
Posted by: miguel | July 16, 2006 6:36 AM
Christopher:
Something missing from the news is a profile of the Lebanese prisoners held by Israel that Hezbollah is seeking to trade for the kidnapped soldiers.
Do you know anything about these prisoners? Are they soldiers? Are they common criminals? Are they political prisoners? Murderers? Did they receive trials and sentences?
Ostensibly the release of these prisoners is why Hezbollah triggered this conflict. I am very curious as to whether or not seeking the release of these prisoners is a legitimate cause. Are they being held egregiously?
What do you know about this?
Posted by: The Liberal Avenger | July 16, 2006 7:22 AM
Back in the 70’s when I was in high school my grade 12 Canadian geography teacher told us about what a beautiful country Lebanon was. He had spent several years there and his wife was Lebanese. He gave us a slideshow once and told us that if we wanted to see it we should go without delay because it would soon be destroyed by the madness in the region. Of course he was correct back then and here we go again. Are we doomed to keep seeing history repeat? Thanks for the insights Chris. Stay safe and god help us all.
Posted by: Scott | July 16, 2006 7:32 AM
my two cents,
if the israelis don’t eradicate hexbollah then you should sell your house and leave lebanon. Hezbollah won’t allow lebanon to live in peace unless they are allowed to retain power and recieve support from syria. This current provocation is an attempt to get israel to invade lebanon. Then hezzbollah can prove that they are needed in order to defend Lebanon. If things go well from the hezbollah perspective then Syria will have to send in troops to “defend” lebanon. I doubt they will leave.
Hezz isn’t attacking Israel as much as they are provoking Israel into attacking Lebanon. They want to bury this whole cedar revolution thing.
Posted by: moron | July 16, 2006 9:24 AM
Stay safe dude your blog is like the most reliable shit ive came across on the net since its fresh from the scene.
Good luck…
Posted by: Adrian | July 16, 2006 10:55 AM
Death to the Zionist occupier/aggressor! If Egypt, Hizbullah, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Hamas all attack simultaneously, they would kick the shit out of Israel, the failed-settler-apartheid-pariah-welfare state. Regime change for Israel—Arab troops should liberate Jerusalem and occupy the rest of Israel. Lets see how Israelis like Hezbollah checkpoints on every street corner and Arab settlements in Tel Aviv! Israel is easily the most overrated tough guy since Mike Tyson. Cut off US aid dollars and Israel’s economy goes straight to Sub Saharan levels. Put Israel on the “state sponsor of terror” list and ban Israeli agents from raising money and agitating inside the US. That would solve this bullshit once and for all.
Posted by: Ahmed Saadat | July 16, 2006 3:13 PM
Ahmed,
Your glorious leaders like Assad, the Saudi religous police, and the Iranian mullahs do not really care about the palestinians. They care about keeping power. They use your hatred to retain themselves in positions of power. They carefully manage state media to keep Arab hatred simmerring. Whenever their power is threatened then they fan the flames of war and force you to choose between them and the evil jooos. Haven’t you lived long enough yet to realize that you are being manipulated? Your life is worthless to them. They would sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Arabs at the altar of power. The proof is not in their words, it is in their actions and has been for the last 1000 years. Their disregard for your life predates Islam itself. If they push Israel into the ocean then they will just have to find a new enemy. So when you go and rally around their calls for hatred and war remember what you are really doing. You are condemming your children to live their lives in the same cycle that you were born into. Is that what you really want? Isn’t it enough yet?
Posted by: moron99 | July 16, 2006 3:57 PM
A tiny white European nation in the middle of the brown-skinned middle east that thinks it can somehow just wave a military wand and kill enough people to acheive security is beyond stupid, it’s insane.
The astonishing lack of political imagination and self-awareness is staggering.
And this violence will do NOTHING to help.
Posted by: Dadler | July 16, 2006 5:07 PM
Sigh, please can we have some intelligent dialog here?
You may not agree with the Israeli action here (I’m not even sure that I do), but simplistic crud like “tiny European militaristic nation” (Israel is something like 40% Separdic or Arabic Jews - guess what, driven out of their homelands), or “if Egypt, Hizbollah,… all attacked together” - guess what, they did in both ‘48 and ‘67.
And if violence by Israel does nothing to help, are you willing to condemn violence by Hizbollah with the same ferocity?
Come on people, one of the reasons that I really enjoy B2I is that not only are Chris’ posts very enlightening, the comments in general have been really useful. Let’s keep that tradition up please :-)
Posted by: Bruce | July 21, 2006 8:13 AM
Great question Miguel. If you do some searches, you’ll find reference to a Lebanese guy who snuck into Israel in 1979 and killed a man, his 4 year old daughter, and a policeman. He’s not getting released. As for the rest - if there are any - I can find nothing.
Posted by: EW | July 21, 2006 11:00 PM