Some More Chilling News Concerning Lebanon

Its not about what's happening there, although it did happen there, but is about what this little incident may portend.

A missile attack on some trucks in Achrafiyeh, an upscale Christian neighborhood in the center of the city, was the first time the Israelis had bombed there, and my driver Ali and I raced there to see the aftermath. We expected to see what was now a familiar scene: a devastated city block, with shattered glass and the crumbled masonry of what used to be apartment homes. Instead, we found a couple of well-digging trucks that had been hit by four missiles so precisely that not even the windows in buildings just two dozen yards away had been shattered. The trucks themselves were probably targeted because they looked almost like rocket launchers, but something didn’t make sense: why would the Israelis think Hizballah would try to park rocket launchers in broad daylight in the neighborhood that one would think would be the most hostile to them in Beirut?

Politics, as usual, provided the answer. On Tuesday, Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian and one of the most popular politicians in Lebanon, made a call for national unity in the face of Israel’s assault. Long a foe of Syria during the latter days of the 1975-90 civil war, he has since made a political alliance with Hizballah in a bid for the country’s presidency.

Within the context of Aoun’s statement, the attack made more sense. Speaking with some of the neighborhood’s residents, who were all Christians, I found a deep well of resentment toward Hizballah and Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader. A precisely targeted attack in a hostile neighborhood was a way of “reminding” Hizballah’s enemies in Lebanon just who started this mess and undercut the Shi’ite group’s alliance with Aoun, who is perhaps the only politician in Lebanon with appeal beyond his sectarian group. (He’s widely admired by Sunnis and Shi’ites as well as Christians.)

This, however, is a dangerous game. By stirring up anti-Hizballah feelings, Israel risks stoking anti-Muslim feelings as well, which are barely below the surface in some Christian communities with strong ties to the militias of the Lebanese Forces. Appealing to those sentiments could send Lebanon back into full-scale civil war when the bombing stops and the finger-pointing begins.

No, this wasn’t a real attack; there were no casualties and almost no real property damage (aside from the trucks). Instead, the Israelis were sending a little message to the Christians in Beirut: Remember your real enemy. Judging from neighborhood sentiment, I think they got the message. [emphasis mine]

Remember the last civil war ran from 1975-1990. Damn I hope Christopher's wrong about this.


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