Postcard of Beirut in 1974 from Discover Lebanon, a tourism site.
It was the “Paris of the Middle East” it was said back in the Sixties.
Now it is always “war-torn” Beirut and is again torn by war. “The Opinion Journal” of the Wall Street Journal in an editorial, “Hostage to Hezbollah” by Fouad Hajami writes of the sadness of Lebanon as an international tool of the Iranians and Syrians.
A cleric by the name of Hassan Nasrallah, at the helm of the Hezbollah movement, handed Lebanon a calamity right as the summer tourist season had begun. Beirut had dug its way out of the rubble of a long war: Nasrallah plunged it into a new season of loss and ruin. He presented the country with a fait accompli: the “gift” of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped across an international frontier. Nasrallah never let the Lebanese government in on his venture. He was giddy with triumphalism and defiance when this crisis began. And men and women cooped up in the destitution of the Shiite districts of Beirut were sent out into the streets to celebrate Hezbollah’s latest deed.
The editorial presents a fascinating view on the political andrealpolitik threads in the conflict raging after the Israel Defense Forces responded to Lebanese attacks on their country.
The question for us is what George Bush’s administration will do to help or what line it will take. For now, The New York Times reported that the US will send more smart bombs to Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reports on the stepped-up sale of smart bombs,
T
he US is rushing a delivery of “smart bombs” to Israel after Israel indicated it needed the bombs for its military campaign against the Hizbullah.
The New York Times reported Saturday that the decision to rush the shipment was reached after little debate within the administration.
The “smart bombs” – bombs which are equipped with precision guidance devises, are part of an arms deal reached months ago between Israel and the US, but the fighting in Lebanon led Israel to ask for an expedited delivery of the bombs, before the agreed scheduled of supply.
Wikipedia describes comtemporary histoy of the city, a sad story of civil war, religious strife and international machinations,
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, Beirut, along with all of Lebanon was given to the French. The French administration showed great preference for the Christian community, leading to religious strains in the city. Lebanon was given its independence following the Second World War and Beirut became its capital city. Beirut remained the intellectual capital of the Arab world and a major commercial and tourist centre until 1975 when a brutal civil war broke out in Lebanon. During most of the war, the city was divided between the largely Muslim west part and the Christian east. The central area of the city, previously the focus of much of the commercial and cultural activities, became a no-man’s land. Many of the city’s best and brightest inhabitants fled to other countries. In 1983 French and US barracks were bombed, killing 302.
Since the end of the war in 1989, the people of Lebanon have been rebuilding Beirut, and the city has regained its status as a tourist, cultural and intellectual centre of the Middle East, as well as the center for commerce, fashion and media. Beirut is home to the international designer, Elie Saab and to some of the most popular and successful satellite television, such as Al-Manar, New TV, LBC and Future TV. The city was host to the Asian Basketball Championship and the Asian Football Championship. Beirut also successfully hosted the Miss Europe pageant twice.
Another article soon is rattling around in my head. How many “paradises” can the world afford to lose? Not merely Beirut of civil wars and terrorist havens but Bacalar (here in Mexico) being hit with anti-American violence and crime waves, our mid-Hudson Valley of NY being gentrified by the exurban masses, New Orleans allowed to slip beneath the waters and how many more places were once beautiful and sweet and now are not?
