My Heart Cries for Lebanon

I rushed to the phone to call family and loved ones in Beirut and the Bekaa valley , while watching TV in disbelief as the unfolding of yet another tragedy was taking place in my home country of Lebanon. The uncertainty in their voices and the despair in their words took me back to my teenage years, growing up during the civil war in Lebanon. I could even taste that despair and smell the ugly stink of war.

It was only last year that Lebanon resurrected from the crucifixion of the 20-year civil war and the cruel hold of Syrian troops. The United States called it the Cedar Revolution and the 1.5 million Muslim and Christian Lebanese who gathered in downtown Beirut called it “Freedom, Sovereignty and Independence.”

This dream was shattered on Wednesday July 12, when Hezbollah crossed the Israeli border and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah is a Shiite militant group that still refuses to disarm like other Muslim and Christian militias did at the end of the civil war. Hezbollah is an arm of the Shiite revolution in Iran with strong loyalties to Iran and Syria, not to Lebanon and its religious and cultural diversity.

Hezbollah acted independently guided by Iran and Syria. This armed militia initiated an act of war against Israel regardless of the consequences on Lebanon. Seventy percent of Lebanese do not approve of Hezbollah’s armed factions, and denounced the kidnapping and Hezbollah’s unilateral decision.

However, Israel’s response to the assault of Hezbollah is not only disproportionate but irrational, a sovereign country gone wild! Israel says it is trying to destroy the infrastructure of Hezbollah. What is really happening is that it is destroying the Lebanese infrastructure.

If Israel is thinking of destroying Hezbollah they are in for a surprise and the Israeli people have the right to know the truth. Hezbollah is not a radical party, Hezbollah is an ideology. It has gained more than a million supporters in Lebanon, largely through providing social services for the Shiite disenfranchised. Providing a safety net combined with their fiery rhetoric has taken this party to the legendary level of a mythic hero even though they are willing to sacrifice their people for their beliefs

My friend Bashir, a moderate Muslim from Beirut who never supported Hezbollah, choked on the phone when talking about the 500,000 displaced refugees and the death of innocent young children. He told me, “Of course we are against Israel now. They destroyed our dream. They want to eliminate an ideology by destroying ports, bridges, farms, electric plants, mosques and churches of a country that supports democracy and celebrates excellence in business and education. They are failing to destroy that ideology, and Lebanon is dying…” He couldn’t finish his sentence for the emotions welling up in him.

As a Lebanese-American, I didn’t sink into despair until the third day when I called my brother for the 10th time. He had just escaped the bombing around his workplace in the Bekaa. Now, my Christian brother has no income, no prospect of work, no way to support his wife and three beautiful children. Israel‘s actions are madness. The Lebanese people have suffered enough and if the world community had kept their commitment to UN Resolution 1559, which called for a disarmament of Hezbollah and a peace-keeping force on the border, this nightmare might have been averted.

I am proud to be a citizen of the United States of America, and as a concerned citizen I want us to understand the implications of a war on innocent civilians and the way it impacts their thinking about who is their friend and who is their enemy. I grieve for my homeland and its great promise for democracy in the Middle East. Beirut, only a short while ago considered the “jewel of the Middle East,” lies in ruins and the multi-cultural, multi-religious population faces once again the ravages of war and its aftermath of rage.