Remnants from the 2006 war (7)

So, the war is over? The US and other Security Council members had already told us last week that we had to accept for now a “cessation of hostilities.” This deliberate ambiguity in terminologies mixed with a continuing painful debate about the deployment of the army and Hizbullah’s weapons have made the end of this war fragile and bitter sweet.

On Sunday night, I was standing on my balcony hearing the increasing number of the last bombs falling on the southern suburbs. I had the feeling one gets at the end of a bloody movie. The action is at its climax but you know the end is near. The next day I woke up to realize that it was finally the “new day” we have been waiting for in the last month or so.

Images of displaced people returning to their towns and villages in the south were filling all the screens. Life was regaining the whole country again.

But everybody was still waiting with anxiety the unfolding of events. Will Israel really stop its offensive? Will Hizbullah disarm? Will the army successfully deploy its troops in the South?

In other words, the vertiginous questions that had emerged during the war are still there. The uncertainties are still there and more threatening than before. The international community is relieved. They have done “their job” and come up with a resolution. Meanwhile, the Lebanese are left to deal with their divisions and contradictions. What kind of countries do the Lebanese want?

The Shiites have to heal the heavy wounds of the war.
Their houses were damaged, they lost their whole town, they lost the ones they love…

The other communities feel down. The prosperity and development they were promised just before the war now seem more than ever as sand castles. The idea of immigrating and looking for a better life elsewhere is haunting many Lebanese again.
One thing is clear however, the destruction and pain inflicted by Israel is incommensurate. As I walked through the ruins of Beirut suburbs yesterday, I saw tens of buildings flattened creating hills of rubble and turning my little walk into a hiking trip! People were flooding into the place to look for their houses and what was left from their belongings and childhood memories. A foreign journalist who works in Iraq whispered in my ears: “This is unbelievable, even the Americans have not caused such destruction in Iraq!”

Everywhere banners are comforting the people. “Israel and the US have destroyed your houses because they couldn’t face the resistance,” one of the banners said.

Visiting the southern suburbs was literally hallucinating. Amid the masses of inanimate concrete blocks and iron wires, I could see very personal objects, a birthday photo or a little doll. Objects that had a story or belonged to someone once, but that are left in a universe of total chaos.

In one month, some people lost everything! Everywhere, people are saying ironically: “this is the American civilization; this is what the new Middle-East looks like!”

That same day in the evening, Hizbullah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah reassured his supporters (most of the Shiites) that their houses would be rebuilt sooner than they had expected. The Shiites once again were embraced by Nasrallah. He also announced a “strategic victory” over Israel. The pride was greater than ever!

I guess it’s another counterproductive war designed by cold-hearted strategy builders in closed-door rooms. What they don’t really grasp is that they forged a new collective memory for the whole of Lebanon, one that makes the idea of an Israeli State “living in peace with its neighbors” even more absurd.

All those who suffered inside their houses, who lost a mother or a child, know now that their lives do not count for the US and Israel, that for the west they are an inferior race. Of course, the victims of this war might be feeling as well that their lives are vain when it comes to their dignity and their resistance. They believe in a cause, in the power of having a land. It’s a very strong spirit that wars cannot break. Who can blame them? You can manage to destroy a whole country but it is impossible to crush the will of people.

The next day, the rest of the Lebanese (those who were not subjected to the Israel’s ethnic cleansing) are reminded of their other neighbor: Syria. The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made his first appearance on TV since the war started. His words were more cynical than ever. He rushed the Lebanese back into their little internal wars promising them indirectly that the Syrian hegemony over their little country will return in no time.

We don’t want Israel, we don’t want Syria, we don’t want Iran. We want an independent Lebanon! A leitmotiv one hears a lot here. But is it really possible to turn this small country into an isolated island?
For many, Lebanon is doomed and a victim of its great diversity and richness. Is there truly a way out?

*This entry was published in a blog on Beirut during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel published by the website of the german newspaper, Die Zeit.