Palestine Think Tank

The world media have been gawking at, salivating over and provoking conflict in Lebanon since. . . well, since the bombs stopped falling in the Summer 2006.  As if the 33-day war merely whet their appetite for the drama of death and destruction, the media have analysed every vibration in Lebanon as the prelude to war—civil war, war with the Israelis, war with the Syrians, war with the Iranians, Saudis, Iraqis, Americans, who knows they ponder in excitement. There have been speculative reports of “clashes between rival groups” “degenerating into a wider and deadlier sectarian conflict”—pick a phrase from the cliché hat—“rival factions prepared for what many in the country feared would be a bloody showdown”, in fact the “worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war”, worse yet “street confrontations” that have “aggravated the country's worst internal crisis since the 1975-90 civil war and exacerbated sectarian tension”.  There is always a security or party official “speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters” but there nonetheless to fuel the fire.  Enter the forever “gravely concerned” members of the UN and a dozen foreign countries wagging their fingers at each other with stern warnings against impeding stability in Lebanon, the region, the world and holy democracy itself. With an audience as thirsty for blood as spectators at a cock fight, is it any wonder when (always the alliterative favourite) “Beirut burns”?

The fact is that the ubiquitous group known as “many in the country” just want to get on with their lives.  Earn a decent wage, provide for their families, enjoy their lives. All those sects that the media enjoys counting can and have been living quite happily together for nearly 20 years. We have to wonder if their leaders, had they had any privacy, would have long since worked out their differences.  But others could not resist imposing their own agendas.  In 2006 when challenged with bombs, Lebanon defended itself; many of the world’s people shouted their support.  But the war to reconfigure Lebanon did not stop on 14 August.  It merely changed tactics.  Insidious political manoeuvres and manipulations have attempted to achieve that which the war failed to achieve: the destruction of the will of a multi-faceted Lebanese people, the vast majority of whom are an extraordinary people—proud, clever, warm and wonderful.  People who deserve to be rallied not to war, but to peace.

Friends of Lebanon