BEIRUT (August 14) - Hussein Choumer hangs around one corner in the
district of Haret Hreik in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Around him
are mountains of rubble, the remains of over 100 mostly 10-storey
residential buildings flattened by Israeli missiles now turned monuments
of destruction. Books, towels, washing machines, and mattresses are
strewn on the streets, covered with a thick film of powdered concrete
and ash. The last page in a calendar shows the day it all started: July
12; the hands of the clock in one shop is stuck at 12:25. The air is
redolent with the strange mix of filth and gunpowder.
Hussein, his wife, and three children used to live here. His house is
gone. And yet, “I consider my loss as nothing,” Hussein says. "What
matters is that our brothers are fighting in southern Lebanon fighting.
And as they fight, they’re giving me back my home." Two hours later, a
volley of Israeli bunker-buster bombs once again hit the neighborhood.
Sixty of the thousands of families who lost their homes in these suburbs
have camped out in a school in central Beirut. Outside, a large picture
of Hezbollah’s leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah hangs at the center of a
clothesline over the narrow street. The atmosphere inside is anything
but despondent. Over a hundred children are running around the small
courtyard playing. In a little while, they burst into a chant "We love
Nasrallah!" The adults follow. These families have just lost everything.
They’re having the time of their lives.
With over 1,400 dead, more than 3,000 wounded, over a million displaced,
and entire districts and villages in ruins, Lebanon today marked the
“cessation of hostilities” with a heady mix of awe and anxiety,
lamentation and celebration.
Hussein’s and the displaced families’ steadfastness is perhaps among the
most visible manifestation of how Israel failed to achieve the military
objectives behind this war. If the point of the massive thirty-day
aerial bombardment and leveling of villages was meant to strike fear in
people, as many Lebanese believe, then the result may have been the
opposite.
In the south, site of the most intense fighting and devastation, the
sound of explosion came from firecrackers and celebratory gunfire
instead of from artillery and bombs. Beginning at 8:15 in the morning,
or barely fifteen minutes into the ceasefire, thousands of families
began streaming back to
their emptied towns. If the aim of Israel was to conduct ethnic
cleansing in the south, then the effort seems to have failed for now.
“The Hezbollah offers its victory to the Lebanese people,” says Dr Ali
Fayyad, a member of the political bureau of the Hezbollah. It has been
an offer that many in Lebanon seems to have readily accepted. At night,
at exactly the same time that US President George Bush was on TV calling
the Hezbollah “terrorists who want to deprive the Lebanese freedom,”
convoys with young people were driving around Beirut’s streets, blaring
their horns, cheering wildly, and waving Hezbollah’s and Lebanon’s
flags. In street corners, young and old alike gathered in small crowds
to hand out Nasrallah’s pictures to passing motorists.
Despite persistent attempts to cast the Hezbollah as an isolated
“terrorist organization” of Shia Muslims, majority of the Lebanese
population — including Christians and Sunni Muslims — have thrown
their support behind the group. In one recent local survey, 87% of the
population was reported to be supporting the Hezbollah, including four
out every five Christians and Druze and nine out of every ten Sunni
Muslims.
But while most Lebanese acknowledge Hezbollah’s leading role in fighting
is Israel, what many Lebanese consistently refer to as the "national
resistance" is a broad coalition that includes virtually all of
Lebanon’s most important political forces, including Amal, the other
main Shia movement, the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), other left
groups and liberal democrats — and even the right-wing Free Patriotic
Movement of General Michel Aoun.
"We have a joke that, in the average Lebanese family with seven
children, four will children be with the Hezbollah, two will be with the
communist, and one will be with Amal — all of them with the
resistance," shares Khaled Hadadeh, secretary-general of the LCP.
The LCP, a leftist secular party whose memberships cuts across the
confessional lines, has itself been very close to the Hezbollah and
fought alongside them in the frontlines in the south. According to
Hadadeh, at least 12 LCP members and supporters died in the fighting.
The war was not, as was frequently reported, just between Israel and
Hezbollah. Contrary to Bush’s claim that the Hezbollah actions have been
in defiance of Lebanon’s government, the Lebanese government, since the
outbreak of war, has consistently supported the Hezbollah’s positions
and
demands. Hezbollah for its part has vowed to abide by the Lebanese
government’s concessions.
Most Lebanese believe that it is this unity among the otherwise divided
Lebanese groups that ultimately inflicted defeat on Israel. "This unity
is especially significant because Lebanon has been a country that’s been
at war with itself," points out Anwar Al-Khalil, a member of parliament
from Amal.
The groups who now comprise the “national resistance” were at opposing
sides of Beirut’s dividing lines during Lebanon’s civil war in the 80s
and 90s.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a Maronite Christian said: "We have
come out of this stronger, more united than ever before. Israel would
now think twice before coming to attack us again." If Israel’s aim was
to foment Lebanon’s sectarian and religious divisions in the hope of
pitting the Christians and the Sunnis against the Hezbollah, then the
strategy may have backfired.
Despite the celebrations, however, the Lebanese are not even done
counting their dead. “This victory came with a heavy price,” says
Hadadeh. “Now we’re still calculating how much we have paid.”
Ayoub Hmaied from Bint Jabeil, one of the towns at the heart of the
clashes in the south, rattled off a list of villages where Israel’s
missiles led to a massacre of civilians: Bekaa, Brital, Haissa, Srifa,
Qana, Ashaiya... At 6 AM, just two hours before the "cessation of
hostilities" took effect, Israel bombed Israel’s southern suburbs in
what seemed like a coup de grace for this phase of the war.
“We are now in a cloudy time,” says Al-Khalil. "We cannot say we have
arrived at the end."
For now, though, the Lebanese are still in awe at what they have
achieved. As many Lebanese like to remind their guests these days, in
1967, it took only six days for Israel to defeat all of the Arab armies
combined. Now, even after thirty-three days of massive and unrelenting
bombardment, what they call their “national resistance” is still
standing.
Considering that Israel is said to be the world’s most powerful military
and the recipient of billions of dollars in cutting-edge military
technology, points out Hezbollah’s Fayyad, that is no mean feat.
And this, believes Nahla Chahal, a half-Iraqi, half-Lebanese activist,
is why Hezbollah is so threatening to Israel and the United States.
"They show not only that it’s possible to resist but that it’s possible
to resist and win."