The wounds of war were evident shortly after we
crossed the Syria-Lebanon border at 1130 in the morning on August 12. At
Haissa, about three kilometers from the Dabboussiyeh border crossing, we come
across the ruins of a bridge hit by Israeli war planes just the day before.
Villagers tell us 12 people were killed and 10 wounded, all civilians.
AN ANTI-CIVILIAN WAR?
Twenty minutes later, at a place called Abu Shamra, we come across the remains
of a gasoline station and bridge, the targets of an Israeli airstrike just
eight hours earlier. "Now, what was the military logic behind that?"
asks Seema Mustafa, an Indian journalist with our international peace
delegation of 12 people. It is a question shared by the Lebanese who tell us
what happened.
At three other places, Matfoun, Halat, and near the famous Casino du Lebanon at
Jumieh, we have to take detours around bridges and vehicles destroyed by Israeli
attacks. These are sites very far from the front in Southern Lebanon, in a part
of the country where Hezbollah, the movement Israel is fighting, has very
little presence. These very fresh instances of destruction bring home to us one
of the key features of the Israeli offensive: it has deliberately targeted
non-military infrastructure to raise the costs of the war for the civilian
population.
With evidence of Israel's anti-civilian strategy fresh in our minds, we are not
surprised when we hear, after arriving in Beirut, about the strafing of a
convoy of civilians leaving the town of Marieyoun in the South. On Friday,
several hundred cars left the town, after negotiations between the Israelis and
the non-belligerent Lebanese Army. As it snaked up North, it came under fire
repeatedly from Israeli planes with at least six people killed and many others
wounded. What was the reason for violating the agreement? The Israeli excuses
ranged from "it was a mistake" to "suspicion that the convoy was
carrying Hezbollah guerrillas." Nahla Chahal, one of the coordinators of
international civil society delegations to Lebanon, tells us: "The
deliberate attacks on civilians is a new element in Israel¹s redrafting of the
rules of war. It¹s nothing less than a war crime."
Herbert Docena, one of the members of our delegation who spent time in occupied
Iraq, says, "What is different between Iraq and here is that in Iraq, the
US does seem to have a modicum of concern about international public opinion.
Here, the Israelis simply don¹t care about public opinion. So it¹s more
dangerous."
ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH: CONTRASTING STRATEGIES
The delegation is told at a briefing on the evening of our arrival by our
Lebanese hosts that the contrast between the war strategies of the Israelis and
the Hezbollah is evident in the nature of the casualties: most of the more than
1000 Lebanese killed by the Israeli armed forces are civilians, while most of
the more than 100 Israelis who have died in the war so far are soldiers.
There is, in fact, a strong sense of pride in the Hezbollah's military
performance that is evident as we are briefed that evening by representatives
of several of Lebanon¹s political parties, including the right-wing Free
Lebanon Movement led by Gen. Aoun, the centrist "Third Force," the
Lebanese Communist Party, and the Hezbollah itself. According to Dr. Issam
Naaman of the Third Force, the war has now lasted 31 days, more than any of the
previous Arab-Israeli wars. "At this point, it is clear that Israel has lost
the war on the ground and is trying to get at the diplomatic front, with the
support of the United States, what it has lost on the military side."
A NEW NASSER?
The destruction of some 34 Israeli Merkava tanks in Friday's fighting, the
death of some 19 Israeli soldiers, the highest so far in this month-long
war--and the downing of an Israeli helicopter are cited as proof not only of a
victory by the Hezbollah, around whom some 87 per cent of the Lebanese people,
according to the polls, now seemed to have gotten behind in its resistance to
Israel. Equally important, it becomes clear to us at the
briefing that for Arabs, the successful resistance of a few hundred
well-motivated and well trained Hezbollah guerrillas has ended the era of Arab
humiliation by Israel¹s military might.
"It's really quite interesting and exciting," comments Seema Mustafa,
the Indian journalist, "the way the Arab Street has come behind Hassan
Nasrallah." Indeed, the man one Hezbollah representative at the briefing
fondly refers to as "our baby faced" leader is achieving a status
once reserved for Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian leader. This point was
brought home to me by Taufik, the driver who ferried us from Damascus to
Beirut, who said as he steered us through the detour around one of the bombed
bridges earlier in the day, "I belong to no party except the one that can
bring food to my family. But I really like this man Nasrallah. He has brought
pride to all of us Lebanese."
*Walden Bello is a member of the 12-person Civil Society-Parliamentary Peace
Mission that is currently in Lebanon. He is a professor at the University of
the Philippines and the executive director of the research and advocacy
institute Focus on the Global South based in Bangkok, Thailand.
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