I have never thought of Beirut as vacation destination but what do I know. I pray that these Americans can get to safety.
Beirut used to be an island of sanity inside of Lebanon. For the most part it was a decent city, especially in the last year with the reduced power of Syria over the affairs of Lebanon.
Part of the reason I think Hezbollah attacked Israel in the way that they did was to gain support to derail the democratic process that was taking place in Lebanon, especially in Beirut (which has over half the population of Lebanon). Hezbollah thinks that if they can force Israel to destroy enough of Beirut, then they will be able to either return to Syrian rule or form an equally repressive government.
Some people have close family there, and the place has a rich history.
prior to these murderers killing our Marines it was considered the JEWEL of the middle east second to ISRAEL, the American University,medical center,beaches and was a magnet for many europeans and a second destination for visitors from Israel
Skin through the blog http://www.michaeltotten.com (you might need to look back about a month or so in the archives). He has traveled there quite a bit and taken a lot of photos and talked to a lot of people. It's very interesting. Christians and Muslims living together peacefully - a model for the rest of the mideast to emulate. Very modern, very clean, very safe area, lots of beautiful sights.
If I were a tourist in Lebanon, I would not be too upset. Israel poses as much of a threat to noncombatants as the US does. They are professionals.
It is a popular vacation spot for Arabs.
The Brits, and other Europeans, like Egypt.
From what I understand, most of the Americans there are either visiting family or many of them live there even though they have an American passport. The number of Americans just choosing Beirut as a vacation destination rather than another place is probably rather few. And some of the stranded people are working there or on business. But they appear to be fewer in number than I originally thought.
Lebanon is one of the best vacation destination. Very beautiful, with great historical sites, mix of ancient Christian and Muslim communities. You can even do skying in the mountains!
Recently Lebanon underwent the democratic revival in which pro-Western government replaced Syrian dominated regime.
Lebanon is the very visitor friendly.
I guess all the good beach-front places were taken in Somalia! ;-)
Most of the "vacationers" are American citizens that have relatives in Lebanon. Lebanon is a beautiful and exciting city. It was very westernized before the Ayatollah Khomeni returned from exile to Iran and began the suicide bombings ..... while the militant group called Hezbollah grew up to perform the new "suicide bombings. We can thank Jimmy Carter for this weird unrest in the middle east, for suicide bombings, for turmoil. We can thank a few dumb a@@ people in the United States for voting for this piece of UnAmerican...###
Frankly, what is anyone's justification for going there.... Odds are high that the sympathies for the ex-pat and vistors does NOT run with Israel...
If you take changes, then be prepared for snake-eyes on the dice...