I am old enough to remember Danny Thomas who for you middle-aged people is Marlo Thomas' father and for everyone else he was a very successful comedian in the 1950' and 1960's.
I was raised Roman Catholic and I had a lot of contact with the Lebanese Christians throughout my life. And the state of Beirut is one of the worst tragedies ever.
Beirut had a fairly good comeback before this latest round of fighting, largely thanks to Hariri (the guy who was assassinated by Syria, inspiring the Cedar Revolution). The country as a whole has pretty good economic policies and a big tourism industry and was somewhat booming in recent years. I think the fear of investors and tourists (not to mention the lost output from displace people) will be more of an economic problem now than actual destruction caused by the Israelis.