Posted on 08/03/2006 8:18:31 PM PDT by Coleus
Christian villagers have nowhere to run Caught between warring sides, many stay to protect their historic home
AIN EBEL, LEBANON -- Therese Asrouni felt no love for either side as she watched an intense firefight between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas out her window yesterday. She loathed them both for once more turning her tiny tobacco-farming community into a war zone. Residents of Ain Ebel say Hezbollah has been drawing fire toward the Christian village by launching Katyusha rockets from the nearby tobacco fields, just a few hundred metres from Ms. Asrouni's home. The militants leave when Israel returns fire, witnesses said. The tobacco plantations that cover the valleys surrounding Ain Ebel are blackened now, charred by fires that burned out of control. Several houses in town have been damaged by missile strikes. Ms. Asrouni's husband Sayyed has dark purple shrapnel wounds in his back from a blast that tore a hole in their home's concrete outer wall.
"They have destroyed everything," Ms. Asrouni says, referring to the Shia militia. "They should help us because they are Lebanese, but look at the destruction. They fire missiles from here and that's why the houses are destroyed." But, she went on, "Israel is even worse. Because we're Arabs, and because of the Israelis' racist way of thinking, they want to kill us all." As the war creeps toward the edges of their villages, the Maronite Christians of southern Lebanon feel they have enemies on all sides. Many Christians worked with the Israelis during their 18-year occupation of this area -- some served in the hated South Lebanon Army, which was in fact a proxy militia controlled by Tel Aviv.
Now they feel betrayed by Israel, which abandoned its former allies when it suddenly pulled out of Lebanon in 2000. Some former SLA members were given citizenship and compensation by Israel, but many of those left behind were jailed by the Lebanese government. The Christians also feel persecuted by Hezbollah, which views them as having collaborated with the enemy during the occupation. Residents speak critically of the Shia militia only inside their homes, and even then they use hushed tones, worried their words could come back to haunt them.
"It's confusing for us. We don't know which side to take," Mr. Asrouni said of the current conflict. His body bears the scars of the town's tortured history. In addition to the shrapnel wounds on his back, the 52-year-old bus driver has a deformed left leg from a land mine he stepped on in 1975, when the SLA was locked in fierce battles with Palestinian militant groups operating in the south. There's not much fight left here now. Usually, 10,000 people spend their summers in this hilltop town. But only about 50 people remained yesterday as the front crept closer to Ain Ebel's outskirts.
The village of Aita al-Shaab, visible on the horizon, was pounded throughout the day by Israeli artillery after three Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah ambush. From the Asrounis' window, the town was almost obscured by smoke. Those who have remained are ignoring repeated Israeli warnings to flee the area because they fear that if they do, Christianity's hold on this town with biblical significance will be broken for good.
The archbishop of nearby Tyre visited yesterday to steel the spirits of those who had remained behind. "We are caught in a conflict of Jews and Muslims. We have a mission of peace," said Monsignor Nabil Hage as he walked slowly through Ain Ebel's deserted streets. "This is a holy land. Christ passed here, the Virgin Mary passed here, the apostles passed here. It is a holy land that we must defend."
At the sight of the archbishop, tearful residents came running out of their homes to greet him. "Pray for us!" a middle-aged woman wailed. "Give us hope!" The situation was becoming increasingly dire, they told him, with supplies of food and crucial medicines running low. The only hospital in town was closed -- the doctors having all fled -- and finding medical treatment involved a dangerous drive through a war zone along badly damaged roads.
Residents felt they had little choice but to hunker down and hope they can survive. "We're in the middle now. We're being attacked by both sides. It's very depressing," said Louis Suleiman, 60. "But if we leave our homes now, they will brand us as traitors again."
"Very depressing" to STAY HIDING in the middle of a war. I would think.
Therein lies their problem while they beg for my sympathy.
Oh, they know what side to take. They just better not say so.
Ewe, Christian ARABS, sounding as bad as Muslim ARABS. Guess it might be a little more than just the religion.
I don't think so. Many of them identify with the IslamoFascists as brethren. The same thing takes place among a vast number of the so-called Arab Christians in Israel. We only delude ourselves to deny it.
Duh.
So far, she has not been videotaped or interviewed complaining to the media.
If I were one of the innocent villagers, I'd start shooting up some hezbully bastards for causing the whole damn war.
Pray for all of the innocents in this war, where ever they may be.
BAd situation they are in that is for sure
THe responses of many freepers is consistent with what the lady in the article says: many of Israel's supporters are racists who hate all Arabs. Reminds me of how white Americans in the 19th century - or at least a lot of them - hated all Indians and were glad to see them killed, even in massacres like Chivington's at Sand Creek. The only good Indiant (read: Arab) is a dead one. That's the philosophy of a lot of folks around here - they hate Arabs even if the Arabs are Christians. Yes, that's racism - kind of the reverse of Mel Gibson's, but even worse because he didn't call for the killing of the people he was defaming.
Go away. You're too sensible to be posting on this here subject...
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.What is distinctly at question is the sovereignty of Lebanon, and whether or not the Hez-Elbonians speak its official foreign policy. If so, then all the people of Lebanon are culpable for the ramifications of the crimes perpetuated by official instruments of the nation against Israel. If not, then the question of sovereignty dictates an answer to the dictum laid down by Churchill according to the above quote.
That being said, never has the concept of total war not been absolutely understood and embraced by all parties concerned, i.e., military and civilian. The civilians absolutely understood that their army was what seperated them from any invader. When invading forces entered the land, the military went out to do battle. If the defending forces where defeated, there was nothing to prevent the enemy from plundering and pillaging. Many civilians died, and the surrounding area was often left desolate.
When the defense was undertaken within city limits, then everybody within the city bore the consequences equally. When two opposing forces approached to do battle, and a city lay between the two forces, the civilians had a choice: stay and face almost certain death, or flee for their lives.
The Lebanese citizens can either attack the Hez-Elbonians with pitchforks and be mowed down by machine gun-fire, or they can flee for their lives. The Hez-Elbonians can choose to mow them down with machine gun-fire. How would that play out in the court of public opinion?
Frankly, I see no difference with how war has been fought since the beginning of time and now. If the Israeli's attack an objective, then whomever stands in their way has to face the consequence of their action (whether they're combatants or not). The civilians choose their fate either way: almost certain death by facing an Israeli military assault, or possible death by their country-men should they choose to flee. There's another good point that Churchill made:
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time--a tremendous whack.I think that's what's happening right now (or it should be happening). There should be no doubt in anybody's mind globally, that Israel's patience is at its end. Its insufficient to destroy the enemies means to prosecute war, the very desire of the enemy for war itself needs to be extingquished. War is ugly, and their nothing uglier than scorched earth military strategy. And there's no surer way to defeat the will of the people to fight than the pain, suffering and carnage that total war - scorched earth - presents.
If the people of Lebanon are prepared to see all of Beruit and Tyre and its other large metropolitan areas appear as Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, etc. did at the end of WWII before they weary of fighting, they can't be helped. And to that I say throw the whole lot of 'em into the dustbin of history. Because that's all that should be left of them: ashes.
Hezbollah, as a terrorist organization, rules through fear. When terrorists move into a Christian neighborhood, the inhabitants face a stark choice: flee, fight, or capitulate. Because the Lebanese Christians clearly lack the superior firepower of a well-trained Iranian-supplied terrorist organization who already rule much of southern Lebanon through fear, the prospect of fighting to victory seems quite dim. Unless they could enter safely into Israel, the "flight" option also leaves little alternative, especially for the economically challenged without the patience or financial resources to secure an immigration visa to a major Christian country. This situation forces the Christian population into the third option: dhimmitude.
Most Arab Christians support the Islamofascists for the same reason that an overwhelming majority of Cubans support Fidel Castro. The Islamofascists, like thugs, dictators, and terrorists everywhere, monopolize superior firepower and rule through fear, tolerating no opposition.
Native-born (non-immigrant) Americans might contemplate what they might do in such a situation, but we have enjoyed and reveled in freedom our entire lives. No nation on earth--not even the nations of Europe and Latin America--has offered the broad, unfettered religious freedom uninterrupted over the past two centuries that the United States constitutionally guarantees its citizens. Even traditionally Catholic Mexico spent many years during the 1920s and 1930s martyring Roman Catholic priests because they dared offer the Holy Eucharist and even ordinary citizens who refused to proclaim the rule of dictator over sacrament.
Lebanese Christians surely have faced far worse during their recent history. They say and do what they must say and do to ensure their survival and their posterity in a society ruled by brutal tyranny. And any sensible Christian in Lebanon would treat the nonpartisan press as an intelligence agent of the Islamofascist terrorists, a description that fits their reporting all too well. With Hezbollah controlling the neighborhood, what Christian interested in his own posterity would oppose the reigning tyrant to The New York Times? A martyr might reveal to the Times the reality of life in fear, but to what end? The press often unequivocally takes the side of the enemy, especially against the United States and Israel.
Lebanese Christians would thank Israel forever if it could eliminate the Islamofascists permanently, but they share little faith in that outcome. They therefore act safely, not opposing their oppressors, certain of the outcome of any revolt.
This is true. I have two Lebanese households that I'm friends with. Both live just outside of Beirut. They are Maronite Christians, and though they're hesitant to say it, they'd like to see Hezbollah eliminated and hoped that Syria took some serious punishment, too.
They almost have to speak out against both sides, though. The Muslim community, while less innovative, educated, and wealthy, gets quite a bit of aid from Iran and Syria. They're in no position to make enemies when living in a Muslim majority country.
Truthfully, I think they're just tired of being caught in the middle--and understandably.
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