Crawling Porsches and the prayerful join Lebanon's opulent exodus

Telegraph ^ | July 15, 2006 | Tim Butcher

[wouldntbprudent]

It was perhaps the most elegant exodus in history. Thousands of wealthy, well-dressed Arabs snarled the mountain roads leading to Syria with their Range Rovers and Porsches as they fled Lebanon yesterday.

There were women with expensive coiffures, husbands wearing designer sunglasses and teenagers playing the latest hand-held video games as Lebanon morphed from Arab world summer playground to ghostland.

[wouldntbprudent]

Hmm . . . interesting picture here.

[stboz]

Kinda sounds like the First Bull Run....only different.

[Bangupjob]

At 1st Bull Run, the picnickers and spectators were rich but were there because they wanted to be, it was like movie-theatre fun for them in a pre-movie-theatre age.

These rich Arabs just want out. They might be the good ones, who knows?

[investigateworld]

Did anyone see the poll on the left side of that article. Apparently their readers think, by a 67% margin that Israel is wrong to use force the recover their soldiers.

[Joe Bonforte]

"The Israelis are destroying everything, we don't know why," said Sohad Aisk, a 29-year-old mother of five.

No, you probably don't. But that says a lot more about you, Ms. Aisk, than about the Israelis.

[stboz]

They might be the good ones, who knows?

I hope there are. I really do. And I wish them well.

[wouldntbprudent]

That's an example of push polling if I ever saw one. Israel is reacting to MUCH more than the kidnapping of their soldiers. The Hez has been pressing their luck for several years now and it just ran out.

[Hildy]

Did you read the article? The Syrians are saying they don't know why they're being bombed and they are "angry" because Israel is scaring their chilren. Boy, that takes nerve.

[hellbender]

There seems to be a lot of money being made in Lebanon, but somehow they can't afford to have a real military and to keep terrorists out of their government and their territory. They deserve what they are getting. You can't have business as usual while your country is an advanced base for Iran's puppets. It's just too bad that the Syrian frontier is the limit of the Israeli action.

[wouldntbprudent]

I often wonder when I read stuff like that (the Syrians say they don't know why the Israelis are bombing)---is it that they know the facts, but still don't understand Israel's response, or do they not know that terrorist organizations have been constantly attacking Israel, sending in homicide bombers, etc., and then kidnapped Israeli soldiers?

[wouldntbprudent]

Yeah, did you see how beautiful downtown Beruit looks today?

One of the talk radio hosts in my area was lamenting yesterday, oh, this Israeli action is going to upset the "pro-Western" Lebanese government and make them hate us.

Whaaaa? Since they're pro-western, I'd think they'd be pretty thankful that finally someone in coming in to help them clean this mess up. A pro-Western government would be happy to have the terrorists rooted out, donchathink?

[ZOOKER]

"All night long we heard the bombs," said one man from the wheel of his 4x4.
He hit the steering wheel in anger at the traffic jam, making his doe-eyed children in the back wince.
"You cannot live like that. It is a tactic of terror to scare our children."

Seems the terrorism shoe is on the other foot now, isn't it Abdul? I'm sure you and your family are innocent victims in this struggle, that none of your wealth went to support Hezbullah, and that no one ever passed through your neighborhood carrying a mysterious Katushka-sized package. You've never uttered the phrase "DEATH TO THE JEWS". You've always taught your children tolerance of people of other faiths and have always condemned the violence that Israelis have been living under for decades, right?

[Tax-chick]

Reminds me of P.J. O'Rourke's description of the evacuation from Kuwait in 1990.

[Billthedrill]

"You cannot live like that. It is a tactic of terror to scare our children."

Hmm...yeah, sort of like what the Israelis have been receiving for so long now. My sympathy tank is running a little low.

[freeangel]

Interesting poll on the page, too.

[wouldntbprudent]

Except Israeli children actually are being killed, not just scared---in pizza parlors and so on.

[eclectic]

Time to break out violins?

[glorgau]

There seems to be a lot of money being made in Lebano

Hashish for Europe.

[Blue Highway]

More like the first Cannonball Run.

Alex Trebek: This racing movie with Dom Deluise Told us that yes, cannonballs can run.
Jerry Lewis: "Cannon... balllll.....Cannon ballin mavin ahhh veyyyy aahhhh....." - Jerry Lewis

[GATOR NAVY]

Be sure to freep the poll at the link "Is Israel right to use force to get its soldiers released?"