Posted on 08/18/2006 12:38:53 PM PDT by okiedog
South Lebanon Christians bitter over Israeli attack
QLAIAH, Lebanon: Ever since a truce between Israel and Hizbollah took hold this week, Boulos Abu Hamad and his family have been cleaning up the damage they say was left by Israeli troops who occupied their home for a night.
Their properties have only been moderately affected compared to the devastation of nearby Shi’ite Muslim towns, but residents of some Christian areas in southern Lebanon are just as angry with the Israelis.
“We are Maronite Christians. We are neither with Israel nor with Hizbollah nor with any other party so why did they do this to us?” said Abu Hamad’s wife, breaking into tears.
“Their troops came and ruined the bedroom furniture. We threw out the clothes I bought for my sister’s wedding because they ruined them and sacked the drawers and cupboards. They left nothing intact. Even their dogs left mess in the house.”
Many Lebanese Christians, Sunni Muslims and Druze have criticised Hizbollah for touching off the war by capturing two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
But they are also furious with Israel’s devastating response, which killed at least 1,100 people in Lebanon. One hundred and fifty-seven Israelis were killed in the conflict.
When Israeli troops invaded Lebanon last week and occupied the Christian villages of Marjayoun and Qlaiah — once home to the defunct pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army militia — they went from house to house, locals say, hammering down doors, breaking glass and trashing the contents for no reason they could fathom.
Soldiers took up positions in the neighbouring villages, entering and leaving residential areas after imposing a curfew.
Barely a shot was fired from Qlaiah, which was occupied by Israel until 2000, at Israeli infantry that advanced from the border to Christian towns around Aug. 10. Villagers say Hizbollah did not fight from among them.
No one thought the area would come under attack, and in comparison to nearby Hizbollah strongholds where houses and shops have been completely flattened, it has not.
A few buildings in the picturesque cobbled square of Marjayoun had been hit, apparently after some shots were fired at advancing Israeli troops.
Israeli soldiers also entered Marjayoun barracks and the town hall, their tanks crumpling or flattening the cars parked outside it and leaving imprints on the tarmac.
A peek through the padlocked gate into a clinic in Qlaiah reveals white doctors’ coats hanging up and a table of medical tools nearby, surrounded by broken glass and metal.
Glass litters a nearby optician’s and dental clinic, where neighbours say medical equipment has been damaged.
“May God not bring them fortune,” said one resident surveying the damage. “It is disgusting,” agreed another.
"Oh, please. This whole article is one of a number of anti Israeli hit pieces. The "christians" that whine in these articles are tools of the hezzbos.
Yes, and you probably think the following is true too. No ?
"The Republican Jewish Coalition is launching an ad campaign this week linking Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman's loss in the Connecticut primary last week to what it says is receding Democratic support for Israel."
It might help if you stopped assuming all the maronites are Christians. They aren't. Listen for the obvious leftist whine in the way they talk. The media isn't likely to hand a microphone to a real maronite Christian. They don't whine.
Good post!
"The "christians" that whine in these articles are tools of the hezzbos. "
If they are Christian, why would they support Islamic rule?
No actually, many people in those christian militias went to israel and received training, uniforms and light weapons. They lost power because of syria and because they had no backing from western powers, while the palestinians, hezbollah and every muslim faction received all the funding and everything they needed from the arabs and iran.
Syria was invited by the christians because they thought that they would aid in stabilizing lebanon. What really happened was that they were always trying to destabilize it by targetting political leaders and causing muslim and christian and druze tensions among each other.
Where is the hate for syria? Are you kidding me? Every person in lebanon with the exception of hezbollah and amal (shiite groups)and a couple of other groups(which are so small that they are insignificant) hate the syrians, especially the christians. But that doesnt mean that they love israel, and it is understandable, i mean israel invaded and occupied land in lebanon for several years, and you expect people in lebanon to love them?
Im a maronite christian, and i dont harbor any hate towards israel but i dont love them either, i wish we could just live in peace.
They watched and did nothing for years was because of the syrian occupation which was backed by the USA(until recently). A little information for you, the christian lebanese militias were disarmed(many of the soldiers disappeared), there were two main christian leaders at the time, one was exiled and one was sent to jail(solitary confinement) for life. Others were also exiled and sentenced to death in absentia but they werent as powerful as the first two leaders. So just to recap, christians lose their weapons and their leaders, the christian party called the lebanese forces which rose from the christian militia was banned. If any demonstrations took to the streets(and believe me there were many) you would get half the syrian army coming to kick your ass and take you to jail.
All this time we ahve hezbollah happily getting weapons and growing stronger and getting more support because they are attacking the israelis in the south of lebanon. Then the only christians left(many of them also shiites), SLA, were left behind by the israeli pullout and were forced to either go to jail in lebanon or take refuge in israel(which thankfully israel accepted them).
All this happens and not a peep from the international community.
So please tell me how in the world are you supposed to say anything about hezbollahs weapons when they have them pointed at you and you have nothing.
The syrians left last year, and there have been many efforts from lebanon to disarm hezbollah politically because this is the only way that lebanon can disarm them. The lebanese military would in no way be able to face hezbollah because it is largely made up of shiites and it would break the military into factions(like the civil war) because they would not want to attack their fellow shiites.
So the only way lebanon could disarm hezbollah is politically and not forcefully because then a civil war would be sure to occur and we would have no weapons and would have to rely on the international community who conveniently have let us down in the past.
Yeah many do leave, but they always return. My family left and then returned. I left now and plan to return, so do many of my friends and relatives.
Lebanese christians have survived in Lebanon for 1500 years and will survive for 1500 more years.
The Syrian occupation was never backed by the USA, I don't know who told you that but it is simply not true. In any event, the non-Hezbollah Lebanese had an obligation to resist the takeover of Lebanon by these foreign forces, by guerilla action of necessary. By failing to engage in such resistance, the silence equals consent rule applies. In order to not take a risk themselves, the non-Hez Lebanese simply transferred the risk over to Israel. Now that Israel has done the job the Lebanese should have done long ago, there's no valid complaint about the way they chose to go about it.
Syrian occupation was backed by the usa in exchange for syrian backing of gulf war I. I have no doubt about this. Well actually the syrian occupation wasnt meant to last long but they had lied to us once again. They were supposed to stay until everyone was disarmed and peace acheived and elections occurred. They stayed though for 15 years. Im anti hezbollah as are most of the christian lebanese. But how do you fight hezbollah without causing a civil war. Because this is what would happen, only 3 months ago they poked fun about Hassan nasrallah in a comedy tv show(kind of like SNL) and hundreds of shiites left their houses and went to a christian area and started causing havoc, breaking cars etc.. All this because the tv show was from a christian tv network. I mean if that is your reaction to a tv show what would be their reaction if we attack them, because if we attack hezbollah then we are attacking them because every shiite is a hezbollah at heart. You can tell this when you talk to the most educated shiite and he supports hezbollah.
Anyway, I did think that this war was the best way to take hezbollah out without causing a civil war in lebanon, but israel didnt complete the job and it pisses me off because now hezbollah will receive a hero status in lebanon(among most muslims at least and some christians) and the arab world.
They took over your country; if you wanted to be something other than slaves to their whim then a civil war was exactly what the doctor ordered. Now that they own your country, will you continue to passively sit by while they progressively impose slavery upon you? We fought the most powerful nation on earth for our freedom - you could do the same against a far less formidable enemy.
I frequently travel to a specific region of Mexico and often encounter the same Lebanese Christian man on my flights. He's expressed that same thoughts as you. It's sad that Lebanon was on the verge of greatness when Islam reared its ugly head.
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