BEIRUT, 22 July 2006 — The video on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television shows an armed fighter standing near the border with Israel with a voice in the background urging all Lebanese to stand united behind the guerrilla group.
Razan Sheheim says she will heed such a call only until Israel’s war on Lebanon in retaliation to Hezbollah attacks ends. Then, she says, the Shiite Muslim group should disarm. “Israel has to stop its crimes and destruction, and then we will reach a solution about Hezbollah’s weapons,” said Sheheim, a Sunni Muslim who works at a mobile phone shop in a Christian district of Beirut. “I just hope we will be still alive then.”
Ten days into Israel’s offensive, many Sunni, Druze and Lebanese Christians, while still blaming the guerrilla group for triggering the conflict by capturing two Israeli soldiers, have shifted their anger at Israel for its devastating retaliation.
“I hate Hezbollah, but if Israel thinks it can screw us, we will screw it,” said Paul Chahine, sitting at a bar in Gemayze, a Christian part of Beirut. “Then, we will screw Hezbollah.”
The Israeli bombardment has so far killed 343 people, displaced 500,000 civilians and hit ports, bridges and roads across the country, shattering the country’s infrastructure.
The scale of the attacks brought back memories of 1982 when Israeli troops invaded Lebanon and entered Beirut. They later retreated to the south, forming a security strip before their withdrawal in 2000 under Hezbollah fire.
“What happened has reminded the Lebanese of previous Israeli massacres and the invasion, and put the differences with Hezbollah on the side for now,” said Osama Safa, head of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a think tank.
“If Israel was hoping that one day it could sign a peace treaty with Lebanon or have better relations between the two people, it can forget about it now.” But some ordinary Lebanese, particularly Christians who traditionally oppose Hezbollah, are making their resentment of the group’s July 12 operation louder as the death toll mounts.
“Going to war was a Shiite decision, not one taken by all Lebanese,” said Kamil, a Christian Maronite who refused to give his full name.
“Hezbollah is an extremist group and the Christians, Sunnis and Druze don’t bear responsibility for its actions.”
Lebanese have always been split between those who want the country to keep an open front with the Jewish state to help the Palestinians and others who believe it is too weak to bear the brunt of Israeli attacks.
Months before Israel’s offensive, rival politicians were at odds over the fate of Hezbollah’s arms, with no signs that an agreement was on the cards.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, says demands for it to disarm are part of a US agenda that aims to secure Israel’s northern border, thus giving the Jewish state free reign against the Palestinians.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who fought alongside Palestinian militants during the war but turned in recent months into a fierce critic of Hezbollah, said it was not up to Hezbollah to take the country to war.
But people also blamed Jumblatt and other leading members of the anti-Syrian coalition that dominates the Parliament and government for the dilemma.
The government, too fragile to disarm Hezbollah, has said it did not endorse Hezbollah’s operation and that it was willing to work on sending the Lebanese army to the south once a cease-fire is in place, though it did not spell out any details.
“Had the government disarmed Hezbollah, we would not have reached this point. But our government is helpless. It cannot even call Hezbollah a militia,” said Joseph Mansour, a 25-year old jewelry designer.
