JEDDAH, 11 April 2003 — Twenty years ago, the Israeli Army rolled into Beirut promising their people liberation from the PLO threat and their Lebanese allies victory in the raging civil war. In the event, none of the promises made were kept. I was a high school student then caught in the mayhem and not able to find a way back home. I will never forget the sight of Israeli soldiers riding their tanks into the fashionable Hamra district. The soldiers sauntered on both sides of the rumbling machines, stopped at famous cafes like Modka, and ordered the famous Austrian chocolate blend. They offered to pay in shekels, but the waiter refused their money. They were the victors and Beirut was the first Arab capital to fall after independence.
West Beirut at the time was indeed under the yoke of the PLO, which had set up a state within a state. I remember queuing for hours at the local PLO office to get a coupon that would allow me to buy two pounds of sugar at exorbitant prices. I thought it humiliating to have to go through the madness and never liked sugar since. To this day, I pass on the dessert.
There was a sense of doom pervading the city. This was strange since we had been there under shelling from civil war combatants for over two years and one more army marching through should have been par for the course.
It wasn’t. Most of us, perhaps because we did not fully understand the implications, tried to live with it. Khalil Hawi, the prominent Arab poet of the day, committed suicide before the Israelis reached his block of buildings about a mile down from where we were. He was an elderly man then and was not in fighting form. By refusing to live under occupation, he did manage to put us all to shame to this day.
The Israelis stayed long enough to mastermind the Sabra and Shatila massacre. They expelled Arafat and forced the Lebanese to sign a separate treaty with them -- what is called the May Accord. The word about the massacre managed to make it into the open. Hezbollah replaced Arafat, and the president who promised them complete access was assassinated. In the end, they achieved nothing more than littering the streets of that beautiful city with dead, mutilated, and severely scarred humanity.
Today, Baghdad becomes the second Arab capital to be “occupied” by its “liberators”. When I watch what is going on, I have flashbacks to those long gone days. The uniforms are exactly the same, the armaments are identical, the declared aims are a carbon copy of each other: Security, liberty, peace, independence. The Israelis wanted to “liberate” the Lebanese from the Palestinians and the Syrians, the Americans had the Baath in their sight. The Israelis wanted to bring security to their northern border; the Americans want to bring security to their homeland from WMD. The Israelis wanted to “effect” a regime change in Lebanon, and the Americans want to “effect” a regime change in Baghdad. The Israelis had their eyes on the waters of Lebanon, which they stole for years; the Americans have their eyes on the oil of Iraq.
The Lebanese then sighed in relief when Arafat and his thugs left Beirut. Today, everyone sighs in relief to see the end of Saddam. And let us hope it is an end and not a deal that will allow him to live when so many have died in the name of getting rid of him. But neither the Israelis in Beirut nor the Americans in Baghdad are loved or even welcomed. Chalabi might end up being the Bashir Gamayel of Iraq. The resistance to the American general’s rule might spurn another Hezbollah. The feuds that will arise will force the United States to stay longer than it wishes to. Israel is already cleaning the Haifa oil pipeline (defunct since 1948) to receive cheap oil from Mosul and no doubt apply for OPEC membership.
The vultures are roaming far and wide but are within a certain circle called Iraq. The Turks are threatening and Iranians are warning. Rumsfeld is “warning” Syria repeatedly. The North Koreans have just issued a statement saying that nuclear weapons are the best defense against American aggression.
Waging war in the name of peace has never worked. WWI, a war to end all wars, produced a murderous sequel. As the days go by and the sun heats up the deserts of the Middle East, there is going to be some reckoning that no one has imagined.
There are reports that the Americans took long and detailed advice from the Israelis on military and other matters before starting their advance. It is obvious that the Israelis have not given them the full picture. I doubt if the Israelis know the full picture.
Today Americans are occupying an Arab land. Does it really have anything to do with this man called Sharon? After all, he masterminded the Beirut invasion.A few days ago, Israel was the only occupying power in the whole world. Today the US has earned that dubious honor. How long will it be before we see American soldiers in postures familiar from the streets of Ramallah and Bethlehem? How long will it be before the daily death toll begins to click? I wonder if the Israelis have advised their friend (the occupying general who once admired their army for “exercising restraint” in the face of the intifada) to stock up on rubber bullet?
If Garner’s restraint is as “admirable” as the Israeli one, we are in for a long one.
