[Peace-discuss] Israel hates Lebanon because of what it stands for: coexistence

[David Green]

11. Israel hates Lebanon because of what it stands
for: coexistence 

Posted by: "Paul" paulfa at gmail.com   fayspf 
Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:14 pm (PST) 
Monday, October 23, 2006 

The Daily Star

Israel hates Lebanon because of what it stands for:
coexistence
http://www.dailysta r.com.lb/ article.asp? edition_id=
1&categ_id= 2&article_ id=76359

Reader's Opinion

Geographically, Lebanon is not really at an advantage.
The problem is 
not posed here in terms of size, but in terms of the
harmful and even 
destructive relations imposed on the Lebanese people
by their southern 
neighbor, Israel. One can't help but wonder why Israel
does not hesitate 
to wage countless wars against a peace-seeking country
with no other 
ambitions than to develop its economy and offer a
better life to its people.

For decades, Israeli leaders have always manipulated
the political 
reality of the region by presenting their country as
the victim of 
"terrorist activities" in Palestine and Lebanon and
this flawed 
complaint has been accepted by most Americans and
Europeans as an 
indisputable fact. However, more and more citizens in
Europe and America 
are now not only questioning Israeli policy, but are
less and less 
inclined to take for granted Israeli propaganda
presenting the 
Palestinian and Lebanese issues as a matter of "war
against terrorism." 
These campaigns cynically ignore the main and even the
unique factor of 
violence in the region, the occupation by Israel of
Arab lands.

The breathtaking resistance by Hizbullah against the
Israeli Army during 
34 days last summer destroyed the idea that was
patiently instilled in 
the American and European minds by Israeli propaganda
that South Lebanon 
is "infested with terrorists." Hizbullah can
demonstrate to those who 
doubt that it is not a group of terrorists, but a
strong and 
well-structured resistance movement aimed at
liberating what remains 
occupied of the Lebanese land.

During the last war, the world could witness the
scandalous behavior of 
the Israeli Air Force concentrating its bombardments
on Lebanese 
infrastructure, freshly reconstructed after the
disastrous 1975-1990 
Civil War. The question that everyone has in mind is
why the Israelis 
never miss an opportunity to send their fighter planes
to launch 
thousands of tons of bombs to destroy, within days,
what the Lebanese 
built in decades.

Many explain this by saying Israel views Lebanon as a
harsh economic 
competitor, able to attract investors and tourists
and, consequently, it 
is in Israel's interest to have a continuously
crippled Lebanese economy.

Of course this explanation has some relevance, but the
economic aspect 
is not what prevents Israel from sleeping.

What truly and deeply bothers Israel is the
multi-confessional Lebanese 
social system and the peaceful coexistence of a
population more united 
by the Lebanese flag than divided by the various
confessions that 
characterize the country.

Of course there was a terrible civil war that lasted
15 years, but this 
war was triggered by external factors (the massive and
bloody expulsion 
of the Palestinians from Jordan in 1970, most of whom
fled to Lebanon; 
the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East
after the 1973 war; 
and aggressive Israeli policy toward Lebanon among
other reasons) and 
not by the social structure of Lebanese society.

During decades, Israel relentlessly pursued the same
objective, to make 
coexistence impossible between Lebanese confessions,
but failed. So why 
is Israel so bothered and so embarrassed by Lebanon's
multi-confessional 
social system? Because Lebanon stands as a constant
and disturbing 
denial of the false Israeli claim that a
multi-confessional system is 
not viable.

This claim is used by Israeli politicians as the main
argument to 
exclude from power a fifth of its population, the
Palestinians with 
Israeli citizenship, and to dismiss as "absurd" the
idea of a unique 
state in historical Palestine with a democratically
elected government 
ruling both peoples.

This is the very reason that explains the deep hatred
and the aggressive 
hostility of Israel toward Lebanon. The fact that,
after 15 years of 
harsh civil war, the Lebanese settled their disputes,
elected a 
government, reconstructed their country and resumed
their peaceful 
coexistence highly enraged Israel. That's why this
country couldn't help 
missing any opportunity to try to trigger another
civil war, by 
destroying the vital infrastructure of the country.
Last summer, Israel 
destroyed much of this country's infrastructure, but
could not destroy 
the shining proof that bothers it so much: the perfect
viability of the 
Lebanese multi-confessional system.

Hmida Ben Romdhane is editor in chief of Tunisia's La
Presse newspaper.


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