fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Miscalculation

Another fateful Israeli decision was to take the war to Lebanon – even attacking Lebanese military facilities – rather than restricting its efforts to degrading Hezbollah. Destroying the lighthouses of Beirut symbolized this campaign of counterproductive destruction to get the Lebanese to act against Hezbollah or suffer intolerable pain. Although there were many in Lebanon, […]

Another fateful Israeli decision was to take the war to Lebanon – even attacking Lebanese military facilities – rather than restricting its efforts to degrading Hezbollah. Destroying the lighthouses of Beirut symbolized this campaign of counterproductive destruction to get the Lebanese to act against Hezbollah or suffer intolerable pain. Although there were many in Lebanon, and indeed the Arab world beyond, who blamed Hezbollah for all that it had unleashed, the inability of the Israelis to crush Hezbollah, plus the mounting death toll on hapless Lebanese civilians, drowned the anti-Hezbollah voices from Baghdad to Beirut, and created a legend of heroic Hezbollah resistance. ~H.D.S. Greenway, Salt Lake Tribune

Via Antiwar

The attacks on the lighthouses really were among the more inexplicable and bizarre of the entire war.  Almost two weeks, Robert Fisk wrote about one of the attacks on Lebanese lighthouses on 10 August:

We order green tea and then there’s the roar of an explosion in the sky. An Israeli missile screeches right past us and crashes into the old French Mandate lighthouse, a brown-stone tower built in 1938 from which the Vichy French once sent out their propaganda.

Never have I seen the great and the good of Beirut society hurl themselves from their seats at such speed, overturning tables amid splintered glass, racing from the café for their chauffeur-driven cars, crashing into each other’s vehicles – and failing to pay their bills. I see a panic-stricken motor-cyclist thrown on to the road. He rolls down the side of the traffic island, then runs for his life.

A second missile streaks past us into the tower. Do the Israelis think that Hizbollah’s television station is broadcasting from here?

“Fisk!” Leena roars, almost as loudly as the rocket. “Why do you always bring trouble with you?” We finish a second cup of green tea and The Independent pays the bill. I am left wondering: what has Israel got against the French Mandate?

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here