Vol. 28 No. 15 :: 3 August 2006
Dispatches from Beirut
1. Do I see or do I remember? http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n15/khou01_.html
Elias Khoury writes about the Israeli invasions of Lebanon
It is the time for death in Lebanon. Anyone who has followed the country's modern history might well be confused. In 2000 Lebanon's resistance expelled the Israeli army from the land it had occupied in the south. A popular intifada expelled the Syrian army in 2005. How could a minor military operation undertaken by Hizbullah send Lebanon back to square one? We seem to be entering a labyrinth from which nobody can find the way out. The only certainty is that Lebanon is facing destruction, that the dream of restoring the country to independence is on hold.
2.Siege Notes http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n15/salt01_.html
Rasha Salti
I am writing from a café in the Hamra district of West Beirut. The electricity has been cut off for a while now, and the city has been surviving on generators. The café is dark, hot and humid. Espresso machines and blenders are silent. Conversations, rumours, frustration waft through the room. Occasionally the sound of Israeli warplanes overwhelms us. They drop leaflets. Yesterday, they advised inhabitants of the southern suburbs to flee because the night promised to be 'hot'. Today, the leaflets warn that all remaining bridges and tunnels in Beirut will be bombed.
3. How the War Will End http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n15/makd02_.html
Karim Makdisi
I was in Japan with my wife when we heard the news. The memories flooded back: Israel was once again attacking Lebanon. We were frantic because our two daughters were there with their grandparents. We flew to Damascus via Dubai, and after a flurry of telephone calls and consultations with fellow travellers who had similar plans, we took a taxi and went by the recently hit but shortest route via Zahle and Tarshish. Along the way, we passed a convoy of ambulances. When we arrived home two and a half hours later, my parents greeted us with tears in their eyes. The road we had been on was hit several times, and the ambulances destroyed.
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