A View From Inside Lebanon

For general interest and informed-ness: here is an e-mail (all names redacted) from a woman in Lebanon to a guy who met her in medical school a decade ago:

Dear - - - - -,

Thank you so much for your encouraging words...It is the prayers of our friends and extended families all over the world that keep us going...

Devastated is an understatement when it comes to describing our state here...It seems that without any warning, and simply overnight our worlds have been turned upside down.

We were expecting 1.5 million tourists, the country was at its best, with medical conferences, artistic festivals planned and numerous new hotels and restaurants ready.This was supposed to be the first summer ever for a free Lebanon (last summer was still plagued by the car bombs targetting our true patriots and the last bomb was Dec 14, 2005).

We woke up Wednesday the 12th to 2 kidnapped Israeli soldiers and a few bombs in the south. We thought it was just the usual in the south. [- - -] drove himself to the airport and left his car there. My cousin and her kids, visiting from the USA, and myself and the kids went to our downtown to enjoy the festivities that evening. We woke up Thursday to a closed airport and the rest is history...

[- - -] was stuck in Jordan for 48 hours, the worst 48 hours of my life.
He made it back on friday through roads that were bombed before and after he passed through. We all spent the weekend in Broumana at my inlaws and came home Monday (Monday July 17, 1976 is the anniversary of when my dad's brother, then a a very distinguished ENT, was injured by a bomb on his balcony, lost his leg and was rendered a paraplegic). It is amazing how history is repeating itself 30 years later and all those terrors, insecurities and memories of the war, that had been so suppressed, have now come back, full force to take over once again...

I had been planning to take the kids and spend the week in Tripoli to be close to work and at least be of assistance since so many Beirutis have fled to Tripoli. But we woke up today to find they bombed my route: the beautiful Jbeil, the army checkpoint on the way to tripoli and another army checkpoint further north in Aabde.

I was terrified to take the kids on this route and to be separated from [- - -] once again so we stayed put at home.

The situation is far too complex: Hezbollah's supporters constitute almost 60% of our population including children, women and the elderly.
This is why they have 30 representatives in parliament and those were all elected in our first ever democratic elections last year.

Thousands of refugees who were lucky enough to find a way out (some 50 bridges that link tiny villages in the south and Beirut suburbs have been destroyed) are now living in schools and in the public gardens.
Most with serious medical needs and no means of meeting them:dialysis and chemo patients and so many expectant women who are due...

At our hospital (120 beds), we have enough IV Fluids for 1 week since the main supplier and manufacturer in the Chouf area was bombed on the 3rd day of fighting. A decision was made to cancel any none life threatening surgeries or even simple cases of dehydration or hyperemesis to save the IVF for the true emergencies and deliveries.

We are praying and hoping we do not have to make any rash decisions. It seems that out of nowhere, our lives have been torn apart and though my gut feeling is to take the kids and flee so that they do not relive our "child'hoods or rather "war'hoods, we just can't turn our backs on our country, our countrymen and all we have tried to build here over the past 9 years...

For now, all we can do is try to stay put, try to be united and pray for some divine intervention to save us from more terror as we all stand and watch our beloved Lebanon, that we have worked so hard over the past 10 years to rebuild, destroyed overnight, once again...

Please keep us in your prayers

With all my best

So, what is it that our Israeli masters are doing over there: wiping out Hezbollah, or (as one of their generals said, "turning back the clock on Lebanon by 20 years?" Based on this letter, it sounds to me as if it's the latter.