Reply #19: Judith LeBlanc: Eight days in Lebanon [View All]

[IndianaGreen]

Eight days in Lebanon

By Judith LeBlanc

I spent the last eight days of Israeli-Lebanon war, Aug. 7-14, in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. I had traveled there as part of a peace delegation from the United States. Our aim was to express solidarity with the people of Lebanon.

Many other countries sent peace delegations, too. They came to bear witness to the devastation caused by the Israeli bombardment and to help draw the attention of their respective peoples to the root causes of the war.

About 1,200 Lebanese were killed during the Israeli military offensive, and about 900,000 were displaced from their homes.

In the first week of the devastating Israeli air strikes on civilian targets in Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the world was witnessing “the birth pangs of a new Middle East.”

The people we met told us they believed that if the U.S. had not been giving bombs to Israel, this war would not have happened. Yet, as our U.S. delegation met people in the displaced people’s camps, in the streets and in the midst of the ruins of South Beirut, they warmly embraced us and asked us to go home and tell their stories.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/4335/1/218/