Qana II: Will Hezbollah Ever Learn?
By: Dr: Joseph Hitti
July 30/2006

There is plenty of responsibility on both sides for yesterday’s killing of 65 Lebanese civilians sheltered in a building in the southern Lebanese town of Qana by an Israeli air strike. But the lion’s share of responsibility by far falls squarely into the hands of Hezbollah for triggering events whose outcome they did not predict, and for taking the initiative of war without having prepared Lebanon, its army, its civilian population and its government for the consequences of war.

Hezbollah has chosen to drag Lebanon into a war for which it – Hezbollah – has no preparation except for 12,000 rockets and missiles and military guerilla-style operations that are mounted and launched from behind civilians – women, children and the handicapped. It has not prepared the civilian population of Lebanon for a protracted war against Israel. Hezbollah should know – as smart as Hassan Nasrallah says he and his fighters are – that by fighting a war from villages, between houses and buildings, and among civilians who have nowhere to go, it was inviting the death of the very population it claims to be “defending” against the Israeli onslaught.

Lebanese refugees arriving from the southern villages are telling stories of Hezbollah killing Lebanese villagers who decide to flee, and of literally using their own people as human shields:

“Hezbollah came to Ain Ebel to shoot its rockets,” said Fayad Hanna Amar. “They are shooting from between our houses.” “Please,’’ he added, “write that in your newspaper.” Mr. Amar said Hezbollah fighters in groups of two and three had come into Ain Ebel, less than a mile from Bint Jbail, where most of the fighting has occurred. They were using it as a base to shoot rockets, he said, and the Israelis fired back.

One woman, who would not give her name because she had a government job and feared retribution, said Hezbollah fighters had killed a man who was trying to leave Bint Jbail.

“This is what’s happening, but no one wants to say it” for fear of Hezbollah, she said. (New York Times,  July 27, 2006). 

Like in 1996, the outrage over the civilian deaths in Qana is going to be used by the enemies of Lebanon to grant Hezbollah a bigger mantle of respectability, and thus further drag Lebanon backwards and away from a lasting solution. This is precisely the scenario that Hezbollah wanted to choreograph by firing their rockets mere yards from the shelter where the Lebanese civilians were huddled, and that is why Prime Minister Saniora declined to meet with Secretary Condoleezza Rice. Hezbollah’s end game is to scuttle any attempt at establishing a ceasefire that mandates the disarming of Hezbollah, and it therefore resorts to staging attacks, inviting Israeli retaliations, then screaming bloody murder and dragging the Lebanese Prime Minister to end the negotiations for a ceasefire.  

Unlike in 1996, the building toppled yesterday by the Israeli air strike was not marked, nor was it a UN building. There was no way to know that people were hiding in this building from where Hezbollah had just fired a rocket, other than to deduce that Hezbollah was using the building as a cover for firing its rockets. So why should anyone be surprised and outraged that innocent civilians are caught in Hezbollah’s game of horror with the Israelis? 

There is no proposal for a solution on the table today, even from so-called friendly countries, that does not include the disarming of Hezbollah and its putting out of commission. Therefore, Hezbollah’s suicidal quixotic bravados are understandable. Hezbollah’s people know they have no plan and they know they have nowhere to go but down. Theirs is a Samson fight, because theirs is a culture of death that the entire world opposes, and which they themselves know is a dead end. And as they see their end nearing, their lack of honor and human decency will make them bring the temple down on themselves and on the Lebanese civilian population, instead of coming to terms with the fact that it is time to close shop and go home. Like the typical Arab ruler or despot who steps up to his moment of glory over the blood and the cadavers of his countrymen, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah is equally incapable of stepping down from the pedestal he erected for his own glory without bringing Lebanon down with him. When will the Lebanese people learn?