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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| The Party's On In Northern Lebanon |
| 2006-07-27 |
| Every morning, visiting journalists gather at a bombed-out roadside cafe in southern Beirut to be escorted by Hezbollah operatives through a bewildering wasteland that used to house 50,000 people. Mountains of rubble that once were shops and apartment buildings -- including the home of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah -- line the streets of the Dahiyah neighborhood. This was also the headquarters of Hezbollah's Al Manar television, which is now broadcasting from a secret location. A week after Israeli F-16s dropped 23 tons of explosives on the neighborhood -- which was hit by another 20 Israeli rockets late yesterday -- the ruins have become a familiar backdrop for photographers and television cameras. The photogenic skeletons of nine-story apartment buildings strung with dangling electrical wires have given the world the image of a shattered city, and Hezbollah is making the most of it. Indeed, across the Hezbollah-dominated Shi'ite regions of southern Lebanon, whole villages have been flattened, almost 400 people killed and hundreds of thousands more displaced. But just north of Beirut, business remains strong in the lush resorts of the nearby Shouf Mountains. Nightclubs in the Christian suburb of Jounieh still rock to '80s disco and '90s Eurobeat, and Lebanese who weathered the country's horrific 15-year civil war still sip arrack and eat hummus late into the night. |
| Posted by:Captain America |
| #7 Actually, Walid and his Druze faction have been allowing Christians to move back to the Shouf. Indeed, in some towns they never left. Are there areas where they did leave and haven't returned? You bet. |
| Posted by: Ebbaising Slenter5961 2006-07-27 19:53 |
| #6 The obvious point in this article, albeit the geography is bad, is that 100 percent of the Western news coverage encompasses a very small fraction of Beirut and the northern environs. This will probably change as the Hezzies start shootin and scootin from the northern sectors of Lebanon. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-07-27 16:57 |
| #5 If the Hezzies are being bombed in the north and the south, they brought it on themselves. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2006-07-27 11:47 |
| #4 Hey, dude, cut me some slack... I have already sent those same tired photos of bombed out Hezi apartments back like 3 days ago. That prick editor has me on a deadline and I went clubbin' last night. I had to submit something with my expense report. |
| Posted by: Intrepid Reporter 2006-07-27 11:42 |
| #3 yer right Phil. I think they got their geography wrong. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-07-27 10:48 |
| #2 Article: Indeed, across the Hezbollah-dominated Shi'ite regions of southern Lebanon, whole villages have been flattened, almost 400 people killed and hundreds of thousands more displaced. Whole villages flattened and only 400 dead? These must be tiny villages. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-07-27 02:16 |
| #1 The Chouf Mounatins are southeast of Beirut and there aren't Christians left there. Walid Jumblatt's Druze cleared them all out, killing thousands in the process. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-07-27 01:58 |