Lebanon is slowly reconstructed, five years on from devastating war

After savage fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, parts of Lebanon thrive, while parliament is still a site of struggle On an ancient hillside in southern Lebanon, a giant digger scrapes through slate and stone to prepare foundations for yet another new home. Across the valley, in the biblical town of Qana, dozens of houses are also under construction, and many hundreds more stand fresh and stark against the midsummer sky. Since the devastating war between Hezbollah and Israel, which began five years ago today, the place where Jesus purportedly turned water into wine has witnessed a near-miraculous transformation itself. Qana is now one of the most thriving enclaves in Lebanon’s south, a place that shows little sign of the ravages of a war that reduced it to a rubble-strewn wasteland after 34 days of intense fighting. Towns and villages either side, from the Litani river to the north to the Israeli border 10km south, have helped consolidate a revival that has crept through the country since 2006 — and reshaped more than just the natural landscape. The national political power base, thrown out of kilter in the chaos of 2006, has been slowly re-orientating – away from the western-backed 14 March alliance into the orbit of the Iranian and Syrian-supported Hezbollah, which now has a whip-hand in Lebanon’s affairs. Signs of a changing Lebanon are all around. Banners of a smiling benefactor, the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei are peppered throughout Qana and all other Shia towns in the south. Other, less frequent posters show the two Lebanese Shia leaders, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, and a lesser light, Nabil Berri, who controls a second political party-cum-militia, Amal. Iran has used both to dispense hundreds of millions in cash to Lebanese who were caught up in the war. The war that the two arch foes fought was their most intense and savage since Hezbollah’s inception in 1982. It erupted early on July 12 2006 after Hezbollah members crossed into Israel and ambushed a border patrol, killing two soldiers and abducting two more. The Israeli response quickly escalated into daily bombings for the next five weeks, mostly in the south. Less visible than the reconstruction project – but far more instructive – has been the power struggle for Lebanon, fought not in the country’s parliament, but in the sitting rooms of its feudal lords and in the corridors of power of its neighbours. “Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have had the pro-western bloc in a vice for the past three years,” said one senior western diplomat in Beirut. “And they have finally got them. “The past six months has been a profound shift here. No-one who backs the March 14 project can seriously say that the western agenda hasn’t been set back.” After ousting the government of Saad Hariri in January, Hezbollah now has enough numbers within the parliament – through the support of roughly half the country’s Christian and Druze minorities, as well as Amal lawmakers – to set the political and legislative agenda. Hezbollah has vowed not to use its influence to railroad the parliament and claims that the country’s new prime minister, Najib Miqati – a Sunni from northern Lebanon – is not beholden to it. Yet on one key issue – perhaps the most significant since 2006 for the country’s deeply divided blocs, it is proving immovable. The party’s lawmakers and its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, have demanded that the parliament disavow a UN-backed tribunal set up to place on trial the killers of former statesman, Rafiq Hariri, who was killed on Valentine’s Day 2005 in the most contentious and far-reaching assassination in the country for several decades. The tribunal earlier this month alleged that four members of Hezbollah had played direct roles in Mr Hariri’s death – an assertion that if proven would pose a grave threat to the group’s legitimacy as a patriotic body. Mr Miqati is so far struggling to find a position that satisfies both the 14 March forces, who see him as a turncoat and the Hezbollah-led government, whose trust he needs to survive as leader. In the streets of Dahiya, however, the jury has already returned. “The Israelis killed Hariri and everyone knows it,” said Ahmed Badredine, a motor mechanic. “Their intent towards Lebanon was there for the world to see in 2006. And when there is another war we will beat them again.” Summer has often been fighting season in the south. And in the densely wooded lands around the Litani, preparations have been made for the next war ever since the guns fell silent last time. Hezbollah knows it has a legend to protect after battling the powerful Israeli military to a stand-still in 2006. Israel, meanwhile, has a score to settle after believing its deterrent factor – an important part of it’s armoury – was dented by its enemy’s ability to fire rockets seemingly at will, despite a never-ending blitz of return fire.” “It will come soon,” said a second Dahiya man, Haithem Kissos. “The resistance is stronger than ever and the Zionists cannot let that reality stand.” Lebanon Israel Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.