The Lebanon Adventurer

I like posting interesting things on here, useful or not, about the Middle East... especially personal accounts. This new year's eve I met a Jewish guy also from America. He told me his incredible tale. He used to be a pro-Israel (zionist) Jew. Never religious, never overtly anti-arab. He is majoring in International business, so he decided to do a year abroad in Lebanon. He was in Lebanon the same time I was in Israel, leading to a huge variation of the "war-stories" from Lebanon and Gaza (during 2008-10). Now, he is pretty anti-Israel... but then again, it's always more complicated than just a label.

During about mid-20010, Israel went over to Lebanon in order to cut down a tree that had fallen on Israeli soil, blocking a crucial visual into hostile territory. Now, it is disputed that Israel actually went over the border to cut away at the tree, but that didn't stop what happened next. Lebanese soldiers thought Israel was invading, and Lebanon opened fire. Israel returned fire in all this mess and in the end, three lebanese soldiers, a senior Israeli officer, and a reporter had been killed. This is a perfect example how a misunderstanding lead to international hay-wire. The media spun the stories, "Israel Invaded Lebanon," or, "Lebanon opened fire on Israel." This incident showed how varied the point of view was... especially for two Jewish teens across the border. I thought Israel was right in it's return of fire. My friend did not think this was the case. He thought Israel was to blame for all five deaths.

We also discussed other issues of "invasion." Mainly Gaza in 2008/2009. Operation Cast Lead, which extended into early 2009 (two/three weeks before my arrival), was an Israeli offensive operation in order to end Hamas's mortar shell, Qassam, and Katyusha rocket attacks after the six-month cease fire had ended. During the attacks, "only" one Israeli was killed, but the panic that had erupted was more explosive than even the physical damage. The rockets were now reaching as far as Ashkelon, Kerem Shalom, and Beersheba, the furthest these rockets have ever gotten, leading to national insecurity. In order to protect the borders, Israel invaded with this Operation Cast Lead, killing almost 200 and wounding around 350 Gazans on the first incident/return bombing. Israel reported that out of the 195 deaths, about 140 were Hamas militants, leaving the other 55 civilians. By the end of the operations, 1,300 (give or take 150) Gazans died, and only 13 Israelis. Why such the variance? It's all disputed. Hamas was threatening a third intifada and continued their Operation Oil Stain sending out 30 or so more rockets, and so Israel invaded by land (Jan. 3, '09), targeting Hamas weapon stockpiles, military stations, and rocket-launching pads. Israel targeted only Hamas stations and sent out leaflets of warning civilians of their invasion. Another huge area of opaqueness was the fact that Hamas kept hiding behind civilians. There was a huge, indisputable number of Gazan civilians killed, but as hard as Israel tried to warn them and keep them out of the cross-fire, I believe that it was absurd to think that civilians will leave their homes with no where to go. Even still, Hamas set up shop in the most heavily populated areas for protection, and that's including behind/under kindergartens. On Jan. 18, Israel declared a cease-fire and on the 19, so did Hamas. But the entire Gaza War had been one extreme international mess.

So, my friend's point of view on the Gaza War was that Israel had committed war crimes because of the civilian death-toll. I cannot say I do not see his point of view, but I believe it was no war crime to secure your borders and protect your citizens. I additionally explained to him, point-blank, that I believe war is a terrible, horrific thing that only kills human life (innocent or not). But I also made it extremely clear that if people (Hamas) is hiding behind their children and killing mine, you'll be sure as anything I will kill theirs to protect my own. It's a you or me situation, and I'm not going to watch my friends and children die. We discussed both our views and concluded that war sucks and death is inevitable in it. Whether we root for the red, green, black and white flag, or the blue and white, to have war is a terrible thing. But even there, our conversation did not stop.

He told me of his new-found respect for Hamas. I heard that and nearly fell out of my seat! He then told me a rather unbelievable narration. In Lebanon, after one of those two incidents, he was kidnapped by Hamas, accused of being an Israeli spy. Now the rest of the story became a personal trial, one I do not wish to publicly share with out his permission... but I was undoubtedly horrified to learn he walked out in peace with Hamas, with a new found respect for them. And I also know it was no Stockholm Syndrome, either. Imagine that.

By the end of that conversation, I would like to think we befriended one another. We both had the same goal (peace) with two very different spins on the whole Middle-East story. So, I guess this was a story of a Jewish-American boy becoming a Palestinian/Arab sympathizer and the Jewish-American girl becoming a passionate Zionist; but more than the labels, it was about two American Jews with the same background, who became opponents based on borders during war.