It is a fact: naivety, egocentrism and various underestimations are among the unpredictable elements that shape the course of history. A clear example of this can be seen in the speech delivered this week by the new Secretary General of Hezbollah. What Naim Qassem has yet to grasp is that he is not alone in Lebanon, and many Lebanese do not share his views. He is in a pluralistic society where decisions are made collectively, and a substantial majority of the Lebanese people do not want this war and do not embrace his ideology.
History, as we know, is littered with massacres committed by nations convinced that God was on their side. Naim Qassem continues to believe that the “Islamic Resistance” is the army of the Mahdi and that it will annihilate Israel. He has yet to acknowledge that his party made a significant strategic error by attempting to confront the Hebrew State, despite numerous warnings.
Other examples of strategic misjudgments are evident as well. Michel Aoun, who received support from a considerable segment of the Christian electorate, formed an alliance with the pro-Iranian party, naively believing he could easily “turn” Hezbollah, completely unaware of the profound political and religious ideology that underpins the party. Similarly, Benjamin Netanyahu’s simplistic viewpoint, marked by exclusion, dismisses the fundamental reality of Palestinian nationalism, foolishly assuming that ideas can be eradicated by bombing tents and crushing women and children under tank treads. This must be said, for when human cruelty reaches such extremes, it is unforgivable to remain silent.
I live in a part of Lebanon where jackals roam as night falls, traveling in packs and calling to one another from valley to valley. Their bellies are empty. This is the only explanation I can find for their howling. They likely venture into the streets in search of garbage bins or poorly guarded chicken coops, especially since their hunting grounds, already diminished by urbanization, have probably shrunk even further due to the wildfires that occur each year.
My perspective on this has likely been shaped by an episode from the life of Saint Charbel. It is said that one summer night, while guarding the vineyard of the hermitage, he felt compassion for some jackals and allowed them to enter the vineyard. When his hermit companion, Father Makarios, called him a “donkey” for this act, he simply replied, “They were so hungry!” His empathy extended even to animals.
Unfortunately, not everyone shares the empathy of Saint Charbel, and jackals are not the only creatures facing hunger in the Middle East today. A whole population just a few hundred kilometers from here is currently suffering from starvation. Like them, we find ourselves increasingly compelled to move in large numbers from one safe zone to another, attempting to escape the bombings carried out by a “bank of targets” established without any compassion. At this rate, we too many may soon face hunger, as the Israeli air force has begun cutting off our trade routes to the hinterland under the pretext of preventing Hezbollah from rearming, thereby depriving rural communities of their crops and harvests.
Fortunately, following the bombing of Ras al-Nabeh and the failed attempt to eliminate Hezbollah's coordination and liaison officer, Wafic Safa, on October 10, the US State Department informed Israel that it does not want Beirut to become “the new Gaza.” For reasons yet to be determined, we seem to have benefited from a diplomatic intervention that has cleared the thorny obstacles surrounding our situation, allowing us to continue to eat our fill. And to breathe… beneath the rubble of a Lebanon that continues to be selectively targeted, in the misguided hope that the Lebanese people, thanks to Hezbollah’s blindness, will somehow complete the work that has been set in motion.
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