The flags in Hezbollah territory reflect political reality, alternating between the flag of Lebanon and the flag of Hezbollah; a tunnel dug by Hezbollah during its resistance to the Israeli invasion; the plaza of the Hezbollah Museum.
This past week we had a welcome national holiday – Annunciation Day. What? You didn’t celebrate it? The Christians here claim that it is the one holiday they have in common with the Muslims. The Muslims are kind enough not to challenge this. I’ll believe it’s a joint Christian-Muslim holiday when any other Arab or Muslim country celebrates it. The Qu’ran does mention the Annunciation. Here is one example:
Behold! the angels said:
“O Mary! God giveth thee
Glad tidings of a Word
From Him: his name
Will be Christ Jesus,
The son of Mary, held in honour
In this world and the Hereafter
And of (the company of) those
Nearest to God;
I celebrated Annunciation Day by taking a trip with my friend Diana to what is known as the Hezbollah Museum, although its real name is Mleeta Resistance Tourist Landmark. It’s about an hour southeast of Beirut way up in the mountains and I hired a driver to take us there. Here is its website: www.mleeta.com It’s worth taking a look.
I wanted to go to the Hezbollah Museum so I could hear what this group had to say for itself, unfiltered by the US government which treats it as the spawn of Satan. I think it a stroke of genius that Hezbollah created the Resistance Museum as it gives them the opportunity to engage the public and control the message. It seems to be popular place for school groups and courting couples.
We were met by a tour guide dressed in khakis who first showed us around an outdoor area where weaponry, tanks, and Israeli helmets are artfully arranged to memorialize Hezbollah’s historic victory over the Israeli forces of occupation. Then the tour guide showed us around the encampment where tunnels had been dug, bunkers built, and rockets fired, telling us of the Hezbollah philosophy of commanders sharing the risks of war alongside their men. He stressed the element of self-sacrifice, something you will note if you look at their website. At one point he said, “It’s like when Jesus Christ said ‘take up your cross and follow me.’” The analogy to Christianity is not unfounded: the cult of martyrdom was so strong in the early church that bishops tried to stamp it out. For some, the veil between this world and the next can seem very thin.
The Lebanese I’ve spoken with seem to have a begrudging respect for Hezbollah. They managed to bring order to an area that was being torn apart by the Palestinians and the Israelis and have assimilated into the Lebanese political structure. Two Christian missionaries from Tyre I spoke with said that they enjoyed good relations with the local Hezbollah.
The sticking point is that Hezbollah will not disarm. One of my teachers lamented, “We are a country with two governments.” Certainly Lebanon defies the classic definition of a nation state in that the formal government does not have a monopoly on violence. Hezbollah’s position is that the threat from Israel is real and that they are needed to defend the southern border of Lebanon. What has people exercised here is that they are using these arms to fight in Syria on behalf of Assad’s government and so are extending Lebanon into the Syrian civil war. The bombings in the Shi’a neighborhood south of Beirut are considered extensions of the Syrian civil war, facilitated by Hezbollah losing focus on its core constituency.
In church on Sunday we said prayers for residents of the Syrian town of Kessab, a town with a large Armenian population where many Lebanese Armenians have relatives and summer homes. This town, we heard, is being destroyed by the al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels and the homes ransacked of their goods for resale in Turkey. I met a French journalist today who has just come back from there. Kim Kardashian has joined the call to save Kessab. But nothing in the New York Times on the fighting there – I don’t think they maintain a bureau here anymore except in Jerusalem.
Some of you have noted that my blog is late this week. I confess my energy level is beginning to flag. I have an ambitious schedule that offers little wiggle room. A few more holidays like Annunciation Day would be very welcome around now. Holy Week is coming up but this year the Western and Orthodox churches observe Easter the same day so we don’t get double holidays. I am hoping that reminding myself that I will be leaving in less than four weeks will give me the burst of energy I need to push on through.
goingfortheguttural 