Bruce Anderson
The fate of Lebanon is heart-rending. It should be one of the glories of the Levant and of Mediterranean civilisation. At ground level, the Lebanese have always had an appetite for a good time: every vice imaginable can be found in Beirut. But there’s one problem. The pleasures of dolce far niente are likely to be drowned out by ancestral voices prophesying war.
One is often astonished by the resilience of the Lebanese. When the shelling stops, they emerge from their shelters. One group of kids will gather up brass shell-casings, another one will have cardboard boxes full of oranges. If Lebanon, like us, had been on an island with its ancient enemy more than 20 miles away by sea, goodness knows what the Lebanese might have achieved in a long and successful history. As it is, their enemies are legion; the tragedy endless.
The recent strike on Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie talkies arouses a mixed reaction. It is hard not to admire the Israelis’ ultra high-tech skills. How did they do it? Could any other nation rival that prowess? On which subject, it is impossible not to smile at the thought that many seem to have that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) will suffer because the UK is cutting off a tiny proportion of our arms exports to Israel. Indeed, it is reassuring to know that the IDF still thinks that some of our kit is worth buying. One might have thought that it would be the other way around.
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