Beirut – Further Misery in An Ancient, Historical City

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By Marc “Kid Huevos” Livitz

Many of us awoke on Tuesday morning with awful news circulating out of Beirut. A warehouse in the city’s port district suddenly exploded into a ball of smoke and fire, which was quickly followed by a sonic boom which shook much of the city to its foundations. As the facts slowly started to trickle out, we’ve learned that for the past six years, the building had housed up to 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate granules. In terms of agriculture, this compound allows plants to grow by releasing nitrogen into the surrounding soil. However, when mixed with the right chemicals, it also can produce highly explosive properties, which is often used in construction, but also in acts of terrorism such as the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

Currently, at least 100 people are reported dead and thousands upon thousands are injured. It’s a horrific scene in a city which has seen far more misery than it could ever deserve over the past century. Tuesday’s explosion was so powerful that it was felt 125 miles away at the island of Cyprus.

Beirut has some of the finest ancient history museums in the world and the region itself has historical references which date back several millennia. Alexander the Great passed through the area and a few hundred years later, so did the Roman Empire. Ruins such as the Hippodrome and government buildings dating back to the second century, C.E. can still be viewed. Imagine how cool it would be to sit on a golden beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, a city where people of several faiths and walks of life live side by side and see past many of their differences. Imagine even further waking up the following morning and hopping into your rental car for a drive up the Mediterranean coastline to Beirut to check out some of the world’s best museums. Nope, that won’t happen. Lebanon doesn’t recognize Israel. Drag.

As we know all too well, times change, sometimes for the better and oftentimes, for the worse. The Middle East is no stranger to conflict, strife, civil wars and various types of sectarian fighting. In particular, Lebanon has frequently been a part of such unfortunate circumstances, particularly over the last one hundred years. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the global horrors of World War I, the country was included as part of a French mandate which separated it from present-day Syria in 1920. One of my most treasured memories as a young kid was listening to my great uncle’s stories of his time with the United States armed forces during World War II. He saw action in various parts of Europe as well as Africa, yet what often stood out was his affinity for the Mediterranean port city of Beirut. Growing up in the 1980’s, the news reports on TV and in print usually spoke negatively of the area, which in many ways culminated in 1983. He crossed smiles with frowns when he thought back to the days when Beirut was often referred to as the Paris of the Middle East. Coffee shops, fine restaurants and places which a many of us today would call “Hot Spots” were all over town.

Of course, things changed when Lebanon was granted independence in 1943. Various types of prosperity clashed with turmoil, which ultimately boiled over to a full-blown civil war in 1975. As is and continues to be the case in many countries and regions throughout the world, secularism and doctrines of faith don’t always get along. To add to the frustration of the Lebanese, many of whom were plain living moderates, was the will of neighboring Syria to influence the country’s future. For nearly 40 years, the iron-fisted regime’s military based in Damascus occupied Lebanon, beginning in 1976. Pressure from the south of the country came as well, as Israel responded to actions taken by the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) and carried out its own occupation in parts of Lebanon from from the early 1980’s all the way up to 2000. Their intent was to destroy the PLO, which was headquartered at the time in Beirut. In their eyes and to sum it up plainly, the PLO’s formal request to return lands stolen from them wasn’t worth their time.
During this period, Ronald Reagan, in his first term as United States President gave his approval of Israel’s pledge to only go far enough into Lebanon to thwart the cross-border rocket attacks it claimed had been fired at them. History shows that they didn’t keep their promise and a few days later, much of Beirut laid in ruins. Despite the casualties to Lebanese as well as Palestinian civilians, the Israeli military threw everything in every direction they felt the PLO was established in an effort to rid the area of their presence once and for all. Shortly thereafter, in an effort to stop the actions of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) which had clearly overstepped its bounds as well as its word given to its largest benefactor, Reagan decided to lend a hand to Israel by sending a special group of characters to hammer out some sort of compromise. It worked, as the PLO then relocated all the way to Tunisia.

Later in 1982, after the Israelis moved away from Beirut, they pressured the Lebanese government to elect a President whom they found favorable, who happened to be a Christian warlord, Bashir Gemayl. A bomb blast would end his reign shortly after taking office, after which his security forces blamed the large group of Palestinians who’d been left behind. The majority of them were living in refugee camps and tragically, many were massacred in a few days of reprisals taken by those loyal to the short termed President, actions to which Israel turned a blind eye. In order to help quell the violence, Ronald Reagan approved the sending of United States Marines to the area, who would ultimately find themselves among French and Italian forces as well. The Reagan Administration felt they could force a peace treaty between Lebanon and Israel. The experiment had worked somewhat in Egypt and Israel favored joining hands with neighboring countries, one by one. This idea flew in the face of Lebanese citizens, who were rightfully incensed at Israel’s bombardment of their country. It also caught the condemnation of Hafiz Al-Asad (Bashir’s dad), whose forces were currently occupying parts of Lebanon.

In May of 1983, the brother of the slain President, Amin Gemayl signed a peace treaty with Israel. It allowed the IDF to remain in southern Lebanon and contained language stating that they could stay there until Syria withdrew its presence in the north. Hafiz Al-Asad would have none of it. Despite the fact that parts of the Syrian Air Force was destroyed by the IDF during its invasion of the country, Asad lended support to various factions in an effort to disrupt life for the Israeli occupiers. One organization in particular, Hizbullah (Party of God) stepped in after the departure of the PLO. As is the case today, the American government’s blind and unconditional support for Israel in conjunction with its middle-fingered approach to dealing with Iran only fanned the flames. During that summer of 1983, U.S. forces were shot at, harassed and shelled. This was only the beginning.

On October 23, a suicide bomber drove a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives into the Marine Barracks in Beirut. 241 Marines were killed. The following February, the United States withdrew its presence in the region. Throughout the decades since then, Beirut in particular has suffered waves of violence in the form of bombings, shootings, political murders, all of which make Tuesday’s horrific explosion all the more tragic. The country has also been one of the grounds for the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, its fiercest enemy.

Lebanon is not only suffering with the world’s battle against Covid-19, but its economy is in shambles as well. Current estimates set the amount of damage at $3 to $5 billion and over a quarter of a million residents have been displaced. At the same time, the country is bracing for the impact of a verdict to be rendered upon four individuals (all tried in absentia) held accountable for the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri back in 2005.

Of course, theories of the blast’s cause flew all around after the news had made its way around the world. Neighboring countries Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia all said they had nothing to do with the calamity. Meanwhile, our own President, Donald Trump just had to chime in with his opinion that an accident of this caliber couldn’t just happen on its own. It had to be a terrorist attack. International aid has begun to pour into the region. Stay strong, Lebanon.

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