The Soon To Be Changing Face of Lebanon

Tonight I hung out with one of my Lebanese friends that I haven’t seen in a while. We’ll call him “One Man Army”. As soon as I saw him I had to give him a little jab about whats going on and because I’m a sarcastic jerk who rarely shows compassion during tough times, I choose this.

Me: “Bro what’s going on in your country, by the time you go back its either going to be a hot smoldering crater or ‘New Israel’.“

OMA: “Kisimek, irie fik” Translation: Your moms coochie, my dick on you.

We sat down, had some tea, made fun of each other a little bit and finally started talking about the current conflict. What came up didn’t surprise me that much but got me thinking about the future stability of the Middle East. According to OMA and through his correspondence to friends and family in Lebanon, Israel’s aggression has caused the people and especially the youth, to side with Hezbollah. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked by that alone if it wasn’t for the fact that, according to OMA, the young crowd has been hyped by the attacks and looks forward to fighting Israel. As for their parents, they still remember the wars and the pain and the suffering and want nothing but peace, they want the missiles to stop so they can return to their homes and rebuild their country. I found the exact same sentiment in a BBC story about Syria regarding the Syrian youth and their desire to fight as opposed to their parents.

I don’t know what will happen as a result of Israels full scale attack on Lebanon and its effect on the people, it appears that right now it has taken a country of moderates and recruited them into the growing number of bitter war torn people dedicated to hating Israel and throwing their lives away for the cause.