My grandmother once told me she was born in the Year of the Big Snow. Her first son, she said, was born in the Year of the Good Harvest. The Big Snow and the Good Harvest are events so much larger than her or I that they mark the epochs of her life. They were so great and so wide reaching that she can't help but landmark the calendar of her life by them. Wandering around the south of Lebanon, I wondered what she would call this. Every bridge was shaken free of its foundation; many houses, schools and stores turned into rubble.
The scale of this destruction is bigger than I can understand. I've caught myself often not wondering about the felled bridges in the same way I've never wondered about the archaeological Roman ruins ubiquitous to Lebanon. The scale lends itself to the belief that some invisible force did this. Perhaps this was the Year of the Massive Earthquake.
As I pondered the abstractness of it all - my eyes glazed and fixed upon yet another destroyed bridge we were trying to bypass - our Lebanese driver must have noticed my confusion. "The Israelis did that. They did everything". It was obvious, but I needed to hear it. The Israelis did this.
The war criminals who ordered this are not abstract. They have names and addresses. They can be held to account for their actions. Ditto for those who carried out the orders, pulling the triggers on the weapons of death that fired millions of cluster bombs into the region after the ceasefire date was decided upon, and targeted civilian installations throughout the war.
Not only do they have names and addresses, but they like to do interviews. Dani Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to Washington during the war, was asked if the Americans really gave the Israelis "carte blanche to do everything in that war". His answer? "Almost everything". And that's what the Israelis did, with the blessing of the Americans. Almost everything. Cluster bombs. Attacks on civilian areas. Targeting ambulances. Killing peacekeepers. One wonders what's left.
"My grandmother once told me she was born in the Year of the Big Snow". I explained to the driver about the Big Snow and the Good Harvest and asked: "What do you think she would call this?"
"Look at that bridge, then look at that house, then look at that street, and then hear me well.
This is the Year of the Great Victory".
tarek : )