Saturday, March 04, 2006
Remembering our Mideast history
The Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid writes a sympathetic look at a Lebanese journalist-turned-politician, Ghassan Tueni. Mr. Tueni’s story is compelling but Mr. Shadid still manages to elicit some groans with his asides. Losses Renew a Lebanese Healer
One in particular:
“And he served as a counselor to Lebanon's president when the country signed an ill-fated treaty in 1983 with Israel, which had invaded a year earlier.”
.......which is kind of like saying that we maliciously fired on Japanese planes over Pearl Harbor. Left out of Mr. Hadid’s pithy history lesson is the context that in 1982 Israel was busy chasing Palestinians who were lobbing rockets into Israel. The Palestinians happened to be in Beirut. And the “ill-fated treaty” was “ill-fated” because of Syria not Israel – Israel left Lebanon in 1983.
