Christian villagers in southern Lebanon have been alarmed at Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel that have been unleashed since October 8. Those attacks are answered by Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes. And the Christians are literally caught in the crossfire. They are worried that Hezbollah might drag them into a real war, more than the current tit-for-tat exchanges, with the IDF, a war that the Christians do not want. More on their alarm, and growing anger at Hezbollah, can be found here: “Lebanon’s precarious sectarian balance tipping amid Hezbollah-Israeli war,” Reuters, March 31, 2024:
As the Lebanese Christian village of Rmeish marks its first Easter since the Gaza war erupted, residents say a parallel confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel is dragging them into a conflict they did not choose.
Like many Christians elsewhere in southern Lebanon, residents are angry and fearful their homes could be caught in the cross-fire and their families forced to flee — permanently — from their ancestral villages near the Lebanon-Israel border.
Earlier this week, a Rmeish resident confronted a group of armed men trying to launch rockets at Israel from within the village. Some villagers rang church bells to sound the alarm, and the armed men moved off to fire rockets from another neighborhood, according to mayor Milad al-Alam and Rmeish residents.
“What we’ve been saying for the last six months is: among our own homes, keep us neutral. Any strike in return would have brought huge losses,” Alam told Reuters.
Israeli counterstrikes on Hezbollah rocket launching sites close to or even from within Christian villages can damage or destroy infrastructure, kill livestock, destroy olive trees, and set tobacco fields on fire, as well as constitute a threat to the lives of Christian villagers.
Hezbollah began launching rockets from hilltops and villages in southern Lebanon at Israel on Oct. 8 in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which carried out a cross-border attack into Israel the previous day that triggered a fierce Israeli land, air, and sea offensive on the Gaza Strip.
The villagers’ resentment reflects criticism from Christian clerics and politicians opposed to Hezbollah, who have long accused the group of undermining the state through its possession of a controversial arsenal that outguns the national army, and of monopolizing decisions of war and peace.
“We have nothing to do with this war. Do they (Hezbollah) want to displace us?” said a 40-year-old resident of Rmeish who asked not to be identified, fearing that criticizing Hezbollah could bring reprisals. Iran-backed Hezbollah, which holds sway over much of the Lebanese state, denied its fighters had tried to launch rockets from Rmeish….
Whom should we believe? The inveterate liars of Hezbollah, or the Christian villagers of Rmeish, who managed to persuade one group of Hezbollah operatives to move their imminent launching of a rocket away from the village?
The Muslim-Christian war that lasted from 1975 to 1990 resulted in 150,000 fatalities, with 900,000 people displaced from their homes. In the last two decades, some Maronite Christian politicians, including former President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Basil, have created a group, the Free Patriotic Movement, that made an alliance of convenience with Hezbollah, but now even those Christians have admitted that their former good relations with Hezbollah have been “shaken” as a result of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel from sites inside or near Christian villages, that then lead to IDF’s counterattacks on those sites that harm the Christians’ property in southern Lebanon. Christians have now been confronting Hezbollah operatives and demanding that they move away from Christian-populated areas to launch their rockets.
Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon’s Christians into a war they do not want, and from which they will derive only harm. The Christian clerics, both Maronite and Greek Orthodox, have demanded that Lebanon “stay on the sidelines” of the current hostilities and decried the fact that “one faction” (Hezbollah) is making decisions on war and peace for the whole of Lebanon. Meanwhile, olive trees, tobacco fields, and livestock on Christian farms in the south are being damaged or destroyed, shops and schools have been shuttered because of the fear of incoming fire from the IDF, and many young Christians in southern Lebanon, seeing the Hezbollah-dominated future as bleak, are preparing to emigrate.
Tony Rice says
In the early days of when I bought my flat in London came to live a man and his mother. He had a Jaguar and his mother, a baby Fiat on which he said he had to spend more in repairs than on his Jag. They eventually moved and bought house near Ealing Common to where he invited me one evening for dinner. He had by then been joined by his brother, who it turned out, had been the President of The Lebanon. When I said I would bring with me a person with whom I was friendly with, ie an Iraqi, my dinner invitation was promptly withdrawn. I then realised Lebanon and those ” in charge ” were Christians and who had been driven out by Arabs, Muslims in other words. Hence the hatred by Lebanese Christians of Muslims. And which continues to this day. The Lebanon was regarded as the Paris of the Middle East. No longer , sadly. Btw, The Cedars of Lebanon.
Greg says
No shit!
Stive says
Amazing any Christians still alive in southern Lebanon. When Israel under Barak pulled out, 2000 south Lebanese Christian officers and families were given Israeli citizenship for their safety non officers had to stay in Lebanon. Hezbolla rounded up many and trucked them to Syria where Assad killed them all.
Assad hates Christians but as a minority Alawite he allied with Syrian Christians, Druze, Kurds, etc and cobbled a huge minority to rule over Sunni majority. No love but helped him stay in power. Lebanese Christians had no use like Syrian Christians so Assad killed them.
I sure wish what Christians in south Lebanon could find safety in another land.
Stive says
Amazing any Christians still alive in southern Lebanon. When Israel under Barak pulled out, 2000 south Lebanese Christian officers and families were given Israeli citizenship for their safety non officers had to stay in Lebanon. Hezbolla rounded up many and trucked them to Syria where Assad killed them all.
Assad hates Christians but as a minority Alawite he allied with Syrian Christians, Druze, Kurds, etc and cobbled a huge minority to rule over Sunni majority. No love but helped him stay in power. Lebanese Christians had no use like Syrian Christians so Assad killed them.
I sure wish what Christians in south Lebanon could find safety in another land. May God preserve them
OLD GUY says
They should be concerned, Hezbollah won’t hesitate to but these Christians in the line of fire as shields.