Lebanon rebuilds yet again

This cartoon appeared in the dutch opinion magazine 'de Humanist'. (issue 4, 2006)

Lebanon is a country that has seen a number of horrid conflicts, including a devastating civil war.

When Hezbollah fighters kidnapped 2 soldiers a few days after palestinian fighters kidnapped 1, Israel punished them by starting a massive aircampaign, which destroyed hundreds of targets, such as Hezbollah strongholds and their main office (and surrounding buildings) in southern Beirut, but also civilian buildings, roads, bridges, the national airport, harbours, national military targets (non Hezbollah) and powerplants, the last of which created an oilspill that went on to cover almost the entire Lebanese coastline and will take years to clean up.

Israel started bombing and Hezbollah started firing hundreds upon hundreds of missiles (which israel says came from Syria and Iran) into Israeli civilian areas.

Hezbollah stated that the soldiers were captured because Israel did not keep their promise in releasing an agreed upon number of Lebanese prisoners, and Israel stated that the kidnapping was unprovoked agression on Hezbollah's part. To my opinion, it probably was both.

The conflict left 42 Israelli and 1,000+ Lebanese civilians dead, as well as a severely damaged infrastructure in Lebanon.

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But in the end, as before, Lebanon will just rebuild. They've done so many times before.