Why does Israel hate Lebanon so much?


By Hmida Ben Romdhane
(Editor in chief, La Presse, Tunisia)



Geographically, Lebanon is not really advantaged. The problem is not posed here in terms of size, but in terms of the harmful and even destructive relations imposed to the Lebanese people by their southern neighbor, Israel.
One can't help wondering why Israel did not hesitate to wage countless wars against a peace-seeking country with no other ambitions than to develop its economy and offer a better life to its people.
For decades, Israeli leaders have always manipulated the political reality of the region by presenting their country as the victim of "terrorist activities" in Palestine and Lebanon and this flawed complaint has been, unfortunately, accepted by most Americans and Europeans as an indisputable fact. However, more and more citizens in Europe and America are not only questioning now the Israeli policy, but they are less and less inclined to take for granted the Israeli propaganda presenting the Palestinian and Lebanese issues as a matter of "war against terrorism", ignoring cynically the main and even the unique factor of violence in the region, the occupation by Israel of Arab lands.
The breathtaking resistance opposed to Israeli army by Hezbollah during thirty four days last summer destroyed the idea, patiently instilled in the American and European minds by the Israeli propaganda that Southern Lebanon is "infested by terrorists". Hezbollah could demonstrate to they who doubt that it is not a group of terrorists, but a strong and well structured resistance movement aiming to liberate what remains occupied of the Lebanese land.
During the last war, the world could witness the scandalous behavior of the Israeli Air Force concentrating mainly their bombardments on the Lebanese infrastructure freshly reconstructed after the disastrous civil war of the mid seventies and eighties. The question that everyone has in mind is why the Israelis never miss an opportunity to send their fighter planes launching thousands of tons of bombs to destroy within days what the Lebanese build in decades?
Many explain this by the fact that Israel apprehends very much Lebanon as a harsh economic competitor, able to attract investors and tourists and, consequently, it's in Israel's interest to have a Lebanese economy continuously crippled. Of course this explanation has some relevance, but the economic aspect is not what prevents Israel from sleeping.
What really and deeply bothers Israel is the Lebanese multi-confessional social system and the peaceful coexistence of a population more united by the Lebanese flag than divided by the various confessions that characterize the country. Of course there was a terrible civil war that lasted 15 years, but this war was triggered by external factors (the massive and bloody expulsion of the Palestinians from Jordan in 1970 -most of them fled to Lebanon-, the aggravation of the situation in the middle-east after the 1973 war and the aggressive Israeli policy toward Lebanon among other reasons) and not by the social structure of the Lebanese society.
During decades, Israel pursued relentlessly the same objective: make the coexistence Impossible between Lebanese confessions, but failed. So why is Israel so bothered and so embarrassed by the Lebanese multi-confessional social system? Because Lebanon stands as a constant and disturbing denial of the false Israeli claim that a multi-confessional system is not viable. This claim is used by the Israeli politicians as the main argument to exclude from power the fifth of its population, the Palestinians with the Israeli citizenship, and to dismiss as "absurd" the idea of a unique State in historical Palestine with a democratically elected government ruling both peoples.
This is the very reason that explains the deep hatred and the aggressive hostility of Israel towards Lebanon. The fact that, after 15 years of harsh civil war, the Lebanese settled their disputes, elected a government, reconstructed their country and resumed their peaceful coexistence enraged highly Israel. That's why this country couldn't help missing any opportunity to try to trigger a civil war and bring the chaos, by destroying the vital infrastructure of the country. Last summer, Israel could destroy much of this infrastructure, but could not destroy the shining proof that bothers it so much: the perfect viability of the Lebanese multi-confessional system.