Trump has pushed US into a needless $30b war

Lebanon's government has once again declared May 25th a public holiday to commemorate the date in 2000 when the Israeli army unilaterally withdrew from the south after 18 years of occupation.

- Michael Jansen

The day after Israel's pullout, my Iraqi friend Nuha al-Radi and I toured the south from Naqoura to Marjayoun.

Our driver, Zein, was from the south and knew the border area well. We set off at six in the morning from Beirut and drove along the coastal road through Sidon and Tyre en route to Naqoura where we had coffee with the then UN spokesman and peacemaker Timor Goksel, known by his friends as the “terrible Turk.” We toured the border villages where children handed out sweets, local Christian priests praised Iran-backed Hizbollah for driving Israel out, and villagers seemed shocked to be rid of the Israelis after so many years of occupation.

Thousands remained in their homes which were still standing despite so many years of warfare. We paused at Kafr Kila where Lebanese civilians used to throw stones toward the Israeli settlement of Metula across the border. At Ibl al-Saqi we met villagers whose relatives lived at Dearborn near Detroit in Michigan, the state where I grew up. I told them I would be there within the week to visit my sister and interviewed these relatives during my stay. They asked me about their family members and the situation in the south.

We turned inland and I filed a story to The Irish Times from an internet cafe in Nabatiyeh before returning to Beirut. By that time the highway was a creeping traffic jam as hundreds of thousands of Lebanese flocked to the south. Hizbollah was seen as a hero in a largely united Lebanon and across the Arab world. The armed non-state movement had achieved the nearly impossible task of using irregular military tactics to drive Israel from occupied territory.