Spare a thought for the people of Lebanon

[malaise]

As the criminals continue to kill and destroy.

[Sneederbunk]

1. Israel's punching bag.

[OGBuzz]

13. Beirut was once known as the Paris of the Middle East.

[Sneederbunk]

19. And a Christian stronghold.

[applegrove]

28. I've known people who grew up there and they talk

of olive groves, skiing (!!!), and the beach before the wars started.

[leftstreet]

2. DURec

[2naSalit]

3. K&R

I just heard part of a conversation with a Lebanese poli-sci professor and some hack from bibi's country and it was maddening to say the least. Listening to the attitudes of the people of that country piss me off and makes me hope they learn a valuable lesson that will contain them within their borders. If they can't do that, I hope we stop funding their brutality toward their neighbors. They spent decades fomenting these conflicts, they need to learn that it is a plan that can't continue.

[LeftInTX]

4. Really...

I get alot of regional ME stuff in my FB reels feed (esp Lebanon because there are many Armenians living there). Late last year, the country was finally coming back. Around Christmas, the pope visited there and so I got tons of reels. Everything looked like it was looking up. (Like in, "That would be fun to visit".) Everyone wanted that vibrant Lebanon again. Now....

[LoisB]

5. Yes.

[flashman13]

6. One of Iran's 10 points is that Israel stop attacking Lebanon. If they don't stop, the cease fire will collapse.

Iran will continue bombarding Israel and the Straits will remain closed.

Trump knows he must have this cease fire to get out from under the mess he has created. He won't have much choice. He will have to rein in Bibi. As a side benefit, Congress might be less willing to provide Israel with unlimited military and monetary aid.

[flashman13]

9. At the moment I posted this, a report came out that the Straits are now closed because Israel continues its

attacks on Lebanon. The next move is up to Trump.

[maxsolomon]

7. Netanyahu got MFer to provide cover for the IDF's Ethnic Cleansing of S. Lebanon.

There's no other accurate word for it.

Half a million Shiites forced out of their homes for their religious beliefs. Every bridge over the Litani River destroyed.

America barely noticed because of Trump's circus.

[Bettie]

8. Southern Lebanon

is part of the "greater Israel" that Netanyahu and his supporters want. (You probably already know this)

So, I expect that there will be "settlers" heading there before long, under guard by the IDF of course.

The hard right in Israel has BIG territorial ambitions and they seem to see Trump as their ticket to get what they want.

[maxsolomon]

10. Isn't the stated reason to provide a buffer from Hezbollah?

That North Israel towns would be safe(r) from Hezbollah attacks with Shiites forced north of the Litani.

One wishes the Lebanese Govt was able to assert itself in any way, but they ceded power to Hezbollah long ago.

[Lonestarblue]

11. Israel could create the buffer zone on its own land instead of allowing settlers to live on the border.

The right wing in Israel is even worse than our own MAGA militias and right wing because they are allowed to murder with impunity. I now hate that even one dollar of my tax money supports Israel.

[Bettie]

22. Just saw this and I agree with the poster who

suggested they could make the buffer zone be on their land rather than displacing over a million people by destroying their homes and killing an estimated 1,500 people.

[maxsolomon]

23. That would be too rational.

No buffer is big enough to be safe from missiles.

[twodogsbarking]

12. Humans are the worst of animals.

[AloeVera]

15. It's why we have rules and laws and prisons.

Look what happens to a country (or people) allowed to ignore and dismiss laws and norms with impunity. It devolves. Though Israel is further along this trajectory, the U.S. is quickly catching up now.

[Kid Berwyn]

14. Lebanon once was the "Switzerland of the Middle East"

Before the 1975 civil war, Lebanon was a prosperous, cosmopolitan nation. Its government split power with the presidency reserved for a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister as a Sunni Muslim, and the Parliament Speaker as a Shia Muslim.

Americans in general have little knowledge of history. So, many people I've met are shocked to hear that Arabs can also be of various faiths. Here in Detroit I am good friends with a man who was born in Lebanon, a Roman Catholic, and his wife, a Palestinian who also is RC. FTR, both are outstanding Democrats.

[malaise]

16. That happens when you only listen to yourselves

and ignore history - including your own. In lots of places His Story (and that’s the one most available) has little to do with reality.

[Kid Berwyn]

21. Cervantes grokked before there was a word for it.

"El que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho."

"He who reads much and walks much, sees much and knows much."

(In the above transliteration, of course, "much" means various shades of lots, depending on how it's used.)



Here's one from Saint Augustine that is pretty direct:

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

And to your point, what General George S. Patton, Jr. was wont to tell his staff:

"If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is doing any thinking."

...which is one big reason why Patton was so feared by the NAZIs.

[malaise]

24. "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

Some think they travel but never leave the all inclusive 😀

[Scalded Nun]

17. Not just criminals, but genocidal criminals.

This Iran war lets Israel continue its genocidal march through the Arab states.

If only the sparing of a thought could help these people.

What we have unleashed on the world must never be forgotten.

[malaise]

25. Yep to fulfill some imaginary pie in the sky BS

End times which they will hasten with their nukes - we share a planet with lots of lunatics

[Farmer-Rick]

18. Israel has become the monster

It once fought. They are out of control.

Dragging in the stupidest person in the oval office to help murder more people and crush more civilian infrastructure. How far out into Lebanon does Bibi need to create a desert buffer zone? How many more people do they have to murder?

[MustLoveBeagles]

26. You become what you hate

I can't remember where that quote came from, but it's true.

[Farmer-Rick]

27. Very observant comment

I remember this quote from my first year college philosophy class. Friedrich Nietzsche’s warning, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster".

So true.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Over 250 killed today

Israel has carried out its largest attack on Lebanon since its war with Hezbollah began, killing at least 254 people and wounding 837, an assault that prompted Iranian officials to warn Tehran could withdraw from the ceasefire agreed with the US overnight.

Warplanes levelled several buildings in the centre of Beirut, filling the skies with smoke in what Israel’s defence minister said was “a surprise strike” on the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah.

The Lebanese capital was filled with cars crumpled by the blasts and the flaming wreckage of buildings that first responders struggled to extinguish, as Israel bombed more than 100 Hezbollah military sites around the country.
...
Until the wave of airstrikes by Israel across Lebanon on Wednesday, Hezbollah had not announced any attacks against Israel since the ceasefire announcement – a first since the war between it and Israel began on 2 March.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/08/israel-operations-in-lebanon-to-continue-despite-trump-ceasefire-iran-pakistan-hezbollah

[Scott Alan Swaggerty]

29. K&R