The Fight Among the Olive Trees
15th May 2024
On October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas massacre further south, Hezbollah started firing rockets into northern Israel, reviving the world’s most dangerous game of chicken. What exactly has been accomplished? Hezbollah’s Shia supporters may be comfortable with their leader Hassan Nasrallah and his Iranian sponsor, head of state Ali Khameini, risking open war. But no one consulted the local Christians, who would never agree to spill Lebanese blood as a supportive gesture to Hamas.
“The south [of the country] belongs to Lebanon, and Hezbollah cannot go to war on behalf of the Lebanese,” says Marc Saad, a spokesman for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party and Hezbollah opponent. But championing the rule of law and national unity can only go so far in Lebanon, where anarchy and sectarianism reign.
Deep in Hezbollah country, right along the Israeli border, lies a cluster of Maronite Catholic villages, the southernmost and largest being Rmeich. Since the war began, Israel has generally refrained from targeting the Christian communities, making them an oasis within a sea of its Shi’ite targets. But the fighting around Rmeich is becoming more ferocious, and Hezbollah has several times tried to use the village as a staging ground for rocket attacks. If a full-blown war were to start, it’s hard to imagine Rmeich being spared by Israel.