 "Photo: John Sims / The Daily Reveille, Jared P.L. Norman / The , Kevork Djansezian / The Associated Press")
War shook the Middle East this summer as a month-long conflict claimed civilian and military life, and the world watched as Israel and Hezbollah fought along the Lebanon and Israel border. Two University students found themselves closely linked to the conflict across the ocean. Both James Bullman, who spent the summer in Israel, and Roy Issa, whose relatives live in Lebanon, contend that each country was acting in self-defense. The conflict began after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12. In the 34 days that followed, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged rockets and bombs that resulted in more than 1,000 deaths. Hezbollah, which has been labeled a terrorist organization, operates in South Lebanon and acts as a de facto government; it has a militia and does philanthropic work within the community. Tensions mounted as the conflict began to claim more lives, including four U.N. soldiers. Before a cease-fire agreement was reached, Israeli soldiers invaded South Lebanon in an attempt to remove Hezbollah cells. The Israeli and U.S. government say Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Others disagree and say it is a political organization with a legitimate militia.
JAMES' STORY James Bullman spent 11 days in Israel this summer. He watched tensions mount weeks before the explosive conflict erupted in what he called a war for Israel's existence. Bullman, political science junior, had never visited Israel before, but has been active in campus organizations targeted at Jewish students, serving as president of Tigers for Israel, a member of Hillel at LSU and is heavily involved in pro-Israel activism. During his stay, Bullman said he visited an Israel Defense Forces army base in North Israel. There he befriended an American citizen serving in the Israeli Army whom he planned to visit again next summer. Bullman said while at the base, the soldier pointed to a tower "so close to the base we just assumed it was an Israeli installation." But the people inside were Hezbollah members, and the towers were Hezbollah installations. "Actually seeing someone, a terrorist, it was the first time I had felt uneasy, like, should I be out here?" Bullman said. A few days later, Bullman was eating at a restaurant with an IDF captain in West Jerusalem and heard what sounded like thunder. The IDF captain received a phone call and was told the soldier Bullman spoke with days before was shot in the chest and critically wounded. The sound of thunder they heard was Israeli artillery knocking down the Hezbollah installation as a response. "A guy I know got shot - by a terrorist," Bullman said. "Seeing that just three weeks before everything erupts is intense." Three weeks after Bullman left Israel, Hezbollah members in Lebanon kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said the soldiers would only be returned in a prisoner exchange with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a July 12 Associated Press report that the kidnappings were "an act of war." From July 12 until the Aug. 14 cease-fire passed by the U.N. Security Council, Israel and Lebanon hurled a barrage of rockets at each other resulting in casualties and damages to infrastructure, mostly in Lebanon.
ROY'S STORY Roy Issa, biology sophomore, was born in Lebanon and, at age four, came to the United States. His extended family remains in Lebanon, and he said he is strongly tied to the country. This summer his mother Yolla and 11-year-old brother Ralph visited Lebanon to see their family but became trapped there after the conflict began.
Yolla and Ralph Issa went to the U.S. Embassy to find a way to leave Lebanon, but because of the high volume of Americans trying to leave the country - almost 25,000 - they were lost in the crowd. The two went to a Syrian airport where they planned to fly to Italy and then to the United States. Syrian airport officials refused to honor their tickets, Roy Issa said, and they were told they would have to pay $2,000 for another one. When Yolla Issa agreed to pay the new price to leave the country, officials told her the offer had expired, Roy Issa said. After 10 hours in the airport, an official agreed to honor the crying mother's plane tickets, but only after she paid him $200 under the table, Roy Issa said. "If they know you're American, they give you trouble," Roy Issa said of Syrian officials. Yolla and Ralph Issa were stuck in Lebanon for an extra two weeks because of the sudden attack from Israel. Roy Issa said his mother told him stories of rockets hitting just next door to where they were. His mother and brother returned safely to the United States, but their extended family remains in North Lebanon in a town they thought was far enough to be safe but was attacked. While Roy Issa said none of his family members have been hurt yet, he has several uncles and cousins in the Lebanese army who faced direct military conflict on a daily basis. Issa said he fears for the lives of his family.
IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL Some critics of Israel have said the country delivered a disproportionate response to the Lebanese kidnapping. Bullman said he agrees with Israel's decision to fight back because Hezbollah has been attacking Israel for several years in small isolated incidents. "If I slapped you, I would fully expect that you slapped me back," Bullman said. "That's the way the world works. Israel is attacked. Define proportionate to me - 250 rockets on average are hitting Israel a day." Bullman said that while he is upset Lebanese civilians are dying, it is Hezbollah's hiding in populated areas that creates more casualties. "Israelis are dropping bombs accurately, but when the X on their map is a civilian population because Hezbollah is hiding behind them, there's nothing you can do," Bullman said. He said many Hezbollah militia are counted as civilians because they are not part of the Lebanese army, and they do not wear uniforms. Bullman said Israel's goal is not to take out Hezbollah because he does not think they will ever leave the country entirely but to weaken them. "You can not have a terrorist organization running the border," Bullman said. "We wouldn't stand for it; any decent country wouldn't stand for it." Bullman said he was impressed with the United States' support of Israel's right to defend itself. Stephen Blitz, accounting junior studying abroad in Israel at Tel Aviv University, said he agrees. "The U.S. stayed by them. I'm proud to come here and say that I'm American," he said. Blitz said he is worried about Iran and Syria, whose governments are supporting Hezbollah. "The world can't contain them," Blitz said. "It's more of a global issue than people realize."
IN SUPPORT OF LEBANON Roy Issa said Hezbollah did not start the war and maintains that Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization. "The only reason they attack Israel is because Israel attacks them first," Issa said. "Israel has thousands of Lebanese-captured civilians." He said the media and the United States are overwhelmingly pro-Israel and "brainwash" the American public to support Israel. "If 20 Israelis die, they'll call it a massacre without mentioning that 100 Lebanese people died," Issa said. "It's almost like Israeli blood is worth more than Lebanese or Palestinian blood." He said Hezbollah support the Lebanese people and provide schools and hospitals to areas in South Lebanon. Issa said in this situation he sides with Hezbollah but wishes they did not exist because he wants to see a united Lebanon, free of Syrian control. Abu Abed Mubarak, Imam of the Baton Rouge Islamic Center, said he is more concerned that this has become a senseless war against innocent civilians. Earlier this summer the BRIC held a pro-Lebanon rally in front of the courthouse to show its disapproval of the war. "More than a third of the killed ones are kids, and the rest of the majority are regular civilians that have nothing to do with Hezbollah or war itself," he said. Mubarak said he does not justify Hezbollah's kidnapping, but he can understand why they did it. "Israel has kidnapped a lot of people from Hezbollah, and Hezbollah also from Israel soldiers," Mubarak said. He said he thinks Prime Minister Olmert will later be charged as a criminal of war for targeting civilians.
AN END TO THE WAR?
The AP reported that 845 Lebanese people were killed, 743 of them civilians. Also, 4,051 Lebanese were wounded in the fight. More than 15,000 homes and apartments were destroyed and 900 commercial buildings. Additionally one-fourth of the Lebanese population, 916,000 people, were displaced as they fled Israeli bombing. On the other side of the fight, 157 Israelis were killed, 39 of whom were civilians, and 860 Israelis were wounded. At least 6,000 buildings were damaged, and 300,000 people were displaced. Bullman said he thinks Israel will end the war when Hezbollah is effectively weakened. Lebanese officials reported about 4,500 bombing raids from Israel. Israel reported being struck by 3,970 Hezbollah rockets. "We're not just reacting against a bunch of terrorists," Bullman said. "This is a fight for our existence. And it's sad that a country that has been around for 60 years, that's provided the world with so many things has to sit there and fight every five to 10 years of its history for its existence. To say that it's disproportionate is sad." But Issa said Hezbollah will never be weakened. "A million other Hezbollahs will rise," he said. "If you get rid of them, they'll show up in another country. That's the problem about radical Islam, they see what's going on, and they're fueled by it."
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