Lebanon

Before the year ends, I just wanted to remember about the war in Lebanon that got us all shocked and feeling helpless whilst watching children die on tv, like in any other stupid war.

I've been to Lebanon once and was impressed by how beautiful it is, not only Beirut, but its surroundings, like Tyr, Byblos, Tripoli and of course, the great Baalbek with its amazing Roman temples still standing.

The kindness of the people was also a very nice surprise, as everyone was happy to help and curious to speak with us.

The food was also very good, with a few vegetable dishes toping my list of favourites (falafel, goat cheese pastries) and not even mentioning the sweets, which follow the Arab tradition and are as rich as the Emirs and Princes of the region... They are baked with so much honey and butter it's impossible you don't like them, as they melt in your mouth.

The wine, yes, the wine is also very good. We only basically know Chateau Kefraya but apparentely it's one of the best of the country.

Having said so, I quote The Observer which analyses the pivotal moments of 2006, from which I took this.

14 August

Israel takes aim at Lebanon, but ends up exposing its vulnerability as Hizbollah goes from strength to strength

Thirty-four days of war, 1,400 dead - the majority in Lebanon, and almost $4bn in damage to Lebanon's infrastructure alone by the Israeli bombing. There have been arguments about the causes of the conflict of Lebanon's Summer War, and whether a raid by Hizbollah to capture Israeli soldiers to trade for prisoners on 12 July should be seen as the start point. What is certain now is how far reaching the consequences have been since the ceasefire.

Both the raid and Israel's massive military response were characterised by huge strategic misjudgments, a fact that Hizbollah was quicker to recognise than Israel. The war was pointlessly shocking, as both sides blindly bombed and rocketed civilian centres. It is the aftermath of the war, however, that has changed the political and military landscape.

For the month of war has punctured two abiding myths in the Middle East that have attached themselves to Israel's strength of arms. The first is that a country with massive military and technological superiority will win a conventional war. The second is that of the invulnerability of Israeli arms. The ability of Hizbollah's lightly armed fighters to destroy the heavily armed Israeli Merkava tanks has become a potent symbol across the region.

That myth of invulnerability was always one of Israel's most powerful deterrents. Suddenly the Israeli Defence Forces look vulnerable. To Islamists it seems Israeli soldiers, in contrast to Hizbollah, are interlopers who lack the stomach to die for what they believe. Having declared its victory over the Israelis, Hizbollah is now threatening to lead Lebanon into a new civil war, as it tries to bring down the country's government and take a more powerful role in its affairs.

But the consequences are likely to be more widely felt than solely in Israel and Lebanon. Hizbollah's most powerful sponsor, Iran, saw its greatest international foe sink in Iraq. Now it has seen Israel falter. It marks another important step in Iran's rise as a regional power. For the Lebanese war represents a check for Israel that makes it less likely that Israel would risk an attack on Iran's nuclear sites, with Hizbollah still intact on its northern border and still, in relative terms, lightly policed by the beefed-up UNIFIL peace mission.