life in Lebanon

Assault-rifle wielding Internal Security Forces arrived at my birthday
party last night at around 2 am to tell us to turn the music down.
Apparently, a neighbor complained, which, while understandable, is
also unusual for a Friday night in Beirut, where a wild party is
normally the least of anyone's concerns. But unbeknownst to my
roommate and myself, there is an 11 pm curfew on parties -- the city
being in the grip of a bombing campaign, perpetrated by Fatah al
Islam, a radical militant group currently doing battle with the
Lebanese army in a Palestinian camp up north. Those of our friends
brave -- or foolish -- enough to be out looking for action, said our
party was practically the only sign of life in East Beirut.
Considering the noise carried for blocks, we were lucky a Fatah al
Islam cell didn't crash the event. It may seem callous to be partying
while the Palestinian camp at Nahr al Bared burns, but those of us who
are journalists don't really care. And besides, we had rushed to the
"front" yesterday as soon as we heard that the Lebanese army had
resumed its assault on Fatah al Islam. There was little we could do.
The jumpy Lebanese troops at the edge of the siege prevented anyone
from getting near the camp. They cleared out all the television
cameras from buildings overlooking the battlefield, and fired warning
shots in the air to prevent photographers from taking pictures.
Ostensibly for the safety of the soldiers and for our own good -- more
likely to hide the brutality and potential atrocities
from the media's eyes...The Lebaense army is scared. They are facing
well-trained terrorists willing to fight and die in the ultimate urban
warfare environment. Palestinian camps -- built up over nearly sixty
years -- are dense concrete hives of overcrowded buildings and narrow
streets. As if that isn't horrible enough, there are still some 5,000
Palestinian civilians holed up in Nahr el Bared, who are too stupid,
too poor, or too afraid to leave. Many of them are convinced that the
Lebanese government is using the militants as an excuse to destroy the
camp and rid themselves of the pesky Palestinian refugee problem. The
bloody history of relations between Lebanese and Palestinians -- and
the paranoia that has built up amongst families have lived in refugee
camps without basic civil rights for three generations -- has made
many of them more afraid of the Lebanese government than of foreign
militants. One refugee told me that the battle was part of a deal
between the Lebanese government and the American military to build an
air force base on Nahr al Bared. Conspiracy theories aside, I myself
would not be surprised if the Lebanese government would be go into the
camp guns blazing even if there were Lebanese civilians inside instead
of unwanted
Palestinians. While we wait for the smoke to clear, and while we wait
to finally get inside the camp, many of us are wondering how bloody
the battle for Nahr al Bared will end up being...