A Truce Worse Than War

The difference between war and the truce in southern Lebanon is that war is less aggressive, less violent, less destructive in its occupation of villages, destruction of cities, massacres, and displacement of children and women. War is less deceitful and less cruel than the truce. Its victims are fewer, and its brutality somehow more merciful.

Every time an extension of the truce is announced, fear grips us. Why? What exactly is wrong with war? At least war does not pretend generosity while killing people. It does not kill in the name of a truce and ceasefire, only to extend both the ceasefire and its horrors and humiliations.

The invasion of Ariel Sharon seemed more “civilized.” The ceasefire has become nothing more than تجاوزاً لخط الهدنة، المزيد من الاحتلال، ومضاعفة عدد الضحايا كل يوم. It is regrettable that Ariel Sharon has become a point of comparison, but such is the reality to which the truces of Benjamin Netanyahu have descended.

After the Second World War, Europeans declared the day of the armistice a national day of thanksgiving — the day killing ended and graves ceased spreading across the plains. In Lebanon, however, the truce is a shameless continuation of death. Four southern cities have been reduced to rubble during the truce. Ten percent of Lebanon’s territory has been occupied during the truce. One million people have been displaced into tents under the fire of the truce. And still it kills, displaces, and threatens.

Where is the American guarantor or sponsor in explaining the terms, conditions, or even the basic principles of the truce? And in what cave is the United Nations hibernating? Does it not fear suffocation from swallowing its own tongue?

Since the first announcement of the ceasefire, Israel has not left a single weapon unused in its assault on the south. And we often forget that this war is being fought openly and officially by the United States alongside Israel. At the very least, America should play the role of an honest mediator in a campaign where Lebanon remains the eternal weak party, threatened from all four directions.

The smallest threat facing this small country is disappearance, collapse, and civil war. In a complete breakdown of national cohesion, its state, president, and institutions are described with the worst accusations — the mildest of which are Zionism and treason — along with every charge punishable by death.

Nothing seems to retain its meaning or truth anymore. And the most grotesque manifestation of this void is the truce itself — and the so-called ceasefire.