Juan Cole on the Towers of Beirut

Juan Cole speculates on a comment Osama Ben Laden made about the Towers of Beirut.

Professor Cole's essay makes many assumptions about Ben Laden's thinking, but it's worth reviewing. Most people in America seem to have forgotten the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It was the single most horrible event of my young life, until the sack of my village three years later and the death of my grandmother (events which can be traced back to the invasion which caused so much suffering in my home town). 2,000 people were killed in the refugee camp next door to my village outside of Sidon in the first week of bombing. Israeli soldiers occupied my village, pulled all the men out into the town square and took away the Palestinians to concentration camps. Israel laid siege to Beirut for many weeks, and Thomas Friedman was censored by the New York Times for trying to report on the IDF's illegal use of cluster bombs in the siege. Professor Cole suggests that Osama, too, remembers the destruction of Beirut by Ariel Sharon's forces in 1982, and perhaps believed that hitting New York's towers was an appropriate revenge.

On the morning that I heard of the attack on New York, I did not imagine there was a direct link to the trauma my family and my people suffered in 1982; I merely felt that the horrors visited upon my father's country had now come home to my own. I do believe Professor Cole is on to something here.

I moved to New York City in 1981 because Beirut was lost to me; I love New York passionately, the way one loves a city that one comes to know as a young adult. Her streets and passageways inhabited my dreams for decades, and sometimes I still wander there at night, while slumbering in my bed in Oakland. San Francisco may be a magical city but it has never taken hold of my inner life in the same way. The attack on New York wounded me as deeply as the long war in Beirut did, as if a beloved friend were wounded, not just strangers, not just buildings where I worked and played.

Professor Cole's essay is not a sign of hope, really, except that looking deeply at the heart of matters is always hopeful. Only thus can we understand the truth and perhaps find a right path forward.

May God help John Kerry win the White House and bring some intelligence and courage to American foreign policy.

Comments

[Alison Chaiken]

I was with Juan Cole up to this point:

One of the 9/11 hijackers, Ziad Jarrah, was a Lebanese Sunni who was 8 when the Israelis invaded his country and wrought so much destruction. He obviously was deeply traumatized by the experience.

Obviously? Did Ziad Jarrah live in Beirut as a child? How does Cole know that Jarrah was traumatized by the invasion -- maybe he had lousy parents. Cole is trying much too hard to make a link between September 11 and the Israeli bombardment, not that these events weren't both barbarities.

[Leila]

I agree. This is why I said he's speculating. I'm a little surprised; a historian shouldn't make such a statement without better evidence. Ziad Jarrah was from Zahle, up in the mountains, and may very well have missed the worst of the '82 invasion.

Re: the rest of my statement - I want to make clear that I don't believe that New York deserved Osama's retribution, or somehow brought it to pass. Attacking the World Trade Center because of Sharon's siege of Beirut makes no more sense than invading Iraq to punish Osama's attack on New York. In either case, many thousands of innocent people died for nothing.

[Tony]

To say that he makes assumptions is putting it extremely mildly. The thing about the towers (and the pictures!) is a hilarious joke. But think about the corollary of his statement on Jarrah for a second. Forget the details of Jarrah's life which he sets aside to fit his ideological demagogical stupidity (as usual). If indeed the Israelis traumatized Jarrah, then they also have traumatized thousands of Lebanese who experienced the invasion. If that trauma leads to a suicide attack against the US, and this is Cole's logic, then ALL Lebanese who lived that experience need to be forbidden from ever boarding a plane headed towards the US, and those already in should be monitored if not expelled from the US as they are clear potential national security threats! That includes both you and me by the way! Thanks a lot Prof. Cole. What a foolish post masked as expertise by a man full of himself beyond words.

[Jerome]

Oh how easy. Blame Israel for the radical islamist insanity. Why dont you blame israel for the islamist murders of 1 million sudanese refugees, why dont you blame israel for the mad radical islam bombings in moderate arab contries, and while youre at it, blame israel for the 50 dictatorships which make up the arab world as well, keeping the majority of muslim children poor, uneducated and driven to destroy western civilization as Bin Laden and his followers see it.
Syria has occupied lebanon for 30 years, I dont hear a single word from you about suria. Saudi Arabia has financed Bin Laden's groups to avoid confrontation with them - I dont hear a word from you on Saudi's. Its becoming too fashionable to play the "it's all the IDF's fault" card..
Israel withdrew from Lebanon and we still have the Hizballah terror group threatening
to destroy mideast peace processes, how do you explain that?