Business as Usual

OK, it’s time I came out of my shell and commented a bit on what’s been going on in the past week. Several events took place this week; however the downing of a Lebanese army helicopter by a Hezbollah fighter and the ensuing pro- and anti-Hezbollah rants certainly stole the spotlight.

To start with, the facts (at least the ones agreed upon by everyone): a Hezbollah fighter opened fire on a Lebanese army helicopter while flying over Sojod hills in South Lebanon. The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing. The incident resulted in the death of 25-year-old First-Lieutenant Samer Hanna. (I'm not putting a source here cause let's face it, no single source is gonna convince anyone skeptical of this version of the story)...

Hezbollah claims the attack was an unfortunate case of friendly fire, asserting that the Hezbollah fighter acted on instinct and fired at the helicopter thinking it was an Israeli commando drop (Naharnet). Others weren’t so quick to accept this story, with responses ranging the Free Shi’a movement referring to the attack as another “terrorist attack” by Hezbollah (LF - Arabic), to French daily L’Orient Le Jour reporting that the Lebanese pilot was killed on the ground “in cold blood” (Daily Star), to Saad Hariri’s simple condemnation of the attack (Now Lebanon), to Michel Aoun being quick to declare that the attack should have no bearing on the debate on Hezbollah’s weapons (Daily Star).

As diverse as these reactions are, they all have one thing in common: they are all entirely uninteresting. They induce a frustrating feeling of business as usual. Every single person or group said exactly what that person or group was expected to say. No more, no less.

But I’m no different: I readily see this incident as an unintentional accident that with no real malicious intent on the part of the Hezbollah fighter. This does not mean we can all just get over it and treat it as just another regular car accident, but it also doesn’t mean that we should build an entire political campaign on it. What I would like to see is a responsible approach to handle the matter, with the relevant authorities dealing with the matter away from political bickering. Having the Hezbollah fighter turn himself in is a good start. But there needs to be a clear, transparent and just conclusion to this incident. Anything less would leave a Nasrallah-shaped thorn in the hearts of everyone affected by this event… And we know all too well that the Lebanese have enough of these thorns hidden in our hearts and that it is unlikely any good would come out of them.

Photo from Ya Libnan.