Beirut’s enduring misfortunes

There is much speculation but not yet any real certainty about the cause of the apocalyptic explosions that devastated vast areas of Beirut, killing at least 100 people, including one Australian, and injuring more than 4000 others. But as investigations get under way into what Donald Trump termed a “terrible attack” caused by “a bomb of some kind”, it would be impossible not to sympathise with one of the survivors, a Lebanese man in his early 20s who, with blood pouring from wounds, cried: “We’re cursed … even if this was an accident, it’s the last thing we could afford.” His anguish was well founded. All too often Lebanon, a country many Australians know through the diaspora of 230,000 among us, does indeed seem “cursed”. Beirut Governor Marwan Aboud called the explosions, centred on a warehouse at Beirut’s port, “a national disaster akin to Hiroshima”.

The blasts, which Germany’s Geosciences Centre GFZ reported struck with the force of a 3.5 magnitude earthquake and were heard as far away as Cyprus, follow months of upheavals that have left Lebanon’s economy in desperate straits. Under-equipped and overworked hospitals are struggling to cope with rising COVID-19 infections. A broken power system is barely able to supply electricity for more than a few hours a day. Basic services such as garbage collection are non-existent. Food is in short supply. Scott Morrison struck the right note when he spoke of Australia’s sincere “sympathies to all the people of Lebanon”. The country deserves far better. But it is unlikely to get it unless it learns the hard lessons that have brought it to its present sorry pass. Its collapse into ungoverned chaos owes much to decades of misguided and corrupt rule. Largely it is due to its failure to get to grips with the threat posed by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists, whose leaders effectively run Lebanon, wielding decisive influence.

Lebanese officials say Tuesday’s devastation was caused by a stockpile of 2700 tonnes of explosive ammonium nitrate at the port. That may be so. But it also raises serious questions about Hezbollah. The port, like much of Lebanon, is acknowledged to be under the firm control of the anti-Israel terrorists. Hezbollah has been known in the past to store at the port large caches of weapons, including lethal Iranian-supplied missiles destined to attack Israel. Inevitably, the immediate speculation was that Israel might have detonated the ammonium nitrate stockpile. News agency reports claimed Israeli aircraft and drones recently had been flying “with increasing regularity” over Beirut after a thwarted Hezbollah attempt last week to send terrorists into the Jewish state. Officials in Jerusalem emphatically denied the reports, despite known Israeli involvement in recent covert attacks in Iran and against Hezbollah bases in Iraq. Beirut’s tragic devastation is a reminder that allowing Hezbollah’s army to base itself in Lebanon and dominate the country lies at the heart of its problems. Its misfortunes and the misery of its people are unlikely to change until its leaders start acting in Lebanon’s interests.