War and Pieces

[September 13th, 2006] Two months after intense fighting erupted in Lebanon and Israel, Portland-based Mercy Corps has shifted its focus in Lebanon from delivering emergency aid to long-term rebuilding.

"Lebanon is the best bet right now...in the Arab world for democracy, as we know democracy," Mercy Corps emergency coordinator David Holdridge said in a telephone interview last week from Beirut.

Though aid groups like Mercy Corps have delivered crucial supplies to thousands of Lebanese, the obstacles confronting the country of nearly 4 million people (about 450,000 people more than Oregon), are huge.

The cost of repairing homes, bridges and roads destroyed by Israel's airstrikes against Hezbollah, which began in mid-July and ended with a cease-fire in mid-August, is estimated to be at least $3 billion. Additionally, about 10,000 households in southern Lebanon—the Oregon equivalent of all the homes in McMinnville or Oregon City—must be abandoned and rebuilt, Holdridge says.

Mercy Corps is now focusing on helping small farmers recover from the fighting's devastating effects on their harvest of potatoes, olives, apples and other fruits. The group is also working to rebuild schools so children can return to normal classes, which have been pushed back from this month until mid-October because of the fighting, Holdridge says.

Holdridge adds that the extent to which Hezbollah controls Lebanon's southern reaches—and, therefore, the distribution of aid—has been grossly overstated in the Western press.

"It's been reported incorrectly in the press over there that, if you work in south Lebanon, you have to make some sort of deal with Hezbollah, which is frankly nonsense," Holdridge says.

Nonetheless, the road to recovery in Lebanon appears long.

"There may be no significant investment in this country for some time to come," Holdridge says. "All Lebanese paid the price for essentially what was an argument between Israel and Hezbollah."