I was
one of the lucky and foolhardy few who made it out of Lebanon over the
weekend. The advice given by Australian Consular officials to myself and three
friends was to stay put and not attempt to leave Lebanon, and that Australia was
not, at that stage, planning to evacuate nationals.

On the advice of a Lebanese friend who told us that ambassadors and
nationals from many countries have been evacuated (never a good sign
that peace is imminent) we opted to flee over the border via a north
eastern road. This took some negotiation with less than eager
taxi drivers, but we did in the end find our way to one of the few
border crossings that were not yet bombed by the Israelis. After
passing through the Lebanese exit point and on to the Syrian entry, we
then began to hear the sound of shelling behind us, as Israeli forces
bombed the road that we were travelling on just less than 30 minutes
earlier.

We sped to Damascus airport where we boarded one of the
many emergency flights put on by Emirates Airline to cope with numbers of people
cutting short their own holidays. Gulf Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Etihad
were also there in large numbers to help evacuate the many Gulf nationals
holidaying in the region.

At the time we fled almost 50 Lebanese civilians
had been killed by the Israeli forces. By this morning this number has
now approached almost 100, mostly civilians. The Israelis are targeting
convoys of fleeing civilians, most of whom are women and children
seeking refuge in Syria, yet the media seems only
interested in telling us of the actions of Hezbollah militants.

George Bush has
reminded the world that Israel has the right to protect
itself and its interests. Shouldn’t Lebanon, through its de facto army,
have the same rights? Since when has the bombing of civilian infrastructure,
and now with the intent to kill civilians, been a fair and proportionate
response to the kidnapping of two soldiers?

Will the international community
only continue to condemn the actions of Hezbollah, without also giving thought
to the death toll being inflicted by Israeli forces? As I joked to some other
tourists in Lebanon, bombing
an airport isn’t terrorism when Israel does it.