Mattresses in Army Trucks

Mattresses in Army Trucks
Originally uploaded by Jane Rubio.

As I was walking in the souk (the main street/market) in Aley this morning, I saw army trucks with mattresses piled in the back. About 50 families are staying in the government schools in Aley. These are people, mostly Shia, from the South and the Dahiye (the southern suburbs of Beirut.)

Before Israel started bombing the Dahiye, they dropped leaflets telling the people to leave. So the government is housing them around the country.

The guy at the music shop just now told me that it's because Walid Beik (i.e. Walid Jumblatt) is in with Hassan Nasrallah (the leader of Hizbullah), and is helping him out. I talked about Walid Beik before. In the July 2005 archive of my blog, you can see a picture of me with him and an explanation of his significance in Arab history and Middle Eastern politics.

He's the consummate politician and is always changing his position. But first and foremost he defends and advocates for his people, the Druze, who make up about 8% of the Lebanese population. In some ways, he is akin to Yasser Arafat, who didn't let the world forget the Palestinians, and always went back and forth, maintaining his allegiance to them above all else.

But if Walid Beik is all chummy with Hassan Nasrallah, that wouldn't bode well for the safety of the people in Aley. Wouldn't that make Druze areas eventual targets of Israel?

But then someone else told me that the Israeli army won't go after Druze areas because so many of the people in the Israeli army, and especially the officers, are Druze.

It seems like half-and-half now. Half say this will be done in a couple days. Half say get out now and take me with you.