In June of 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon. 

According to a United Nations report from Sidon where Uncle Joe lived, within five days Israel had killed over 2000 Lebanese and Palestinians and wounded another 10,000, almost all of them civilians.  Another 200,000 were left homeless.  The UN and the Red Cross reports stated that Israel had blocked international relief efforts and prevented food and medical supplies from reaching the victims, not once, but several times.      

From "The Longest War" by Jacobo Timerman:

"Since we passed the border into Lebanon I have not seen a single house that did not show some war damage.  I try to imagine how the dead were killed as I gaze on these ancient cities, reduced to ruins.  I look up at high windows that seem like empty eye sockets, and I try to conceive of the faces of the mothers as they hurled their children from burning homes — perhaps they  ran down those now-vanished stairs, or did they cover themselves under blankets and mattresses?  I try to think what I would have done if I had been in one of those burned-out rooms."

  From dad's Lebanon notes ---

9/19/69

Brother Joe looks terrific.  He and Jamila have a beautiful modern house in Sidon.  We met their quiet daughter Saida and her husband Malik and one of their grandsons, Samir, a schoolteacher.  Antoine the other grandson is in college in Lyons, France studying medicine. We met two of their beautiful granddaughters, both schoolteachers. The third granddaughter is a nun.  They took us to Kfarwa to see a 'Battle of Song'.  Rose & I had heard of the Lebanese 'Battles of Song' all of our lives but this was the first time we'd ever seen one.  Hanna Raad, Assad Sied, Ahmed Sied, and George Aba Antoon 'battled' for 2 1/2 hours as they took turns singing extemporaneous songs that the next contestant had to 'answer'---just like a lyrical debate. 

Sidon, Lebanon 1969 -- Dad on a donkey

9:00 AM

Although our sister Judy presently lives in Lebanon she was born in the U.S.   At about the age of 35, Sis was stricken with lateral sclerosis, a crippling disease.  What could God be thinking when He pulls a stunt like that?  Anyhow, after years of trying to care for her ourselves, we had to put Sis into a convalescent home. Sis wanted to live in Lebanon so Brother Joe placed her in the Hospital Notre Dame on the outskirts of Beirut.

9/19/69

After we left Sis, mary & I went to the Aarz to see the Lebanese singer Farouz.  To get to the Aarz you must make an arduous journey up immense mountains.  At the very top are the cedars of Lebanon and an indescribably beautiful ampitheater.  Rose & I were exhausted from the climb until Farouz began to sing.  What a voice, what feeling, what beauty.  We sat enthralled for hours.  We thank God that He has allowed us to realize our dream and see Lebanon.  Yesterday when I stepped off the airplane gangplank onto the earth of Lebanon for the first time in my life I knelt and I kissed the ground.  I honestly believe that I expressed what everyone in that airplane was feeling.  I'd give anything if brother Pete could be here with me.

I have never loved God so much or felt His presence so strongly as I have since we've been in Lebanon.  No wonder all those lunatics are fighting over our country---God is here, you can feel Him.

v

From The Longest War by Jacobo Timerman:

"Today in Beirut Arab children have their legs and arms amputated by candlelight in the basements of hospitals destroyed by bombs, without anesthetics, without sterilization. It is eleven days since proud veteran Israeli troops cut the electricity and water, and food and fuel supplies. We're in August, a hot August. Rats already outnumber children in the city of Beirut, upon which the best pilots in the world, the aviators of the Israeli Air Force, are exercising their marvelous capacity for precision. From their planes they watch how the buildings of Beirut crumble. People in Beirut also observe those who leap from their windows, choosing a different death from those who were caught in buildings that were reduced to dust."

"I have discovered in Jews a capacity for cruelty that I never believed possible."