The Syrian war continues to haunt us.

Here's another dispatch I put together for Pacifica. No idea whether or not it'll see air, but after doing that much writing it seemed silly not to use it as a post. Plus, it's got some new and fairly interesting information.

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Beirut, September 10, 2013

While events elsewhere over the last 48 hours have made people here in Beirut cautiously optimistic that a US strike on Syria can be averted, the response from Lebanese officials and the city's diplomatic corps is strangely out of sync.

One day before the anniversary of 9-11, the US embassy on Monday repeated its earlier warnings to US citizens, advising them via a Twitter feed that “U.S. citizens living and working in Lebanon should understand that they accept risks in remaining and should carefully consider those risks.”

The British, French and German embassies have all issued warnings to their nationals to either leave Lebanon or sharply restrict travel within the country to Beirut and its safer northern suburbs.

Among the Gulf states, the Saudi embassy yesterday advised its citizens to leave the country immediately. Kuwait has not only urged Kuwaitis to leave but has organized evacuation flights to help get its citizens out of Lebanon. Bahrain, which itself has been hit by sectarian conflict over the last several years, also urged its nationals to return home.

The exception has been Italy, which has not only issued no warnings, but which reaffirmed Monday that it had no immediate plans to do so. It has, however, urged Italians planning to visit Lebanon to reconsider their travel plans in the light of the current security situation.

At the same time, Lebansese officials have been meeting over the last few days with members of the diplomatic community to reassure them that the government is taking effective measures to combat any possible attack on their personnel or facilities. Given the government's historical inability to counter such attacks it seems these assurances are being taken with a grain of salt. Syria alone has been blamed for dozens of successful assassinations and car bombings in Lebanon over the last few decades. Bashar el Assad's public threats against French and American targets in the last few days can hardly have helped calm the waters. Assad's forces may be weakened on the ground in Syria, but his ability to reach any part of Lebanon, either through his intelligence services or using his local ally, Hezb Allah, is unquestioned.

What IS surprising is the ramping up of tension here in Beirut just as things on the international front seem to be improving. After two weeks of anxiety that led many to flee the city and left the streets miraculously empty, business was just returning to normal after the weekend. In fact, yesterday it took me nearly an hour to travel about a mile in the southern suburbs near Chatilla refugee camp. Last week the same trip would probably have taken less than 10 minutes.

Now, with the announcement of renewed measures by the embassies and the governement, the question is: what do they know that we don't? At the moment, this is a question without an answer.

Meanwhile, Beirut is about to be hit by another catastrophe in the making: a new wave of Syrian refugees spilling across the border from all parts of Syria and converging on Beirut. This latest exodus is partly the result of terror following the Ghouta chemical attacks and partly fear of US strikes. Relief workers and NGOs are estimating that several tens of thousands of additional refugees will arrive in the near future. Official government estimates are even higher.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon already face daunting challenges. Finding shelter in an area where rents are on a par with much of Europe and the US is often an impossibility. When they can find shelter, many families are forced to share space, and live in dangerously overcrowded conditions. One small apartment in the building where I live apparently housed more than 20 people for several months. Others have no shelter and are reduced to living on the streets, in construction sites or in open areas.


Thousands of Syrian refugees travel for weeks or even months overland before they arrive in the Beirut area. By the time they get here, they are under-nourished and often ill. Relief groups have been overwhelmed and have seen their budgets shrink and then disappear.

Lebanese officials are also warning of a coming crisis in the educational system. With the school year just getting underway, the public school system is facing utter collapse, as the flood of refugee children reaches its doors. Recently, school officials stopped all further admissions, saying that they were already far above capacity. Of course, this means that thousands of children of refugee families will not have access to education for the foreseeable future. According to government spokespersons, millions of dollars in promised international aid has failed to materialize, leaving them with no options.

For Syrian refugees of Palestinian orgin, the situation is even worse. Due to discriminatory policies under Lebanese law and unclear jurisdictions on the part of UN relief agencies Palestinians fleeing refugee camps in contested areas of Syria are subject to much tighter restrictions than other refugees. Among others, they are not allowed to work in the Lebanese economy, not allowed to live outside established Palestinian refugee camps, and subject to harsh security measures. One result is that Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, already hopelessly overcrowded, are now reeling under the influx of tens of thousands of new arrivals.