© AFP
Israeli drone downed in Lebanon, 2019
Continuing Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace come as the country is still reeling from the Beirut explosion and economic disaster.
In the wee hours of Christmas morning, I received a text message from a Lebanese Palestinian friend in Beirut, sent from the hallway of his apartment. He had run there after being jolted from his sleep by the sound of Israeli jets - later
reported to be Israeli jets and/or missiles en route to targets in Syria - and the sensation that
something in the vicinity was about to explode.
Of course, Israeli breaches of Lebanese airspace are nothing new. Israel has long been notorious for violating not only Lebanon's skies - and territory in general -
but also Lebanese eardrums and mental and emotional wellbeing.
In his book
Pity the Nation about the Lebanese civil war of 1975-90, late journalist
Robert Fisk describes the terrific noise generated during an episode circa 1978 in which
two Israeli jets "broke the sound barrier as they flew at low level over west Beirut, shattering the shop-front window panes on [the city's iconic] Hamra Street with their sonic booms".
And it's been pretty much nonstop ruckus ever since. Granted, it's not a subject that generates much media attention, but if one puts in a bit of time on Google, the issue does turn up. There's a 2017 Reuters
dispatch about the
sonic booms that "broke windows and shook buildings" in the southern Lebanese city of Saida, while also causing "panic".
Comment: To say that we're living in Clown World would be an understatement.