Basic HTML Version
PAGE 10
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 23, 1983
understand why America--a superpower--cannot and is not solving
their age-old problems....
"I would die if I knew one day they would pack and leave," said
Miss s., the secretary. "But we are disappointed that they could
not take care even of themselves. We all thought they would do
something quickly. We are ready to become the 51st state--but
just do it already." The flotilla of warships that the United
States Navy has stationed offshore has become both a security
blanket for the Lebanese and a source of enormous anxiety.
Residents say they feel teased by watching the number of naval
vessels and reconnaissance overflights increase, while their own
predicament seems to worsen every day.
A leading West Beirut banker said that, after the 239 [now 241]
marines were killed last month in the truck-bombing of their
headquarters, his chauffeur said to him: "The marines �
supposed to protect the Lebanese Army. Now they need protection
themselves--it's like diapers inside diapers."... In essence the
whole perception of the American presence here is in transition-
going from being viewed as saviors to being viewed as just
another foreign force that is part of the problem •..•
This changing attitude toward the Americans has enormous implica
tions for the Lebanese. They cheered for the Syrians when they
first came to Lebanon in 1976, and then after a while they lost
hope in them; they cheered--some publicly, some privately--for
the Israelis when they came in 1982, and now they have lost hope
in them; they cheered for the Americans when they arrived in
September 1982, and now, if they lose hope in them, there is no
one left--which is why many Lebanese are so reluctant to part
with the belief that the Americans can somehow right all that is
wrong here.
But as each day goes by, it seems more and more
people are beginning to admit to themselves that maybe there is
no solution for Lebanon.
Lebanon is a consuming fire that threatens to destroy all who meddle in its
affairs. "Open your doors, O Lebanon, That fire may devour your cedars"
(Zech. 11:1 R.A.V.). Ultimately the entire Middle East conflict, in which
the Lebanon erisis plays a major role, revolves around who controls the
Holy Land, and especially the city of Jerusalem--the state of Israel, the
Islamic world (and which branch of Islam?), or the Pope (through demands to
internationalize the city). God prophesied that "in that day" he would
make Jerusalem a "very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it
away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earthare
gathered against it" (Zech. 12:3).
If the leaders of the United States had considered this prophecy, perhaps
they would have thought twice before naively dispatching a "peacekeeping
force" to Lebanon.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau