Naqoura

On Friday, I went down to the headquarters of the United Nation Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and had trouble finding the visitor's entrance into the walled compound at Naqoura, a border town on the southernmost edge of the country. My driver Khalid pointed down an empty road seemingly towards nowhere. "What's that way?" he asked two young men standing across from the last gate.

"Filisteen," one replied cheekily, using the Arabic word for Palestine, rather than Israel. These guys were Hizballah pickets.

So it is in southern Lebanon. The Security Council sent a multinational force of some 15,000 soldiers to monitor the boder between Lebanon and Israel, but is itself monitored by Hizballah, and for the matter by Israel, whose jets regularly buzz UNIFIL positions. Needless to say, Hizballah and Israel keep a close eye on each other as well. Everyone is watching everyone else.

And that includes me. I made the rounds in Naquora to keep an eye out for stories, and while I was there caught a medal ceremony honoring the departure of the French unit in charge of protecting the base. (The French had been at Naquora for 29 years, long enough to build a miniture Eiffel Tower.) But I came away with nothing to show for the trip but a few chocolate eclairs.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut