Peacekeepers Attacked

After reading this morning's headlines about how the Arab League's initiative to solve the Lebanese political crisis was gathering momentum, I had the feeling that Lebanon was overdue for an assassination. First of all, when was the last time the Arab League solved anything? Secondly, all the animosity built up over the last year of demonstrations, killings, and poisonous rhetoric isn't going to go away so easily.

Sure enough a bomb exploded today on the coastal highway outside of Sidon, though it was aimed not at a Lebanese politician but at a passing convoy belonging to United Nations peacekeepers, wounding at least three of them. The attack had a the feeling of an impromptue operation, a relatively small charge placed in the highway median, unlike the attack that killed several UN soldiers in an armored convey this summer.

It's hard to draw any conclusions from this, or from the rockets that the Israeli army claims were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon last night. But I doubt Lebanon is going to have a president anytime soon.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut