More explosives found

The Lebanese TV had a hard time this weekend keeping up with all the discoveries of bombs. It seemed that almost every hour, they discovered a new unexploded bomb somewhere. For us, the most threatening location was next to the Orthodox Church in Makhoul, which is very close to our house as we can see the church from our balcony.

So far, all the bombs have been warning signs. None of them exploded, but imagine if they did. It is quite a signal the perpetrators are trying to give. With bombs spreading everywhere, it demonstrates their capability of being able to hit anywhere they please. Also, the fact that none of the people behind it got caught, adds to the impression that the police is helpless in the face of this terror.

And terror it is: placing bombs in civilian areas aiming to hit innocent citizens, is a scary escalation of the violence. The obvious purpose is to pressure Siniora’s government to give in to demands from the Opposition. However, this is a subtle game because Hezbollah cannot make this link themselves. Imagine if they would say that the bombs would stop if they were allowed a blocking minority in government? That would mean that they would be behind targeting and possibly killing fellow Lebanese, which they swore never to do.

Come to think of it, in what way could they make a connection between the bombs and their demands? The only possible way might be to hint that the current instability of the country is the reason behind the bombs and that once they are back in government, stability would return. This sounds reasonable, but it overlooks one thing: what would change in terms of practical security measures to guarantee the stopping of bombs, once Hezbollah gets its way? Would all of a sudden the police be more effective to stop the terrorists who plant these bombs? Would they catch the bad guys?

Or, could it mean that the terrorists no longer would have a reason to spread the bombs? In that case, there is a direct link between the interests of the terrorists and the Opposition. If so, why can’t the Opposition influence the terrorists to stop placing bombs? Surely, they could convince them that spreading terrorism is against the Opposition’s agenda?

The scary part of this reasoning is that the lack of exercising this supposed influence can only mean that the Opposition gives its tacit support for the terror.


Update: A bomb exploded this morning in a car in the Mossaitbeh area. No casualties.