Solidarity With France and Lebanon

Omar Bekdash’ 18

They had devised a strategy to kill hundreds. Three ISIS jihadists would strap on suicide vests and carry out a series of attacks against innocent shoppers in Bourj al-Barajneh, a suburb in Beirut, Lebanon. Their goal was to weaken Hezbollah, the militia fighting them in Syria, and to kill Shiites, long regarded as apostates by ISIS. The first attacker would detonate his vest near a Shiite mosque during rush hour. After a crowd formed around the dead and injured victims, the second attacker would have detonated, thereby killing more and forming a larger crowd. Then, the third attacker would have triggered a third explosion amidst the multitude of survivors, paramedics, and onlookers to maximize casualties.

“It was terrible,” remarks Rayhan Murad ’19. “It was evil. It was diabolical. Death and terrorism shouldn’t ever have to be registered as a norm, not in Lebanon, or anywhere else.” Their diabolical plan, however, would not come into fruition.

Adel Termos, a father of two young children, tackled the second suicide bomber before he could detonate according to plan. The second attacker, knowing that his plan would fail, detonated the bomb and killed himself and Adel Termos. But his detonation occurred in the wrong place and the wrong time. In fact, he actually killed the third attacker, thus ending any hopes for the militants to increase the body count. Adel Termos had potentially saved hundreds by foiling the attack, but not before the bombers killed 43 Lebanese.

A day later, an equally horrific attack shook the ground of Paris, as 9 ISIS collaborators carried out a series of concise attacks. Safer, an Algerian Muslim employee at the Casa Nostra café, confronted the horrors that hundreds faced that night when ISIS militants stormed into the café, and started shooting. While under cover behind the counter, Safer noticed two women bleeding on the terrace of the café, one shot in the wrist, and the other shot in the shoulder. He felt compelled to save their lives. Waiting for the gunmen to leave, he ran out, dragged the women into the basement, attended to their wounds, and waited until the whole horrific event had passed.

The heroes of these attacks will never leave our minds. But we must remember those who also passed away during these attacks. In Lebanon, 43 died. During that frightful night in Paris, 130 people died; 89 of them were massacred in the Bataclan concert hall. Unlike the Charlie Hebdo attacks by al-Qaeda in January, there would be no “Je Suis Charlie” march after this attack. It was simply too much death for France to absorb quickly. It was no moment for loud outrage. Only quiet could be heard the next morning.

The recent devastation in Paris and Beirut has also emphasized the worldwide attacks that ISIS has carried out. In the last month, they have brought down a Russian airliner, bombed a funeral of an Iraqi Shiite, held religious minorities in slavery, plundered ancient architecture, and blew up a busload of security members in Tunisia. In light of the attacks, the debate over how to eradicate ISIS has raged on.

Rohan Jinturkar’ 19 explains the necessity of a US led and anti-Assad coalition: “The United States is still unwilling to join Russia, Iran, and the Syrian Regime for good reason: they back Assad. The US cannot expect to end terrorism if they join with the most hated man among Syrians.”

Esther Zhang’ 18, however, remains skeptical that the current coalition of anti-Assad countries can defeat ISIS. “We can see that this group is not going to collapse anytime soon,” she states. “The complexity of the ethnic, sectarian, and geopolitical alliances must be resolved first for any meaningful and unified fight against ISIS.”

After the somber day in Paris, France, Russia and the United States all hinted at more cooperation with each other to combat ISIS. However, stern disagreements about the role of President Assad in the future of Syria have strictly divided the American-led coalition and the alliance between Russia, Iran, and the Syrian Regime.

Although these fierce disagreements exist, we still saw the potential of unity between many nations. In numerous countries all over the world, monuments were lit up in the French tricolor to express solidarity with the people of France, from The Sydney Opera House to The Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, to The Oriental Tower in China. On the outskirts of Cairo, a light cast itself across the Pyramids of Giza, proclaiming, “La Solidarite Avec la France,” or “Solidarity With France.”

Along with this message shone the flags of France, Russia, and Lebanon. It is a beautiful thing that in response to these horrible attacks across the world, everyone banded together in support for France, through this gesture. These attacks in France and Lebanon, though horrible, have hopefully brought us closer together in unity.

References:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/paris-attacks/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/11/16/the-fearless-father-who-threw-himself-on-a-suicide-bomber-saving-hundreds-of-lives-in-beirut/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34820093

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/11/monuments-around-the-world-light-up-for-paris/416106/