CRUSHING LEBANON'S DREAM

By Lara Marlowe/Beirut

When 16 years of civil war finally ended in 1990, Lebanon began to resurrect itself with astonishing success. Tourists returned for the cuisine and Roman ruins. Foreign firms vied for contracts to rebuild highways, power plants and the Beirut commercial district. Last January electricity became available 24 hours a day, for the first time in two decades. Then two weeks ago, the lights went out as Israeli F-16 fighters rocketed power plants east of the capital as part of a major bombardment of the Lebanese countryside. The damage done by the Israeli onslaught was especially bitter for a country so far along the way to recovery. "It felt like we were going back to square one," said Walid Jumblatt, a member of the Lebanese Cabinet.

Lebanon is not as devastated as before, but the damage has been substantial. So has the shock. While the conflict in the south sputtered on year after year, Beirutis had become complacent about it. But in its effort to put pressure on Syria and the Lebanese government, Israel did not merely go after Hizballah guerrillas; it attacked the infrastructure and drove people from their homes by shelling and bombing villages, after warning the residents that they would be killed if they did not leave. At least 160 Lebanese were killed during the operation, and half a million people were displaced.

The people of southern Lebanon have survived repeated Israeli assaults--in 1978, 1982, 1993 and last month. Saadallah Balhas, 56, is an agricultural worker who was badly wounded in Qana, where Israeli artillery shelled a U.N. post sheltering more than 600 civilians. Last week he recognized this reporter visiting the hospital in Tyre where he was being treated. We had spoken in July 1993 after the Israelis bombed his house during an earlier offensive, breaking both his legs. "In 1993 you took my picture," he said. "My wife Zeinab was standing beside me. She died in Qana." His children and grandchildren also died there. "I saw my children scattered like dead sheep around me," he said.

As for the economic costs, the Lebanese government believes Israel inflicted more than $200 million worth of damage. The Qana bloodshed most angered and saddened the Lebanese, but the attacks on the power stations convinced them that Israel wanted to sabotage Lebanon's recovery. "Electricity is symbolic. It was the government's first success story," said Mohib Itani, director of the country's electricity company. Lebanon had spent more than $1 billion as it doubled electrical capacity in the years since the civil war ended. After watching the Israeli air raid on Bsalim power station from his office window, Itani shed tears of rage.

While the blitz continued, Lebanon lived out a strange dichotomy. Reconstruction continued in the midst of destruction. Israeli missile ships shelled the coastal highway between Beirut and Tyre. Yet at the end of the hair-raising high-speed dash through explosions, motorists came upon giant Caterpillars smoothing the new airport runway.

The attacks had one positive effect: they brought the country together. Christians and Muslims alike pitched in to help Shi'ite refugees from the south. Black ribbons on car antennas, candles on balconies, tolling church bells and posters of the 109 Qana victims became expressions of unprecedented solidarity. "People have accepted the social responsibility of being part of a nation," said Itani. "Maybe something good will come out of all this suffering and misery."

--By Lara Marlowe/Beirut