What Really Happened in the Chouf

The Druze community in the Chouf utterly defeated Hezbollah's attack.

On the very first night of Chouf combat, the Druze community in Aley armed with hunting rifles, kalashnikovs, and a few RPGs killed approxiamately 21 Hezbollah soldiers and captured two others. In a later conflict, Iranian "observers" were captured in Aley, according to a local source.

One scholar and educator from the Druze community explains, "Every man, young and old, came out to defend Aley. We only had the weapons in our houses. Some older men had civil war era weapons, like RPGs, but there were not many of them. I had no idea my community would be so spirited in its own defense.... Druze defend Druze. We were not fighting for our own lives, but the continuation our community."

In the village Deir Qoubel, the entire male population of the village came out to defend the town with hunting rifles and anything else available. According to a local source, the townspeople killed 11 Hezbollah attackers. One member of the community sustained injuries. The townspeople had the high ground and know the terrain well. Many people in the region are experienced hunters, mostly of small birds.

I assume that the Hezbollah fighters were not wearing body armor. From what I observed in Beirut, the Hezbollah fighters did not wear body armor there, either. However, their equipment is modern and sophisticated, and their tactics are well honed.

Druze members of the Hezbollah allied Syrian Social Nationalist Party sided with their community against their political ally. One Druze SSNP member argues, "when your guard dog becomes too powerful, you need to think about putting it to sleep." This was a war for survival.

Thirteen Hezbollah vehicles invaded the Chouf from the Bekaa Valley, but were captured in Barouk and Niha. Barouk is one of Lebanon's few wildlife sanctuaries. The sanctuary is a pet project of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and his wife Nora, who is of Shia origins. It is one of the few places in Lebanon where the Cedar of Lebanon grows; thus it is a symbolic site for both the Druze leader and Lebanon. Niha is where the Druze religious leader the Sheikh al Aql lives. It is a religious pilgrimage site, Naby Ayoub, or St. Job. Hezbollah attacked a holy place, and were rightly prevented from committing acts of violence there.

According to media reports, the Druze community dragged out World War II era 160 millimeter shells to defend themselves. Friends living in Dahieh report that they observed the Druze descending down the mountain towards Hezbollah dominated Dahieh. She claims that ordinance (but unsure of what type) hit Dahieh and set off car alarms in her area. Many local residents fled. The Druze community made sure that Hezbollah knew that the Shia community, too, is vulnerable to attack. The only way Lebanon will remain stable, and the only way for Lebanese to live in peace is if Lebanese participate in true representative democracy and do not overturn the institutions of the state and endanger the lives of other communities.

According to a source close to the Arslan family, many supporters of pro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah Druze leader Talal Arslan are moving away from the leader. Just like the SSNP members who sided with their communities over their political allegiances, the supporters of Arslan realize that no one will protect the Druze villages if they do not protect themselves. This is no longer an issue of politics, but one of survival.

According to Tony Badran's sources, pro-Syrian Druze leader Wi'am Wahhab and his followers have fled the Chouf and are unlikely to be allowed back. They turned on their community in its time of need.

The Druze have closed ranks. They know that no one will protect their community if they don't do it themselves. Druze know that their leader, Walid Jumblatt, like his father before him, serves three roles:
1) as the most competent and able leader of his community;
2) as a Lebanese leader;
3) as a progressive leader.

His role as a national leader prevented him from publicly endorsing the Druze community's justified campaign against Hezbollah's invasion. Jumblatt did his best to provide national and international safety and legitimacy to his community, and publicly called for peace and an end to violence. He asked for Druze unity, and ordered his supporters to turn their weapons over to pro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah leader Talal Arslan, who took this as an opportunity to aggrandize himself giving myriad interviews, and claiming that the Chouf supports the resistance and are people of the resistance. Note that Arslan only asked the Druze community to relinquish their weapons to him, but made no demands on Hezbollah, even though it was Hezbollah who attacked the Druze community, of which Arslan is a member.

Jumblatt's community, which followed his orders completely in Beirut, knew they could not let the Chouf fall, and knew the difficult political situation Lebanon currently faces.

The Sunnis cannot and will not stop Hezbollah. Sunni supporters in the Arab world never provide the amount of support Lebanon needs. The Sunni regimes, unlike the Shia Iranian regime and the Alawite Syrian regime, are never willing to make sacrifices to get what they want. Even more worrying for the Druze, will any of the regional religious powers make sacrifices for the Druze if the community is on the verge of annihilation?

The Lebanese Christian community does not have enough internal unity or external support to insure the Druze community that it will be protected. The Druze and the Christians still have festering problems left over from the civil war, as well.

As a friend noted, the feeling in the Druze community is, "all we can do now is refuse any political concessions to Hizbullah linked to the violence, arm ourselves to the teeth, and wait to see the international reaction." He continues, "There is a sense that the Hezb does not want the Druze to be part of the Lebanese equation," especially given Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah's anti-Jumblatt remarks immediately prior to his militant takeover of Beirut. "Every step they have taken, given all the fronts they have opened, indicate this."