Qana

A friend and I escaped to Lebanon this weekend -- the U.S. embassy in Syria recommends against travel to Lebanon -- and hired a Shiite taxi driver named Hussein, who was bursting with pride over Hezbollah’s “divine victory,” to show us the detritus of the latest Arab-Israeli war. We toured devastation in South Beirut and made it as far south as Qana, the site of one of the most punishing Israeli airstrikes. Twenty-nine women and children, taking refuge in an apartment building, were killed. The site is now a cemetery for the victims. A girl, who said she knew those who perished, was praying there alone. The rows of stark, white marble tombstones were framed by the yellow and black flags of Hezbollah.