BEIRUT: PARIS OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Someone once told me that if you hang around long enough in the Middle East, news is bound to break at some point. It never stays dull for very long. That’s certainly been true on just about all my trips to Israel, and several of my trips to Lebanon.
Our timing was pretty good – as journalists – in the summer of 2006. We arrived on the same day that Hezbollah carried out a cross-border raid in the south and captured two Israeli soldiers. The next morning, Israel bombed the airport, so we weren’t going anywhere for a while. We had planned to stay for five days and ended up staying five weeks, as Israel pounded Lebanon from the air and sea. Despite that, Hezbollah kept up its barrage of rockets into Israel.
This time around it’s a lot safer. People keep writing to say “Be careful” and “Keep your head down,” but it’s really quite calm. That doesn’t mean it won’t change. This is the Middle East, but for now it’s life as normal. As normal as it can be Beirut, anyway, which is a pretty chaotic city.
We’re just here to report on the reaction from the Arab street, which is angry, but for the most part, not violent. Producer Marcia Biggs lives here, so she knows her way around, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who’s been pretty much all over the world, is enjoying his first visit to the city that used to be known as the Paris of the Middle East.
Greg Burke has been with the FNC Rome Bureau since 2001. He has covered
a number of major stories including the death of Pope John Paul II, the
Madrid train bombings, the Paris riots, and the war in Lebanon. 
Yes honey, in Beirut we live like the West. We love FOX and we love all their team covering fair and balanced news in the Middle East.
God Bless America!
“Used to be known” as the paris of the middle east !!!!! It was. What changed it? Israel was born in 1948. Beirut remained as Paris of the Middle East til 1972 when Arafat was thrown out of Jordan and he took his “fighters” to that beautiful city, set up military posts, rocket launchers, amunition depot in the center of the population (as does Hamas in Gaza), and the rest is history. So why Beirut was so peaceful before 1972? you can’t blame Israelis for this “used to be known” stuff. In 1980 came Hezbolah, founded, trained, financed and supported by Iran, which now controls Beirut. So that beautiful “used to be known” city…. and as long as Hezbolah and other radicals backed by Iran and Syria remain there and meddle in their county’s business and shoot rockets into civilian populations of the northern israel, the once beautiful city of Beirut will remain as the “used to be known” city.
I visited Beirut in 1963 and it was a beautiful and lovely city with the warmest and friendly people.
I was in the Navy at the time and we were treated like royalty everywhere we went in that beautiful city.
The mistake they made was to welcome Arrafat and his refugees with open arms. All they wanted to do kill, maim and disrupt anything and everything around them. They took control of that great country and destroyed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, I remember Beirut was a garden spot when I visited it in the ’60s. I was small back then, but I still remember the greenry, life and friendly people. My brother and I made friends with a Lebonese kid and he gave us rides on his Vespa.
Could that happen today with Hezbolah? Nope.
Cheers,
-j