Word: shying
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Administration recognizes that anything short of what it calls "a permanent cessation of hostilities," in which Hizballah is deprived of the means of restarting them, will be counted as a victory for the radical Shi'ite movement. Having acknowledged that the Lebanese government is too weak to disarm Hizballah, as required by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, the Administration views Israel's military campaign as the best way to achieve the same outcome, by pummeling Hizballah until it is ready to put down its weapons and allow the Lebanese army to take control of the border...
...looks likely to send hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into an already tense and overburdened Beirut. The Israelis are hoping their retaliation for Hizballah's blatant provocation will turn the majority of Lebanese more forcefully against the Iran-backed group, which retains massive popular support among Lebanese Shi'ites. Even if that were to occur - which is far from certain - it could threaten a resumption of civil war, particularly if the Israeli offensive has weakened the already shaky central government...
...humanitarian disaster appears to be unfolding among the hills and valleys of south Lebanon, where for five days Israel has hammered home a devastating onslaught against Lebanon's Hizballah guerrillas, a campaign that Israel says must end with the crushing of the Shi'ite group's military capabilities...
...This morning I went to the southern suburbs of Bir al-Abed with Rania, my friend and occasional translator. Bir al-Abed is a poor, Shi'ite area whose residents mainly support Hizballah. But there were no people there today; it was practically deserted, with shops shuttered, no cars on the streets. Bir al-Abed is close to Hizballah's headquarters, which are in the next neighborhood, so - like most areas in the southern part of the city - it's been pounded for almost a week. Bridges and overpasses have been reduced to rubble. Several intersections have been turned into...
...Walking and driving around the streets, I noticed a peculiar trait of Beirut: it's not always possible to tell the difference between the old war damage and the new. Beirut is ramshackle and delightfully dilapidated in some parts - mostly the poor Shi'a parts, which are also the main target areas. Sometimes you realize that a balcony that appears freshly shorn off actually collapsed in the 1980s...