REBUILDING LEBANON:
Detroiters Pick Up After Mideast War |
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| The Detroit Free
Press |
| Wednesday, October
25, 2006 |
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The damage to the town of Bint
Jbeil in southern Lebanon was almost
complete with not a home in the area
going untouched during the fighting
with Israeli forces. |
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BINT JBEIL, Lebanon --
The sun glints off the
dust of a crushed town as Mike Kobeissi takes one last
look. Three months ago in this village, his wife and
three children were trapped for six days in a cramped
hotel basement while bombs exploded around them.
At one point, they were convinced they were going to
die.
Kobeissi of Bloomfield Hills snaps photos of the hotel
building. It somehow escaped a direct hit, while the
homes around it are crumbled heaps of concrete and
metal. And he moves on.
The 44-year-old construction engineer has a plan,
laminated and tucked in his briefcase, to help restore
his native county, which suffered more than $3.5 billion
in damage this summer during a conflict between Israel
and the Lebanon-based militia Hizballah. In the
fighting, 162 Israelis died, 43 of them civilians, while
1,191 Lebanese died, most of them civilians.
But Kobeissi doesn't brood over the past.
"I'm a person who likes to build," Kobeissi said, eyeing
the rubble of southern Lebanon. "It's sad to know some
didn't make it ... but I feel like it's time to
rebuild."
Across metro Detroit, thousands of residents like
Kobeissi with roots in Lebanon are working to repair a
tattered country. The members of a Dearborn mosque, the
Islamic Center of America, raised more than $2 million
at a dinner last month. On Oct. 15, hundreds gathered at
a Dearborn banquet hall named after the Lebanese city of
Byblos to raise roughly $10,000 for needy students.
Others wire money back home to fund the rebuilding of
family houses.
The challenge of rebuilding
Local efforts are mirrored on a national level. The U.S.
government has committed $230 million for the country.
And last month, President George W. Bush announced the
formation of the U.S.-Lebanon Partnership Fund, a
nationwide effort endorsed by the U.S. State Department
that is headed by four businessmen, including Bloomfield
Hills entrepreneur Yousif Ghafari, chairman of the
Dearborn-based engineering and architectural firm
Ghafari Associates.
This week, the fund started asking the private sector
for money to rebuild Lebanon in a series of appeals it
hopes will raise more than $100 million, Ghafari said.
In the Jewish community, fund-raising is under way to
help rebuild parts of northern Israel hit by Hizballah
rockets during the 34-day conflict, which started in
July after Hizballah crossed the border to kidnap two
Israeli soldiers. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit has raised $15 million for Israel.
Southeastern Michigan, because of its sizable
Arab-American communities, has a unique relationship to
the Middle East compared with other metro areas.
Kobeissi's plan, titled the Liberty Concrete Institute,
is to build two facilities in southern Lebanon that
would manufacture concrete and teach Lebanese about the
basics of masonry. For two weeks this month, Kobeissi
traveled across Lebanon, talking with government and
business leaders about his proposal.
To Kobeissi, his proposal is not just about rebuilding
homes, bridges and roads but also about improving the
image of his adopted country, the United States. It's a
goal shared by the U.S. government, keen these days on
winning over the hearts and minds of the Arab and Muslim
worlds during a turbulent time in the region.
Arab Americans in Michigan say they want to play an
important role in that, because, if the United States
doesn't succeed, other countries and factions hostile to
American interests could fill the vacuum.
"I was born there, but I'm also an American citizen,"
Kobeissi said. "And so I feel this is kind of my duty
now ... by helping my native country, I can also help
the image of my second country. This is our chance to
show them how great the U.S. is."
That will be a challenge.
Anti-American sentiment runs high in some parts of
Lebanon, especially those heavily damaged in the recent
conflict. ("Made in the U.S.A." reads one red banner in
front of a bombed-out neighborhood in south Beirut.)
Moreover, corruption and political infighting in
Lebanon's government keep away some wary investors.
This month some Lebanese Americans came away frustrated
after meetings with political leaders during a trip
organized by the Dearborn-based American-Arab Chamber of
Commerce.
"The political rhetoric that's happening in Lebanon is
discouraging investment," Nasser Beydoun, 41, of
Dearborn said in a meeting Oct. 2 with Lebanon
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the country's top
Shi'ite government leader. "And it's hampering Lebanon's
ability to move forward. We think Lebanon should be the
jewel of the Middle East ... but the political situation
in Lebanon is frightening Lebanese-American companies."
Unanswered questions
Abdul-Ghani Mekkaoui, 45, an engineer for a Livonia
contracting firm, had considered plans to rebuild
Lebanon. But after hearing concerns from leaders and
residents in Lebanon about future wars, he changed his
mind.
"There needs to more stability before people can have
faith in going back and investing money in Lebanon,"
Mekkaoui said this month after returning from Lebanon.
"All I hear right now is division."
Lebanon's political system is fractured along religious
and sectarian lines: Druze, Shi'ite, Sunni and
Christians are the major groups. In this summer's
conflict, Israel hit Shi'ite areas hard; Hizballah is a
Shi'ite group. But other parts of the country also were
hit, including Alma El Shaab, the Christian town where
Ghafari grew up. Bridges, ports, highways, fuel
stations, schools and tens of thousands of homes were
destroyed.
Ahmad Chebbani, the head of OMNEX Accounting and Tax
Services in Dearborn who visited Beirut this month with
the chamber, also worries about corruption. "Will the
funds go to the right sources? Who's going to be
managing the money?" he asks.
Those questions remain unanswered for now.
Meanwhile, some Arab and Muslim countries in the region
are bypassing the government and funding Lebanon's
reconstruction directly, presumably in an effort to gain
influence with residents. Qatar, for example, is
spending $300 million to rebuild Bint Jbeil, a town that
thousands of metro Detroiters have roots in.
The town was hit especially hard during the conflict,
with much of it reduced to dirt. The Lebanese government
hasn't done much to help, according to some residents.
"Forget about the Lebanese government," said Hussein
Wassef, 47, who owns a restaurant in Bint Jbeil. "Nobody
came to this area. Nobody. They don't ask, they don't
come here. Nobody sent even a piece of bread."
Wassef said his home was damaged in air strikes, and his
Tahreer Restaurant lost more than $15,000 in meat and
other spoiled food products.
"Only the Qatar people, the Saudi, the Kuwaiti people,
all from outside, the Iranians, the Syrians," are
helping people in south Lebanon. "But the Lebanese
government, forget it."
Across town, a $1.5-million civic center largely funded
by Dearborn residents was under construction. Now, it is
a heap of smashed bricks and exposed metal rods. Workers
were about to pour concrete on the second floor when
bomb strikes demolished the site, Beydoun said. Across
the street, his cousin's clothing and toy stores were
destroyed.
But Beydoun and others don't know if they will be
rebuilt. "There's really no clear-cut plan on what is
going to happen here," Beydoun said.
That confusion is echoed among some Lebanese Americans,
who say that while they will give money now for
immediate relief, they're reluctant to start pumping too
much money into southern Lebanon.
Big promises
Government leaders promise accountability in
reconstruction.
"There are some shortcomings," Lebanese President Emile
Lahoud, the top Christian leader in the government, said
in a meeting with Lebanese Americans from metro Detroit.
"There should have been better management."
But "the damage is very big," Lahoud added. "You can't
in one day do everything ... we're coming out of a war."
Despite the challenges, Kobeissi is determined to forge
ahead with his plan.
He is a soft-spoken man with an upbeat temperament. Even
after visiting the site where his family was nearly
killed, he harbored no ill will, just a strong
determination to turn tragedy into hope. On Oct. 12 he
met in Beirut with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey
Feltman to discuss possible funding for his plan.
"If we succeed with this project, five years from now,
there will be a person in south Lebanon, sitting in a
house that the U.S. helped to build," Kobeissi said.
"He's going to look at the concrete blocks and think,
'Thanks to the U.S., I have my house again.' "
Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO at
248-351-2998 or nwarikoo@freepress.com
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