Sucked in

Despite the government’s official policy, Lebanon has never been truly dissociated from the Syria conflict. However, until late the involvement of Lebanon’s divergent factions across the border has been covert, opaque and from afar. In this past month, that has changed — bringing the conflict ever closer to home. The deteriorating security situation is perhaps not surprising but it is disturbing. On a trip in early May to the Hezbollah stronghold of Hermel, north Lebanon, Executive stood with local residents as they inspected the red hot tail of a rocket that had just crashed into a hillside overlooking a family fairground. “This is not the first and it won’t be the last,” one of them said. Correct, he was. As he spoke Hezbollah was escalating its involvement in the bloody battle for the town of Qusayr, eight kilometers into Syria. A rise in the number of their fighters coming home