Many questions have been raised following the May 15 “Nakba” border incidents in southern Lebanon which left six demonstrators confirmed dead. But so far they haven’t been the right ones. International coverage of the day was a predictable whitewash. The security of Israel’s borders was debated — with the United Kingdom’s the Independent claiming Israel was “reeling” after the border breach at the Golan Heights — followed by news that Israel would be filing a complaint against Lebanon and Syria to the UN Security Council. Speculation abounded about the launch of a third intifada, complete with bogeyman reminders of mass mobilization and suicide bombers. The simultaneous killing by Syrian snipers of a woman attempting to flee the country into the northern Lebanon village of Wadi Khaled prompted a spate of finger-pointing that Syria and Hezbollah had choreographed the Nakba event to divert attention from unrest at home, somehow hijacking
