Europe has pretty much been this way for quite a while. (decades) MOO: They don't like war in their backyard. I know, it's a big backyard.
In fact the European Union came in big time following the Gaza strip agreement. Especially with projects aimed at infrastructure, basic needs, etc. They came in early with a water and waste sanitation project c/o highly specialised Dutch company Agrovision. It was also very difficult at that time to get supplies in.
Just one example from experience. But a Google of EU projects will bring up much more.
Of course nobody politically or practically wanted the iniciative to fail.
Even if you go to modern day Lebanon, on the drive from the airport you see many destroyed building with no walls, people, many Palestinian, living inside, making fires to cook, hanging up washing where they can.
And then you pass camps, Palestinian and Armenian, full of refugees.
Before you come to Beirut, still signs of destruction but also luxury shops and restaurants. IT used to be known as the expat playground (foreigners working in more extreme and restrictive places would come for a weekend).
Lebanon is a country of mixed religions: arab, druze, christian.
For many years Lebanon has been controlled, by not such a tolerant country, in every sense by Syria, there are road blocks all controlled by Syrian army
Hezbollah is an Iranian initiated group operating from Lebanon.
A good friend, James Thomson, has been setting up community ovens project in the south of Lebanon, where there has been so much conflict over the years.
You can look him up on on Financial Times.
I write this because IMO it is important to take regional factors into account and realise how complicated the situation is.
All IMO and IME.
www.theguardian.com
