Even the vicious Taliban know that when it’s pine nut season in Afghanistan there has to be a truce, image via The NYT.
Iran’s terror proxy group, the Hezbollah in Lebanon (funded by the jihadi drug Captagon) are hoping to create more global chaos by firing rockets at Israel across Israel’s northern border. They operate as a state within a state in Lebanon and want to see a moderate Lebanon in chaos along with Israel. Now, Lebanese Christian olive farmers are caught in the crossfire. Even the Taliban stops fighting during pine nut harvesting season in Afghanistan. Does the Hezbollah hold nothing holy?
The traditional olive harvest in southern Lebanon is a crucial economic activity to a battered economy (Lebanon can barely keep the lights on), and it faces severe disruption now because of the Islamic jihad group, the Hezbollah. The Israeli army is firing back in response to the Hezbollah rocket attacks meant as a provocation, and olive farmer Adel Khoury from Rachaya al Foukhar, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley is afraid for his life, he tells The Media Line.
He is afraid that Israeli surveillance might consider their harvesting activities as part of the Hezbollah terror group, and kill him in the crossfire.
Olive harvesting
Christians from Lebanon who became refugees in Israel told me that Christians in Lebanon are not able to speak out against the Hezbollah. Sharbel Salameh was from the south Lebanese village of Klayaa, and joined about 2,500 Lebanese Christian refugees who fled to Israel while trying to fight against the Hezbollah. The story is here. I also covered this story for the Catholic News Service.
Rachaya Al Foukhar is a Lebanese village in the district of Hasbaya in the Nabatiye Governorate in southern Lebanon. It is located on the western slopes of Mount Hermon.
Rachaya Al Foukha in Lebanon is in the crossfire
The attacks by the Hezbollah against Israel have persisted for over a month, and it has become worse since Oct 8, when Hezbollah used the Hamas terror attack against Israel as an opportunity to create more unrest in Lebanon. At one point in the past Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the jihadist death regime, pretended to be an environmentalist and had his terrorists plant trees right on the border with Israel as a provocation.
The trees, he said, would scare Israel.
Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon, where its extensive security apparatus, political organization, and social services network fostered its reputation as “a state within a state.” Founded in the chaos of the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War, the Iran-backed group is driven by its opposition to Israel and its resistance to Western influence in the Middle East. Western means Europe and America.
Jamal Hamdan, another local farmer told The Media Line that he worries that the conflict now could devastate the olive harvest season. The price of olive oil in Lebanon, often referred to as “liquid gold,” has already skyrocketed from $60 to $140 per 16-kg container. Olive oil prices have also tripled over recent years in Italy and other European countries.
Lebanese Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan reported that around 12,000 hectares of olive orchards have been affected by the Hezbollah-Israel strikes. Riad Harb, head of the olive oil producers syndicate in southern Lebanon, said that about 60% of farmers have been unable to harvest their crops, urging for a truce under the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon’s supervision to allow for safe harvesting before winter.
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist and publisher that founded Green Prophet to unite a prosperous Middle East. She shows through her work that positive, inspiring dialogue creates action that impacts people, business and planet. She has published in thought-leading newspapers and magazines globally, owns an IoT tech chip patent, and is part of teams that build world-changing products to make agriculture and our planet more sustainable. Reach out directly to [email protected]
