In Israel and Lebanon, life goes on even as the region teeters on the edge of all-out war
In Beirut, shops are open and traffic is as snarled as ever
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — In Beirut, shops are open and traffic is as snarled as ever. In Tel Aviv, cafes hum with patrons and umbrellas sprout across crowded beaches.
Such scenes may seem surreal in a region teetering on the edge of all-out war — and beneath the surface there is plenty of fear and anxiety. But after 10 months of near-daily border skirmishes, strikes further afield and escalating threats, a sense of fatalism seems to have set in.
The killings last week of two militant leaders in Beirut and Tehran — attributed to Israel — brought vows of revenge from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Everyone expects that an all-out war would be far more devastating than any previous conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, including the 2006 war.
But in Nahariya, a coastal Israeli town just 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) south of Lebanon, Israelis lounged at the beach and surfers caught waves in the shadow of the hills rolling along the border.
