Caught in middle of Mideast conflict

Newport Coast, possibly the swankiest neighborhood in all of Orange County, seems a world removed from the turmoil unraveling in the Middle East. While civilians in Israel and Lebanon dodge rockets and scramble from their homes, the conflict plays out here on televisions and magazines at the air-conditioned supermarket.

For at least one person, though, Israel’s war on the Hezbollah terrorist group has a personal impact. Lena Idriss, a Lebanon resident who is currently staying in Newport Coast with her father, calls her home country every day to hear the latest firsthand reports ? and to find out if her husband and mother are all right.

“We’re really taking it day by day,” said Idriss, 39, who lives in Beirut and is taking an independent-studies program at Syracuse University.

On June 30, Idriss arrived in Newport Coast to stay with her family. Barely two weeks later, conflict erupted in her home country when Hezbollah forces captured two Israeli soldiers. Since then, the Israeli military has exchanged fire daily with the terrorists, while civilians in both countries have raced to evacuate the combat zone.

Those civilians include a number of California residents. When the fighting broke out on July 12, a group of 42 people from the Jewish Federation of Orange County were in Israel on a mission and left just as violence began to escalate in the north of the country. Now, with more than 25,000 American citizens in Lebanon, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for a cease-fire.

“Infrastructure is being destroyed. People are getting killed,” said Munira Syeda, the communications coordinator for the council’s Southern California chapter. “Israel says it has a right to defend itself, but all we see is bridges getting bombed, homes and villages getting destroyed and civilians being targeted. Where is Hezbollah on the bridges or at the airport?”

As world attention centers around the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Idriss’ mother and husband, a food scientist, remain in the family home in Beirut. According to the reports Idriss has heard, most of the roads and bridges in the area have been bombed or blocked off. A friend, she said, recently reported that her neighborhood had lost all its electricity after a rocket attack.

Like many Lebanese citizens, Idriss found herself caught in the middle when the fighting erupted. She had known and detested Hezbollah for years, but also accused Israel of overreacting to the group’s aggression.

“There is a terrorist organization in Lebanon,” she said. “We all know that. We all agree what they do is bad. They were first and foremost causing problems for the Lebanese government, but does that mean we go and bomb the infrastructure of the country?”

On Wednesday, the council held a press conference at its Anaheim headquarters to urge President Bush to call for a cease-fire. Several members of the Arab-American community spoke at the event.

“We call on the Bush administration to exert our government’s leverage on Israel and demand a complete cessation of fire and the push for a political solution to this conflict,” Hussam Ayloush, the council’s executive director, said in a release.dpt-25-lena-jf-CPhotoInfo741T8N2J20060725j2xkndncCredit: JAMIE FLANAGAN / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)Lena Idriss worries about family members still living in Lebanon.