To­day, as we go in the mor­ning to our da­y­ti­me work, and our child­ren go to their schools, and uni­ver­si­ties, to­day as we eat hap­pi­ly our lunch, and gat­her around our kitc­hen tab­le to dine, sit on our li­ving room sofa, or go for our shop­ping or exer­ci­se, and fi­nal­ly we go sleep pe­a­ce­ful­ly in the com­fort warm ho­mes in Lah­ti and our whole be­au­ti­ful pe­a­ce­ful se­cu­re count­ry. We might re­mem­ber that about thou­sands of mi­les away in the Mid­d­le East, in Le­ba­non, in Gaza, in Is­ra­el, and the re­gi­on – tens of thou­sands of pe­op­le li­ving in real-life dest­ruc­ti­ve “re­gi­o­nal” war and ex­pe­rien­cing hell-like life con­di­ti­ons, run­ning away from their ho­mes, and vil­la­ges and towns le­a­ving eve­ryt­hing, scramb­ling for fin­ding a safe shel­ter, se­arc­hing for a small meal to sur­vi­ve the day, for a pie­ce of blan­ket to warm up. In my pe­a­ce­ful home in Lah­ti, I strug­g­le my­self – as a Le­ba­ne­se na­ti­ve who made be­au­ti­ful Fin­land is home – for my pe­op­le’s strug­g­le, my he­art is ac­hing for their pain. I sat be­si­de my wife and our kids to exp­lain to them what was hap­pe­ning in my first ho­me­land Le­ba­non and to ans­wer their qu­es­ti­ons about why the ug­ly war and big events were un­fol­ding and why Is­ra­el would act with such cru­el­ty to­ward a part of the Le­ba­ne­se, as Is­ra­e­li airst­ri­kes in­ten­si­fy in Le­ba­non, kil­ling thou­sands of ci­vi­li­ans and for­cing mil­li­ons to le­a­ve their ho­mes and towns.

Amid do­zens of Is­ra­e­li airst­ri­kes eve­ry day, and a ground in­va­si­on in Le­ba­non, around 1 mil­li­on pe­op­le ac­ross the count­ry have been disp­la­ced. In many vil­la­ges and towns in nort­hern Le­ba­non, thou­sands of Le­ba­ne­se ci­ti­zens ma­jo­ri­ty of them be­lon­ging to the Shia com­mu­ni­ty flee­ing the on­going war, have ta­ken up shel­ter in Chris­ti­an churc­hes and mo­nas­te­ries.

Mis­si­les and bombs rain down on the skies eve­ryw­he­re, dest­ro­ying eve­ryt­hing and kil­ling hund­reds of in­no­cents eve­ry sing­le day. There is great pain and suf­fe­ring af­ter all, and the Is­ra­e­li ar­my is con­ti­nuing its cur­rent ope­ra­ti­ons in sout­hern Le­ba­non and tar­ge­ting Hez­bol­lah in Bei­rut, North, and Be­kaa. In all of Le­ba­non where Hez­bol­lah groups are hi­ding. It do­esn’t seem that There is going to be a ce­a­se­fi­re in Le­ba­non any soon. Is­ra­el can­not af­ford now to not fi­nish the job and comp­le­te­ly dis­mant­le, and di­sarm the mi­li­tia and its ar­se­nal.

In the short term, Is­ra­el’s stri­kes are dest­ro­ying do­zens of towns and ci­ties in Le­ba­non but all hope amidst the chaos of a fu­tu­re in Le­ba­non wit­hout war, wit­hout Hez­bol­lah.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 27th September.

But af­ter the kil­ling of Has­san Nas­ral­lah, the sec­re­ta­ry ge­ne­ral of Hez­bol­lah, and at le­ast 40 top com­man­ders eli­mi­na­ted in just two weeks, Most Le­ba­ne­se are pain­ful­ly and fe­ar­ful­ly loo­king for a small light at the end of the tun­nel. They strive each mor­ning af­ter a long night of bom­bard­ment, to be back to re­gu­lar life, and to be ab­le to go shop­ping and to pre­pa­re for their day, des­pi­te ex­pe­rien­cing the ter­ror of war. The ma­jo­ri­ty of them are shou­ting for pe­a­ce and cal­ling to di­sarm Hez­bol­lah. The in­ter­na­ti­o­nal com­mu­ni­ty must be­gin imp­le­men­ting the UN re­so­lu­ti­ons 1559 and 1701 im­me­di­a­te­ly. It is time to stand be­hind the pe­a­ce-see­king mi­no­ri­ties of Le­ba­non and eve­ry­o­ne in Le­ba­non and bey­ond and sup­port them to ac­comp­lish a long-las­ting pe­a­ce so­lu­ti­on.

Uni­ty and coo­pe­ra­ti­on among the Le­ba­ne­se pe­op­le from dif­fe­rent re­li­gi­ous sects and groups are es­sen­ti­al to ad­d­res­sing the core is­su­es that mat­ter most: to ac­hie­ve pe­a­ce and imp­le­ment Re­so­lu­ti­on 1701. One of the ur­gent is­su­es that should be ad­d­res­sed, is that to elect a new pre­si­dent of the Le­ba­ne­se state and to form a new ca­bi­net which on its top pri­o­ri­ty list is to dec­la­re Le­ba­non a neut­ral state and be­gin dip­lo­ma­tic ne­go­ti­a­ti­on and pe­a­ce de­als with Is­ra­el. En­ding the war and be­gin­ning pe­a­ce talks with Is­ra­el is the on­ly way that will save Le­ba­non right now from to­tal dist­rac­ti­on and col­lap­se.

Ge­or­ges Hou­ra­ni, an ac­c­re­di­ted pro­fes­si­o­nal jour­na­list and mar­ried fat­her of three, is cur­rent­ly stu­dying at Sal­paus, sa­les and di­gi­tal mar­ke­ting, and doing trai­ning work at the com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on of­fi­ce at the Lah­ti Pa­rish Uni­on. He is the aut­hor of "Ho­me­co­ming From War Zo­nes" book.

Hou­ra­ni was born in Bei­rut and mo­ved at the age of two when his pa­rents and sib­lings es­ca­ped to the south of Le­ba­non be­cau­se of the ci­vil war and re­lo­ca­ted to the town of Mar­jey­oun (130 km away from Bei­rut) not far from the Nort­hern Is­ra­e­li bor­ders. He is an award-win­ning fo­reign re­por­ter and jour­na­list, news and fe­a­tu­re wri­ter who wor­ked ear­ly in his ca­reer as a war cor­res­pon­dent for An-Na­har a le­a­ding Ara­bic news­pa­per pub­lis­hed in Le­ba­non, just af­ter gra­du­a­ting from the Le­ba­ne­se Uni­ver­si­ty in Bei­rut, with a BA ma­jo­ring in jour­na­lism. He con­ti­nu­ed furt­her his edu­ca­ti­on at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hel­sin­ki where he took on a mas­ter’s deg­ree le­vel cour­ses in me­dia and glo­bal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on, fo­reign re­por­ting, and in­ter­na­ti­o­nal law. His hob­bies are coo­king, re­a­ding, cyc­ling, swim­ming, and wal­king in the Fin­nish woods.