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Finding himself in a war zone

An American college student living in Beirut flees the city but hopes he can continue studying there in the fall.

By TOM MARSHALL
Published July 14, 2006

Levi Quaintance arrived in Lebanon six months ago for what he thought would be an exotic term abroad to study Arabic at the American University of Beirut.

But the outbreak of war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia has forced the Amherst College junior and two American roommates to flee the city for the southern mountains, where they had a clear view Friday of the country’s latest descent into violence.

Evacuating to a friend’s house, they passed the international airport that Israeli warplanes have now bombed twice, including a strike on the facility’s fuel depot.

“It’s still on fire,” Quaintance told the St. Petersburg Times by phone from his perch overlooking the city. “I can see the fire and smoke.”

Quaintance began intensive studies of Arabic last year at Amherst, but wanted to experience life in the cosmopolitan city that was called the “Paris of the Middle East” before its 30-year civil war broke out in 1969.

The United States estimates 25,000 Americans live or work in Lebanon. Several hundred U.S. residents are studying at the American University this summer, according to Newsweek. The State Department urged Americans to leave as soon as it is safe and prepared contingency plans for an evacuation.

Quaintance was living in an apartment in the West Beirut neighborhood of Hamra this summer with two other American students and one from Switzerland, teaching a little English and studying Arabic part time in preparation for the fall term at the university.

All seemed normal until he returned from class Wednesday afternoon, when his landlord called him into his office.

The news reported the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah militia. Israel retaliated by launching air strikes and moving tanks toward the border.“It wasn’t really clear what was going to happen,” he said. “But overnight, Israel started sending bombs further north.”

By Thursday night the bombing had reached South Beirut. Quaintance and his roommates decided to leave Friday once they lost electrical power and neighbors started leaving.

One American roommate went north to Syria with a Syrian-American friend, in hopes of flying to safety. Quaintance and George Washington University student Brennan Berry headed south.

“We were going the wrong way to have traffic,” he said. “The roads were all empty.”

By evening, high in the mountains above Beirut, they could see Israeli warplanes and Hezbollah rocket fire.

Communicating by phone and e-mail, Quaintance contacted his parents in Pelham, N.Y. “They’re pretty calm, which is nice for me,” he said.

Reached in Pelham, Quaintance’s mother, Jane Azia, said she was trying not to become overly alarmed at her son’s situation, and felt he was safe for the moment.

“I vacillate between being calm and being concerned,” she said. “If I had to hire a plane, I would. But I’m confident the State Department will take care of that if it’s necessary.”

 For the moment, Quaintance plans to hunker down and wait to see how the situation unfolds.

“Right now Israel seems to be very precise in its targeting,” Quaintance said.

But if the Israeli Defense Forces mount a full invasion, as they did in 1982, the students would be right in their path and might have to move quickly.

 “Some people say it will end in four days and they’ll strike a deal,” Quaintance said. “Others think it will take a while longer.”

Either way, he hopes the violence will subside enough for him to continue his studies in Beirut this fall.

“I’m still hoping,” Quaintance said.

Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1431.

[Last modified July 14, 2006, 22:30:31]