Resistance: My Life for Lebanon

The author brings the reader to her country and allows them to see something of her struggle for her people and homeland. Soha Bechara is a great soldier, and her book is a great work!

Souha's dedication to the resistance, even through 10 years in Khiam Detention Center, is truly inspirational.Her memoir is a gift to understanding the resistance, particularly from a woman's point of view.Souha's writing transports you to Khiam Detention Center, making you feel like you too are trapped in a 3x3 cell.Besides learning about Khiam Detention Center, Souha's memoir also provides a very clear portrayal of the Lebanese Civil War and Israeli Occupation of Southern Lebanon and Lebanese cooperatives.This book has the best to offer: an insightful view into the secret realities of war and personal narration by a unique and extrordinary revolutionary.

In the end, Soha puts love of her country and nationalism as the primary motivating factor behind her actions. This is a very interesting read in light of present day events, which support both sides of the argument of Israel as occupier versus Israel as defender. Lebanon is a small country divided by religion, ideology and perhaps even race. As the middle east connection to the mediteranean and Europe it is also highly desirable territory. Read in light of present day events, this will make you think!

This is an important work for anyone who wants to look into the impact of war and occupation. This first person account of an act of resistance and the aftermath is a powerful work that forces the reader to see things from the perspective of the innocent people who are forced by circumstances into decisions that are incomprehensible for those who will never be faced with war.Whether one considers the author a criminal/terrorist or a resistance fighter her story is compelling and relevant. Her account details her progression from a normal Lebanese girl going to school and living with her family into a politically radicalized woman willing to risk her life and her freedom to strike a blow against the enemy of her country and her people. Her account humanized those who we too often dismiss as "terrorists". It made me realize that those who commit these violent acts are not mindless fanatics, but real people with family's and friends and life that they love. These are people who have been driven to the brink of hopelessness to the point where they feel their only recourse is to lash out against those they perceive as the protagonists of their torment.It is important to understand what drives a person to these actions, and to realize that military actions affect real people. Benign terms like precision bombing and collateral damage belie the horrific consequences for those who see and feel the real impact of what these words really represent. Criminal or honorable, resistance fighter her story is one that represents a thousand similar stories.

Great book.

Well written book that details how a young Lebanese Christian woman from the area of Lebanon adjacent to Israel which was occupied by an Israeli sponsored paramilitary group, the South Lebanese Army, was driven to resist the occupation, attempt to kill its regional leader, and subsequently jailed and tortured in the infamous Khiam prison. It shows that, contrary to Israeli propaganda, many Christians in Lebanon are not pro-Israeli and are victims of Zionism. Sadly, Soha's plight is minor compared to that of the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, and being harassed and tortured day in and day out, still now. When they come from Ukraine, such people are hailed as heroes, but when they are from the Middle East, they are called terrorists.

Whether you think of Suha Beshara as a freedom fighter or a worthless terrorist, there is one truth about this woman: that she sets a precedent in women's role in the Arab world. She stood up for her beliefs as she ended the male monopoly of all kinds of military activity in the oriental societies.Suha, a supporter of the Lebanese Communist Party, was recruited during the days of Israeli occupation of Lebanon to assassinate her compatriot, Antoine Lahad, who defected from the army and formed his own pro-Israeli militia known as the South Lebanese Army (SLA).The assassination attempt failed and Suha was eventually detained and taken to the notorious Khiam Prison, where SLA detectives tortured their subjects causing the death of many of them. Evidently Suha survived.The book is written in a chronological context and is concluded by the time Suha was released in 1998. It would have been very much in place, however, had Suha decided to look back at her violent activity and her decade in prison and gave her assessment in retrospect. Suha claims that her violent experience later changed her into a peacenik while her stay in prison taught her the love of life and patience.Despite the drawback, the book is a primary source and a firsthand account of a witness who once contributed to the making of news in Lebanon and Israel in the 1980s.Suha's book brings to the forefront the perspective of a silent South Lebanese population that had lived under Israeli occupation.Unfortunately, there is very little literature about what these southern Lebanese locals thought and believed at the time away from the divergent claims and perspectives of the two contending parties mainly Israel and Hizbullah. This volume covers particularly this area.

A must read to understand important parts of the Middle East.