The remark that Hegel made when he saw Napoleon on horseback in the German city of Jena in 1806 would become very famous. To the German philosopher, the French emperor looked like a conqueror bringing the zeitgeist (spirit of the age), as it was unleashed by the French Revolution, to Germany. Thus, Hegel drew an image that captured the essence of history as he saw it at that moment: “The world spirit on horseback.”
If the people of the Arab Levant were to draw an image that captures the essence of their history and reality today, they would say: “We see the world spirit languishing in a tunnel.” Israel and its Western allies control the land above the surface, where the strength and firepower of conventional armies decide battles.
They also dominate the skies, where their air force has the last say, as well as the seas, where warships and aircraft carriers have the upper hand. Given these forces’ mass violence and willingness to scorch the earth, the only option is to descend into tunnels in search of protection on the one hand, and on the other, to launch occasional surprise attacks.
After the war on Gaza and Hamas leaders’ retreat into tunnels, tunnels have become monuments of contemporary life in Gaza. In the first place, the destruction that Israel has wreaked with typical brutality has not left many streets to live in or roofs to live under.
Nevertheless, waging conflicts from tunnels reflects a predicament - one that is compounded when measured against the grandiose goals declared by these tunnels’ residents. Indeed, the understandable need to hide after being driven out from the land on the earth’s surface, sky, and sea makes any talk of victory untenable.
From the tunnels, at best, one can aspire to ensure personal safety; as for delivering victories, that is another matter. Moreover, those languishing in tunnels cannot see the sun, and the sun, here, symbolizes many things, including the world, its trajectories, and its shifts. Thus, when nothing happens “under the sun,” the universe is either in a state frozen and stagnant, which is impossible, or the onlooker is oblivious to what he cannot not perceive, which is possible.
To these dire meanings, remaining in tunnels for long periods adds even greater misery, as well as anxiety that is heightened by two factors: first, Benjamin Netanyahu's criminal strategy is, by definition, to prolong the war; and second, when tunnels have a long lifespan, humans have a short one, especially since no shelters had been built to protect them from the horrors of soldiers and war. Ultimately, civilian shelters are the antithesis of fighters’ tunnels, just as the fighters’ tunnels are the antithesis of the civilian shelters.
Literature and mythology have cast unflattering connotations on those who live in a tunnel and then emerge from it seeming like they’ve emerged from a dingy, distant era. Today, when it is said that nations’ fates will be determined from beneath the ground, one cannot help but recall an image, produced through the combined efforts of myth and superstition, of demons and devils rising from beneath the ground.
While Hezbollah did not begin building tunnels recently, its sense of pride in them is new. It proclaims the party’s association with the tunnel as an ideal, making the tunnel a hallmark of contemporary life in Lebanon and, perhaps, the rest of the Levant as well. The intention, here, is to invert its meaning to promote this bleak commodity such that the tunnel becomes a comprehensive, rich, and illuminated space.
Mythology meets modern visual technologies through “Imad 4,” just as threats meet entertainment and the extraordinary feats of fierce fighters meet activities that amuse children and stimulate their imagination. Nature certainly retains a central role.
The video exhibiting the “Imad 4” facility, which is located “within the Lebanese mountains,” was titled “Our Mountains Are Our Caches.” The first thing we notice is the resurrection of old romantic Lebanese literature about “our mountains” and “crushing rocks.”
However, this new product put Lebanese folklore on its feet after it had long been standing on its head (apologies to Karl Marx). It came after the warfare footage known as “Hudhuh” (Hoopoe), which reminded us of the original hoopoe that guided Prophet Solomon’s understanding of nature. As for the “underground cities” they are best left to cartoons and comics, as well as psychological foreboding.
It seems the only element that does not fit in these tunnels is the civilian population.
Since sending entire countries to live in tunnels remains far-fetched, the tunnel, with its insects, sewage water, pollution, and humidity, has become a strategic promise. It represents the highest form of dear life in the countries of the Levant.
Politics, economy, freedoms, intercommunal relations, and the fates of fragile nations - all are paths paved to lead us to tunnels. In this sense, the “spirit of the era” is certainly no longer the transition from capitalism to socialism, as communists had famously claimed, but it might be the transition from the surface of the earth to its tunnels, whether by choice or necessity, individually or collectively. And there, of course, we will enjoy a life of pure bliss and absolute victories. The mere fact of never surrendering, neither in the past nor the future, gives us all the glory we need.
