But it is also one that sits amid a fragile sectarian system that has repeatedly been strained by politics, militia power and outside interference.That is happening, yet again, in the city of Beirut and not for the first, not for the 10th time I find myself weeping again for Lebanon.Israel is bombarding southern Lebanon and displacing more than one million people because, it says, it is trying to push Hezbollah away from its northern border and destroy weapons, launch sites and tunnels Lebanon's modern history is, in large part, a story of being pulled into other people's wars: the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Israeli occupation; Syrian regional power struggles; Iranian rivalry with Israel, and repeated interventions by Israel, Syria, and others on Lebanese soil.Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Australia, has also been one of the most powerful forces in Lebanon, and has kept the country tied to Iran's regional agenda and the conflict with Israel.From the Lebanese point of view, it is also a long story of ordinary people trying to live normally while outside powers and local armed groups keep turning the country into a battleground.From 1975 to 1990, Lebanon's civil war was no ordinary domestic breakdown