The Daily Star serves up an in-depth and personal take on the damage inflicted to Lebanon's industrial plants, which have seen more than $150 million in damages, "and the figure may be much higher if industries in the South are included," according to Jacques Sarraf, a chemical plant owner and former president of the industrial association.

More than a dozen factories in the Bekaa valley and other areas were hit by Israeli strikes in two weeks of bombing, including: the country's largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm; and wood plant. Liban Lait, which produces cheese, yogurt and labneh (a Middle Eastern yogurt cheese), controls more than 50 percent of the Lebanese market.

Sarraf expressed fear that many small and medium-sized industrial plants in South Lebanon may have been hit during the fighting and added that some of the industrial plants closed temporarily due to power cuts and deteriorating security conditions. Wajih al-Bezri, the deputy president of the LIA, said many factories will be compelled to lay off their workers soon. "All the export routes for the Lebanese industries are totally cut off and this means that we have no place to sell our goods," Bezri said. The Israeli forces have sealed off Lebanon from the air, ground and sea.

Fadi Abboud, the president of the Lebanese Industrialist Association (LIA), in a press conference said, "I am worried that the Lebanese industry will collapse if the hostilities continue indefinitely," adding that the industrial sector employs thousands of people, which obviously affects the livelihoods of families who are threatened if factories are closed or destroyed.

BBC News proffers an even bleaker outlook:

In just two weeks of sustained Israeli attacks, the Lebanese economy has been knocked so far back it may never fully recover. Almost all the war-torn country's bridges and 80 percent of its major roads have been crushed. Airports and ports, telecoms sites and TV towers, schools and hospitals have been bombed.

Economists are estimating that the damage to the country's infrastructure amounts to more than $1 billion, yet the total cost could run much higher, according to the BBC article, and economic growth of six percent, as seen recently, is no longer possible.

Giant cash donations from the international community remain Lebanon's only real hope of any type of recovery, something that is already happening, according to Reuters (via another Daily Star article).

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah transferred $1 billion to Lebanon's central bank to help it support an economy battered by an Israeli military offensive in addition to a separate $500 million donation earlier on Tuesday to rebuild Lebanon. Yesterday state television said the money would be "deposited" with the Lebanese central bank, without specifying whether it would be a loan or a grant. Only time will tell if Lebanon is able to resist fundraising scandals such as those that have plagued the United States in recent months.

Perhaps one positive factor to arise from ashes of destruction is lower oil prices. Reuters (via CNN Money) reports that U.S. crude futures fell more than $1 to below $74 per barrel on Tuesday amid slumping gasoline prices and waning fears that the fighting in Lebanon would turn into a regional war. Unfortunately, this good news might only be fleeting as this excerpt from the Reuters piece suggests:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday he was determined to pursue Israel's offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas as he met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the conflict. Rice has made clear she is not seeking a quick cease fire and that any solution should address the root causes of the conflict - for which Washington and Israel blame Hezbollah and its backers in Iran and Syria.

Presuming the Israel/Hezbollah conflict will be a prolonged one, how do you think Lebanon's industrial community can/will survive?