WASHINGTON—Waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags, some 10,000 protesters marched around the White House to oppose the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. A large number of Lebanese youth and others of Arab descent, who rode buses from as far as Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio, put their stamp on the action. Moussa Faraj, 20, a college student from Livonia, Michigan, said he had never traveled so far for a political demonstration. “I was only 13 years old when Israel left Lebanon. Now I’m more alert to what is happening.” The Israeli government’s actions weren’t about rescuing the two soldiers kidnapped by H ezbollah fighters, he said, but rather that “they want to control all of the Middle East.”

—SETH DELLINGER