LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 13/09
Bible Reading of the day
Metthew 7/16 -20: By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from
thorns, or figs from thistles? 7:17 Even so, every good tree produces good
fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. 7:18 A good tree can’t produce
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. 7:19 Every tree that
doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire. 7:20 Therefore by
their fruits you will know them. 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who
is in heaven. 7:22 Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we
prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many
mighty works?’ 7:23 Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me,
you who work iniquity.’
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special
Reports
Ask not what the US can do for
Lebanon/By: Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Now Lebanon/December
12/09
The Syrian Subpoenas and
Lebanese Changes/By: Walid Choucair/December
12/09
Latest
News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 12/09
Israel-bound Turkish ship
capsizes off Lebanon/Now
Lebanon
Lebanon pressing US to deliver military aid/The
Associated Press
Hariri in Saudi Arabia on Official
Visit/Naharnet
Aoun: We are keen on maintaining
friendship with Assad/Now Lebanon
Lebanon's Hariri in Saudi for first official
visit as PM/AFP
Aoun: Those Who Criticize FPM in Newspapers Are Not FPMers/Naharnet
Baroud: Interior Ministry
Preparing for Municipal Elections in May 2010/Naharnet
Geagea Visits Hariri, Says
with Damascus Visit if it Tackles Pending Issues/Naharnet
Iranian VP Congratulates
Hariri, Invites Him to Tehran/Naharnet
Lower
voting age not likely before 2010 polls'/Daily
Star
Judiciary will view Syrian warrants under Lebanese law/Daily
Star
Residents of Ghajar protest rumored Israeli withdrawal/Daily
Star
Yemeni Zaydi rebels claim capture of Saudi border post/AFP
Hariri heads for Saudi Arabia as Cabinet congratulations pour in/Daily
Star
Development of Arab world stalled by sexist laws and domestic violence/Daily
Star
Minority supporters sweep LAU student elections in/Beirut/Daily
Star
Green
activists hold Beirut vigil urging 'real deal' from Copenhagen Summit/Daily
Star
Aoun: Those Who Criticize FPM
in Newspapers Are Not FPMers
/Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun addressed his party's
victorious students in Antonine University student elections by saying: "Today,
we are in front of a new period, some are talking about abolishing political
sectarianism, and it will be abolished by your (coming) society, while our
society will prepare for this abolition."
"It is required that you accompany us in what we are doing at this stage. The
slogan 'Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence' was achieved in 2005, then we won in
the 2006 war in the face of the fiercest enemy in the Levant. Today, we have
restored the atmosphere of understanding with Al Mustaqbal as well as the calm
atmosphere in Mount Lebanon," said Aoun to FPM students.He added: "When you hear
some people are criticizing FPM in newspapers and threatening to resign, those
are not FPMers, because in FPM there is no oath of allegiance but a belief, and
those who lose the belief should leave FPM."Aoun criticized the media by saying:
"There are more than 20 stories published about my visit to Bkirki, and that is
an evidence on the lies circulated in the news."On the other hand, FPM sources
told the Central News Agency that preparations were underway for a visit by Aoun
to Saudi Arabia, but added that a specific date was not set yet. Beirut, 11 Dec
09
Baroud: Interior Ministry Preparing for Municipal Elections in May 2010
Naharnet/Interior Minister Ziad Baroud on Friday stressed that "the ministry is
working as if the municipal election will occur in its specified date in May
2010," adding that "postponing requires decisions by the parliament or the
government."After meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in Bkirki,
Baroud urged to implement administrational decentralization.
On the other hand, Baroud said he was acting in accordance with the law
regarding the crisis with ISF chief Ashraf Rifi. He expressed his keenness on
implementing the manuscript that defines the relation between the interior
minister and ISF. "My cooperation is absolute with the Internal Security Forces
Command because we are one team, and we should work according to this spirit,"
added Baroud. Beirut, 11 Dec 09, 18:27
Hariri in Saudi Arabia on Official Visit
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Friday evening left Beirut heading to the
Saudi capital Riyadh on an official visit that will include meetings with top
Saudi officials. Hariri will be accompanied by a delegation consisting of former
minister Bassem al-Sabaa, Advisor Nader Hariri, and Media Advisor Hani Hammoud.
Before his flight, Hariri met with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda
Palace and left without making any statement. Earlier, Hariri urged to keep the
concept of coexistence as the cornerstone of the Lebanese regime and said that
Lebanon's potentials should not be "lost in the alleys of sects." During his
sponsorship for the opening ceremony of the 53rd edition of the Beirut Book Fair
in BIEL, Hariri said: "We are standing at the gateway of a new phase that
requires the integration of the elements of political and security stability
with the elements of social and economical progress."
Beirut, 11 Dec 09, 20:40
Iranian VP Congratulates Hariri, Invites Him to Tehran
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri received on Friday a telegram from Iranian
First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi who congratulated for forming "the
national unity government." Rahimi conveyed to Hariri "Iran's unlimited and
continuous support for the Lebanese Republic.""The cooperation of our brotherly
countries and their solidarity in realizing the causes of their great people
will produce fruitful results," added Rahimi. Rahimi also invited Hariri to
visit Iran for "friendly talks." Beirut, 11 Dec 09, 17:43
Ask not
what the US can do for Lebanon
Hussain Abdul-Hussain,
Now Lebanon/
December 12, 2009
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, formerly
his country’s ambassador to Lebanon, often tells the following story: “On March
13, 2005, I cabled Washington saying that given the political situation,
demanding a Syrian redeployment into the Bekaa Valley seems to be the choice.
Little did I know that more than 1 million Lebanese would take to the streets on
March 14 demanding full Syrian withdrawal. The Lebanese were apparently a step
ahead of politicians, who then followed.”
Sometime later, a Saudi-Syrian agreement was reached to form a Syrian-Lebanese
“Security Committee.” Such a committee, a defiant Walid Jumblatt said at the
time, would mean the return of Syrian dominance over Lebanon, and the March 14
leadership killed the suggestion.
For March 14 supporters, those were the days when their leaders, empowered by a
sweeping popular mandate, could – and did – practice sovereignty, enjoying their
hard-won freedom. America, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran had no choice but to
accept Lebanon’s strong independence movement.
Then it collapsed. Some say the turning point came with Hezbollah’s “invasion”
of West Beirut in May 2008, while others argue it happened because of a
wind-shift in US policy, including the replacement of the savvy Feltman. A third
group believes Qatar snatched Paris from March 14 and made out of it a
pro-Syrian capital, while a fourth group says the “Lebanese file” in Saudi
Arabia was moved from the hands of one group of officials to another, one more
sympathetic to Syria.
None of these theories considers what happened inside Lebanon and within March
14. Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun sold out on Lebanese
independence, thus weakening the coalition, while the remaining March 14 leaders
went into hiding fearing for their lives.
Even before May 2008, some March 14 leaders had lost the stomach for the fight.
In late 2007, Feltman addressed a Washington think tank, arguing that his
country had thrown its weight behind the election of a Lebanese president with a
simple majority. March 14 did not move, arguing this might invite violence from
Hezbollah. It came anyway.
One defection after another and one concession after another resulted in a March
14 meltdown.
What remained of March 14, however, was its leaders’ fascination with world
affairs. Americans are opening up to Syria, some argued – wrongly as it turned
out. Others decided never to go the extra mile without Saudi approval, while a
volte face by France was also blamed on the dip in March 14’s fortunes.
In reality, March 14’s leaders never considered it was their failure to act when
action was needed, whether through deposing former President Lahoud, appointing
Shia ministers after Hezbollah and Amal walked out of the cabinet, electing a
president with simple majority or behaving like winners after the June
elections. For some reason, the March 14 leaders went from heroes to spectators
obsessed with regional politics. Accordingly, Lebanon’s independence,
sovereignty and freedom were compromised.
Since then, Lebanon has become a country in March 14’s image: A failure.
It elected Michel Sleiman, an unknown politician, to the presidency. Keen to
live up to his description as a consensus leader, Sleiman has proven ineffective
in his first 18 months and before that stood by as Hezbollah burned down Future
TV and Al-Mustaqbal newspaper.
What is worse, the Sleiman lethargy syndrome has spread through various state
institutions. The first to contract the virus were pro-March 14 diplomats, who
cannot match their March 8 counterparts when it comes to spreading the political
gospel.
In Washington, where Syrian, Libyan and Qatari diplomats and lobbyists show
formidable effectiveness, the Lebanese Ambassador, Antoine Chedid, can be found
at social functions, but never addressing think tanks or lobbying this senator
or that congressperson.
Now, in the name of Lebanese consensus, Sleiman and Chedid are endorsing
Hezbollah and Syrian talking points, such as the “right of resistance,” whether
or not it achieves any Lebanese consensus, the “benefits of the US opening up to
Syria” and more arms for the Lebanese Armed Forces, “though not to implement
1559 or 1701 or any other relevant Security Council resolution,” to name a few.
Lebanese consensus politicians, and now some March 14 leaders, are asking, “What
can America do for Lebanon?” The same question is sure to be posed by Sleiman to
US President Barak Obama when the two meet in the White House on Monday. Surely
Obama should ask Sleiman, “What can you or the once pro-independence leaders do
for Lebanon?”
America, like on March 14, 2005, will certainly follow.
The Syrian Subpoenas and Lebanese Changes
Fri, 11 December 2009
Walid Choucair
http://www.daralhayat.com/portalarticlendah/85665
The Syrian subpoenas for a number of Lebanese politicians, media figures and judicial and security officials, before Prime Minister Saad Hariri heads to Damascus to begin a trip of normalization (expected to take place before the end of the month), prove that this journey will be difficult. It will be full of bumps, difficulties, hurdles and contradictions that the Lebanese-Syrian relationship is pregnant with, due to the accumulated developments of recent decades, crowned by the animosity of the last five years. There has also been oppression by Damascus and grandstanding by Syria’s Lebanese rivals.
The majority, headed by Hariri, has realized the need to open up to Damascus and normalize relations with it in the coming phase, as a result of changes in regional and international conditions, and as a result of the need to defuse the hostility with Syria. This is in order to achieve a minimum level of domestic stability, to keep up with external changes, such as the behavior of Damascus itself in the regional arena. Syria has its own reading of this openness to it, since it believes itself to be the victor, while the others are coming to it defeated.
Although members of the majority, or Hariri’s allies, have each expressed their support for or understanding of his imminent visit to the Syrian capital, and the ushering in of a new phase in bilateral relations, they also agreed, despite their disparate readings of the changes, that the Syrian-Saudi rapprochement is a new factor that renders Hariri’s visit a natural development. This is in light of American engagement in a dialogue with Syria, through seeking dialogue to implement the decisions of the National Dialogue sessions in Lebanon, with regard to removing Palestinian armed centers outside the refugee camps, controlling weapons inside them, demarcating the Lebanese-Syrian borders, and solving the issue of Lebanese believed to be in Syria. This view is also based on what the Cedar Revolution achieved, namely a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005 and the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
These justifications of support for Hariri’s step bring together those who adhere to the Cedar Revolution, such as the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, and those outside the majority (and remaining in it) as part of a policy of protecting the Druze community, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, despite the differences between the two men.
The members of the majority are seeking cohesion of various levels behind Hariri, at a time in which Damascus appears unprepared to recognize the alliance that the leader of the Future Movement rests on, as it wants him to be its guest by himself. Syria doesn’t recognize the previous era in Lebanon, and what it led to.
In such a situation, it is natural for the leaders of the majority to see the Syrian subpoenas as a signal from Syria that it does not recognize the past era. It is a message that, in their view, Hariri’s visit to Syria to begin normalization and turning the page means turning the page on the past, which should be accompanied by their exclusion, or punishment. It recalls the phase of consolidation of detailed Syrian management of Lebanese affairs, after the election of former President Emile Lahoud in 1998, when he demanded that the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri exclude certain people who were then close to him. Some of these individuals were forcefully and unfairly excluded from public life through various means of oppression, by pressure through Lebanese security officers and some of the submissive judiciary, when most media were co-opted by the then-president.
This phase prompted many to jump to the conclusion that the Syrians have not changed their method of dealing with Lebanon, despite the changes that have taken place, because it is no coincidence that the subpoenas target judges, security officers and politicians close to the young Hariri, and include members of the media.
Although the explanation for the subpoenas that has been given, when a friend of Damascus telephoned and advised that they be withdrawn because they were influencing the atmosphere of rapprochement, was that the Syrian judicial move was separate from political convergence and had nothing to do with it, in parallel to the claim by Hariri and the majority that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is separate from the “fraternal” relationship with Damascus. Moreover, it was said that Syria is unconcerned with its allies’ anxiety about the impact of the subpoenas on the various Lebanese sides.
Most likely, Damascus is also unconcerned with the anxiety of foreign capitals, such as Paris, Riyadh and Ankara, about the resumption of relations between Beirut and Damascus. Is Syria’s goal to receive Hariri so that the discussion is limited to the subpoenas and their withdrawal, in return for his “withdrawal” of the demands on his neighbor, such as demarcating borders, removing the armed, allied Palestinian presence outside the camps, and treating the issue of the missing and disappeared? Is this so the visit will achieve a handshake with the Sunni leader, and not the prime minister of the government of Lebanon?
Syria might not have changed its methods with regard to Lebanon. However, Saad Hariri is coming under circumstances that differ from those in which his father took office, and differ from how Syria formerly played its role in Lebanon.