LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJune
26/2010
Bible Of
the Day
Psalm 85/1-13
85:1 Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the
fortunes of Jacob. 85:2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have
covered all their sin. 85:3 You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned
from the fierceness of your anger. 85:4 Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause
your indignation toward us to cease. 85:5 Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you draw out your anger to all generations? 85:6 Won’t you revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you? 85:7 Show us your loving kindness, Yahweh.
Grant us your salvation. 85:8 I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for he
will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to
folly. 85:9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may
dwell in our land. 85:10 Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace
have kissed each other. 85:11 Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has
looked down from heaven. 85:12 Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good. Our
land will yield its increase. 85:13 Righteousness goes before him, And prepares
the way for his steps.
Free Opinions, Releases,
letters, Interviews & Special Reports
What if Geagea said Aoun’s
words?By: Hazem al-Amin/25/06/10
Suffocation in the
Lebanese Air/Hussam Itani/Al Hayat/25/06/10
We said nothing/Now Lebanon/June
24, 2010
Second Term Blues in Tehran/By:
Amir Taheri/June
25/10
Jonathan Kay: Politicians should skip parades
that preach hate/National Post/June
25/10
Latest News
Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 25/10
Hariri discusses bilateral
relations with Tunisian counterpart/Now
Lebanon
Israeli Infrastructure Minister
Warns Lebanon that Jewish State Will Fight for its Gas Fields/Naharnet
US committed to disarming Hezbollah: embassy/Xinhua
87 US senators support Israeli self-defense/AFP
ME war tensions mount over
Gaza-bound "enemy ships." Hizballah pledges reprisal/DEBKAfile
Hizballah's "change of mind" over
assassinating Israeli - a face-saver/DEBKAfile
Iran
on war alert over "US and Israeli concentrations" in Azerbaijan/DEBKAfile
How a negotiated peace could leave Afghanistan
looking like Lebanon/Washington
Post
Exploiting the Mideast power vacuum/Ha'aretz
Pentagon Proposes New Arms Shipments To Lebanon's
Special Forces/InsideDefense
(subscription)
Report: Secret arms from Balkan region to
Hezbollah/Ya Libnan
Al-Manar charged with sparking tensions/UPI.com
Israel, Iran and Our Unsettling Global Future/Huffington
Post (blog)
Report: Israeli spy arrested
in Lebanon/Jerusalem Post
Lebanon security forces arrest Palestinian
suspected of aiding Israel/Haaretz
New
Unidentified Missiles in Southern Lebanon, Report/Naharnet
Zahra: Maritime Boundaries
Demarcation Came as Surprise to Lebanese/Naharnet
Search for Missing Indian
Continues .. Temperature, Ultrasound Likely Caused Factory Collapse/Naharnet
Mousawi: Israel No Longer
Can Impose Conditions on Others/Naharnet
Report: Islamists Mounting
Attacks on Christians in Sidon/Naharnet
Students Taken 'Hostage'
in Teacher-Government Dispute!/Naharnet
Armed Clash in Beirut
Southern Suburbs/Naharnet
Committee Makes Progress
in Monitoring, Controlling Border with Syria/Naharnet
Halutz: Some Win with
Words but Sit in Bunkers, Others to the Job and Go Around Freely/Naharnet
Turkish Parliament OKs
One-Year Extension for UNIFIL Battalion/Naharnet
Sudan Ambassador Meets
Hariri: The Individual Incident Doesn't Reflect Ties between our Two Countries/Naharnet
Gliha Snaps Back at
Hizbullah, Says U.S. Financial Support Distributed Publicly/Naharnet
Gemayel: Four Draft Laws
on Palestinian Rights May be Attempt to Thwart Their Right of Return/Naharnet
2 Lebanese Charged with
Belonging to Qaida, Plotting Attacks on Army/Naharnet
Hariri on 2-Day Official
Visit to Tunisia/Naharnet
Lebanon:
Parliament-Government at
Loggerheads over Oil, Berri Adamant to Keep Draft Law Alive/Naharnet
G8 Leaders Gather in Canada
Amid Airtight Security Blanket
Naharnet/World leaders were gathering Friday for G8 talks on global security and
development, amid calls to deliver on past promises and a brewing dispute on how
to shore up fragile economic recovery. "At the Muskoka summit, I will join my
fellow G8 leaders to take action on some of the world's most pressing problems,"
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged, in a message to delegations. "We
will make a real difference and deliver results," he vowed, as thousands of
delegations, journalists and activists descended on eastern Ontario province for
two back-to-back summits. Under a tight security blanket, leaders from the Group
of Eight richest nations were Friday meeting in an exclusive, remote hotel
resort in Huntsville, Muskoka, some 220 kilometers (140 miles) north of Toronto.
Then on Saturday and Sunday they will join others from the Group of 20 developed
and emerging nations for a summit in the city here, with 20,000 police deployed
for a huge billion-dollar security operation. The key themes of the G8 talks
were "growth and confidence," European Union president Herman Van Rompuy told
journalists, with the leaders first set to huddle behind closed doors for a
working lunch to discuss the world economy.
"The global recovery is progressing better than previously envisioned, although
at different speeds," Rompuy said. "Restoring confidence in budgetary policies
goes hand in hand with growth strategies." For the first time the leaders are
publishing figures in a bid to "provide a candid assessment on what the G8 has
done," they said in a report.
The so-called Muskoka Accountability Report lists country by country the pledges
each nation has made since 2002 in key areas such as aid, economic development,
health and food security and how far they have met them.
"In some areas, the G8 can point to considerable success; in others it has
further to go to deliver fully on its promises," the report says.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he was calling for "a new era of engagement
that yields real results for our people -- an era when nations live up to their
responsibilities and act on behalf of our shared security and prosperity."
British Prime Minister David Cameron, making his first appearance at a major
national summit since taking power last month, also suggested such meetings
rarely resulted in "tangible global action." "Too often these international
meetings fail to live up to the hype and to the promises made," he wrote in an
editorial in Canada's daily Globe and Mail. "So the challenge for the upcoming
G8 and G20 is to be more than just grand talking shops." But tensions over how
to sustain fragile growth as nations emerge from economic crisis are set to
overshadow the back-to-back talks. Obama has urged his European allies not to
curtail massive stimulus packages, amid fears severe austerity measures could
trigger a double-dip recession. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted
deficits must be cut in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis that forced Berlin
to provide the lion's share to a rescue mechanism in the face of stiff domestic
opposition.
"I think that there will be very fruitful, but also very contentious, debates on
this issue," Merkel acknowledged. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
sought to play down America's differences with Europe telling the BBC the two
sides "have much more in common than we have differences." "Everyone agrees that
those deficits have to come down over time to a level that's sustainable," he
said. But he warned the world "cannot depend as much on the U.S. as it did in
the past." The leaders of six African nations will also join G8 heads for
Friday's talks focused on helping the continent fight terrorism and achieving
millennium goals to improve poverty. "The EU-Africa relationship is a priority
for us. We insist particularly on the EU commitment to peace and security in
Africa," said Van Rompuy. One of the main focuses will also be the health of
mothers and babies, with Harper pledging the G8 summit would champion a new
initiative in developing countries. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his
Haitian counterpart Rene Preval, were also to join the G8 talks later Friday
along with Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding to discuss security and global
threats.(AFP) Beirut, 25 Jun 10, 10:14
Antoine Zahra
June 25, 2010
On June 24, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the following report:
“Deputy Antoine Zahra from the Lebanese Forces bloc in parliament, commented
during an interview on New TV on the security incidents “we are witnessing or
hearing about in Lebanon, without anyone telling us who was arrested and what
arms were confiscated in them. Are some entitled to use arms to settle personal
disputes?” In this context, he saluted the army and security forces “that are
acting to contain the areas witnessing skirmishes, and pursuing the perpetrators
of attacks on citizens. We should note that security numbers are insufficient
and the [political] decision is neither settled nor decisive. Not all citizens
are the children of odalisques. Some are but others are the children of ladies
and we cannot accuse the military and security forces because the political
decision is the one concerned at this level.”
On the other hand, he believes that “teachers are hijacking the future of the
students by not correcting exams. Consequently, those making demands and
requests should offer something in return. Will the universities wait for all
these students indefinitely, i.e. until the teachers decide to resume their
corrections? Minister of Education Hassan Mneimneh did his best to give teachers
what is rightfully theirs, but they insisted on blowing their demands out of
proportion.”
He then pointed to the “sensitivity among Christians over foreign acquisitions
and the threat of naturalization,” indicating that the reservations voiced in
parliament over the rights of Palestinians was “due to the urgent character of
the bill, not the rights themselves. Therefore, we must insist on considering
Palestinians as refugees in order to uphold their right of return, while giving
them the right to get work licenses exempted from any fees and giving each
Palestinian family the right to acquire an apartment within a specific area.
After these apartments are acquired, we would have reached a solution to shut
down the camps and end the problem of Palestinian arms inside and outside of
them.”
Asked about oil resources, he stated: “I hope that the quantity of oil in
territorial waters is massive and that this oil which should belong to the
Lebanese state solely, will not be used as a pretext to demarcate the sea border
instead of the land border between us and the Israeli enemy, as well as between
us and our neighbor Syria.” On the other hand, Deputy Zahra stressed that “the
issue of Hezbollah’s arms is only proposed before the dialogue committee and all
the reactions and arrogant controversies in this context have an answer,”
believing it was unlikely to see any “Lebanese Forces effort to disarm the
Resistance.”
“Whoever is accusing the Lebanese Forces of conspiring is attributing his own
characteristics to others. The LF's dealings with all sides were made in public
and not in secret, and the party reconciled with all the Lebanese in the Taif
Accord. Moreover, its political positions and Arab commitment are clear.
Therefore, it is unfortunate to see some defaming it and accusing it of treason,
at a time when they asked it to join them and it turned down their offer.” He
called for “the announcement of all those who took even one penny from the
United States so that they are convicted,” rejecting “any attack from Hezbollah
on a national and religious authority because the [party’s] Christian ally
convinced it that Christianity and Rome were one thing and the Patriarchate in
Lebanon was another.”
Regarding relations with the Future Movement, Zahra assured: “It is excellent.
All the sides based their theory on the fact that we were upset about Prime
Minister Saad al-Hariri’s visits to Syria, while in reality, we responded by
saying that we will visit Syria via Prime Minister Al-Hariri’s mediation whom we
fully trust. We truly hope that these visits will build relations between the
two states through the official institutions.”
We said nothing
June 24, 2010
Now Lebanon
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up his rhetoric against Hezbollah and
Lebanon. (AFP photo/Gali Tibbon)
On Thursday three stories made the regional headlines. First, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak addressed the
threat posed to the region by Hezbollah, with Barak reiterating his country’s
warning that the Lebanese government would be held fully responsible for any act
of aggression carried out from its territory against Israel.
Nothing new there you might think, but on the same day Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu also weighed into the Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon debate by
declaring that any plans by the Iranians or the Lebanese to send aid ships to
Gaza were unjustified as both Iran and Hezbollah, which holds posts in the
Lebanese government, were sending missiles and weapons to Gaza. For good measure
he referred to both Iran and Hezbollah as the world’s “darkest forces,” a
country and an organization that wanted to take the world back to the middle
ages. His words were admittedly a bit dramatic, but the implicit sentiment was
clear.
Finally, General Gadi Eizenkot, who is responsible for Israel’s northern
command, announced that his troops were preparing to confront any threat from
Lebanon, should an incident arise from attempts to block Lebanese ships trying
to breach the Gaza blockade or any other scenario.
The Lebanese government did the only thing it could do in such circumstances and
issued a statement saying that it would hold Israel responsible for any acts of
aggression, but the diplomatic rhetoric belies three structural weaknesses in
the Lebanese state.
Firstly, Lebanon’s moral stand on the blockade has been polluted. It is typical
of the Lebanese that a humanitarian cause to which Lebanon can lend its name, a
channel through which Lebanon can resist Israel peacefully and with the world’s
support, has been shut off to them because all the world hears about, fairly or
unfairly, is Lebanon’s connection to, and implicit support for, Hezbollah.
Indeed, Israel’s spin-doctors are justifying the blockade precisely because of
Lebanon’s alleged supply of arms to Hamas.
Secondly, Lebanon has always struggled to maintain control of national defense
issues. Since the formation of the so-called national unity government and a
thawing in relations with Damascus, this is a situation that is only likely to
deteriorate rather than improve. The national dialogue, a process that is an
insult to the nation’s collective intelligence but is supposed to create a
coherent and state-centric national defense policy, is dragging its heels while
Hezbollah rearms for the final conflict with Israel.
Thirdly, Hezbollah is once again flirting perilously with dragging Lebanon into
another war it didn’t want. When will we wake up to the fact that Hezbollah
won’t just go away if we ignore it or convince ourselves that it is part of the
national fabric, that it is essential for the defense of Lebanon in the absence
of an “proper” army (whatever that means) or that it is setting a noble example
for all Lebanese through its integrity and purity of arms? Bottom line: armed
non-state actors with Hezbollah’s level of influence (and let’s face it, they
are the de facto power in the country) are more likely to lead to destruction
rather than rehabilitation. Lebanon’s offices of state may be weak, but as long
as they exist, our duty is to strengthen them rather than create illegitimate
parallel entities.
The hotels, restaurants, beach clubs, bars and shopping malls may be waiting to
be filled to capacity. The Lebanese Lira is as strong as it has been in decades,
while new apartments define a new city skyline. But Lebanon will never be truly
secure and stable as long as the state is a façade and the country is used as an
instrument of regional leverage in an increasingly tense standoff between Iran,
Syria and Hezbollah on one side, and the Israel and the US on the other. And
while we are on the subject, Wednesday’s sacking of the US army’s commander in
Afghanistan will have only emboldened those who perceive US foreign policy to be
in disarray.
The talk in the region is of war. If and when it comes, people will die, homes
will be destroyed and the money will run away. Then we will have no one to blame
but ourselves. In 2006 we were forced into a war we didn’t want, and we said
nothing. In 2008, armed men took to the streets of Beirut for the first time in
two decades, and we said nothing. And in 2009, our democratic principles were
hijacked, and again we said nothing.
If we say nothing, we get nothing. Or even worse, we get what we deserve.
Second Term Blues in Tehran
25/06/2010
By Amir Taheri
Al SharkAlawsat
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=21416
Things are not going very well for Agha Mahmoud. A year after his landslide
re-election as President of the Islamic Republic, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing
what political commentators have long labelled 'the second term blues.'
This particular affliction concerns virtually all those who serve a second term
as president. Having won the re-election with the promise of 'the best is yet to
come' they quickly realise that this is simply not the case.
Consider a few items with regards to President Ahmadinejad.
He had promised a reconciliation tour that was to take him to 20 of Iran's 30
provinces in a bid to heal the wounds caused by his disputed re-election. The
tour was cancelled when it became clear that such an exercise could play into
the hands of an opposition movement that refuses to fade away.
Also cancelled was a promised grand gathering of key regime figures to embrace
one another and let the bygones be bygones. In fact, a good number of regime
grandees still refuse to accept his re-election and do not refer to him as
president. Worse still, some of the key organs of the regime cannot hold regular
meetings because of the continued dispute over who won last year's election.
Last month, President Ahmadinejad tried to shift attention away from the
domestic crisis by announcing the imminent dispatch of a flotilla to defy
Israel's blockade of Gaza. This week the entire exercise was cancelled with a
terse announcement that 'international configurations' did not favour the
sending of the flotilla.
Ahmadinejad had claimed that pro-Iran forces would win the Iraqi general
election and create a new hinterland for the Islamic Republic. That did not
happen. Iraq is now likely to emerge as an independent power with no interest in
serving the Khomeinist regime's regional ambitions.
There was more bad news for Ahmadinejad. The manoeuvre he had concocted with
Brazil and Turkey to divide the UN's Security Council failed to stop the
imposition of the toughest sanctions yet on the Islamic Republic. The UN move
was immediately followed by the imposition of even tougher sanctions by the
European Union.
Ahmadinejad had promised Iranians that there would be no new sanctions. Now that
there are new sanctions he claims that these will not work.
However the sanctions are already beginning to bite.
The much heralded 'pipeline of peace' that was supposed to transport $4 billion
worth of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan and India will remain a pipe-dream.
Both India and Pakistan have withdrawn from the project, citing the UN sanctions
as an excuse.
Also cancelled are a series of agreements with Western and Asian companies to
develop the South Pars gas reserves. As a result, the entire project has been
handed over to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which, for obvious
reasons, lacks the expertise for such an undertaking.
Ahmadinejad had also promised that Iran would become self-sufficient in gasoline
by building 12 new refineries before the end of this second term. Work on the
promised refineries was supposed to start in August. Now, however, it is clear
that not one of the refineries will be built anytime soon. Foreign companies
with the expertise refuse to challenge the sanctions decreed by the UN. Even the
Austrian national oil company which had ignored some of the previous sanctions
has now decided to play by the rules and stay away from the Islamic Republic.
With annual growth down to around two percent and unemployment rising at the
rate of 3000 jobs lost each day, according to the Ministry of Labour in Tehran,
Ahmadinejad's second term has not had a bright start on the economic front. As
for his much advertised privatisation scheme, the whole exercise is beginning to
look like a looting raid by the IRGC. Within the past 10 months the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard has become the owner of major public monopolies. The
ownership is exercised through a number of companies owned and controlled by
senior commanders of the IRGC and their business surrogate. These companies paid
a total of $7 billion for assets valued at over $25 billion. And that is not
all. The capital used for the purchase came from state owned banks in the form
of long term low-interest loans to be repaid from the profit of the companies.
In other words a few dozen IRGC officers became billionaires overnight.
Some Iranians call the so-called privatisation scheme ‘the greatest plunder in
Iranian history since the Mongol invasion in the medieval times.’
The 'Great Plunder' may have pleased the IRGC elite. But it has angered some
powerful mullahs who spend more time doing business than dappling in Shariah.
These mullahs have seized upon a gaffe made by Ahmadinejad earlier this month
with regard to the Hijab. Having ordered a new crackdown on women who allow a
strand of rebellious hair to escape their mandatory headgears, Ahmadinejad tried
to back away by saying this would be done through 'cultural and educational
work' rather than public caning and imprisonment.
Hard-line mullahs have lashed out against Ahmadinejad for having sounded
'lenient.' One businessman mullah, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati even claimed that
Ahmadinejad had tried to defy the Divine Will, no less.
For almost a decade the main theme of Iranian politics has been a gradual but
steady transfer of power from the mullahs to the military. Ahmadinejad was
propelled into the presidency in the hope that he would speed up and smooth out
the transition.
Carried away by his unexpected promotion into a major historic role, Ahmadinejad,
a frustrated showman, has provoked a series of internal and external tensions
that have complicated the transition.It may be too early to write-off
Ahmadinejad before he completes his second term. But one thing is certain: the
next three years are likely to prove to be the longest and the most eventful
second-term of any president in the Khomeinist system.
New Unidentified Missiles in Southern Lebanon, Report
Naharnet/Kuwait's Assiyassah on Friday said members belonging to radical
organizations have obtained several rockets through a third party which managed
to rob an arms warehouse in southern Lebanon and steal a number of rockets. It
said fierce clashes broke out between the robbers and the warehouse guards that
left three guards wounded. The injured men were taken to a hospital in south
Lebanon that belongs to one of the parties amid total media blackout. Assiyassah
said these missiles are likely to be used soon against Israeli territory.
Mousawi: Israel No Longer Can Impose Conditions on Others
Naharnet/Hizbullah official Ammar Mousawi said Friday that Israel no longer can
impose conditions on thers. "Israel today is incapable of imposing conditions on
others," Mousawi told al-Jadid TV, adding that Israeli threats should not
intimidate Lebanese people. Turning to the issue of petroleum, Mousawi said
Lebanon was too late to raise the issue. "Waiving this right will expose the
country to new violations," he thought. "To confront Israel, we must adhere to
our rights." Beirut, 25 Jun 10, 12:11
Report: Islamists Mounting Attacks on Christians in Sidon
Naharnet/The Lebanese government has ordered its security forces to prepare for
a crackdown against Islamist insurgents who have targeted the Christian
community in the south, the World Tribune newspaper reported. It quoted
officials as saying that the government has ordered the military and security
forces to conduct a sweep through the Sidon region where Christians have come
under steady attack from Islamists believed aligned with the al-Qaida terror
network. Several bombings around Sidon in the past two years have been traced to
the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the World Tribune said. The camp
is said to have a significant presence of al-Qaida supporters, it added. Beirut,
25 Jun 10, 13:10
Armed Clash in Beirut Southern Suburbs
Naharnet/A dispute in Beirut's southern suburbs at midnight developed into a
gunbattle between Moussawi and Rabbah family members from one side and men from
the Dandash family on the other. H.R. opened fire on Y.D. and Aa.Mo. threatened
to use a hand grenade and toss it although no one was hurt in the clash in al-Barakat
neighborhood in Mreijeh, the National News Agency said Voice of Lebanon radio
said no arrests were made in the dispute, which was caused by previous
differences between the family members. Beirut, 25 Jun 10, 10:42
Security Forces Arrest Burj al-Shamali Palestinian Suspected of Spying for
Israel
Naharnet/Lebanese police have arrested a Palestinian refugee on suspicion he was
spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, a police spokesman said on
Friday. "We have arrested a Palestinian from the refugee camp of Burj al-Shamali
whom we suspect is spying for Israeli intelligence," the spokesman told Agence
France Presse. "He had in his possession sophisticated communication devices and
is currently being held for interrogation," he added without giving further
details. Burj al-Shamali, one of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, is located
approximately five kilometers east of the southern coastal city of Tyre. More
than 70 people have been arrested in a nationwide crackdown on alleged Israeli
spy rings launched in April 2009, some of them policemen and security officials.
A number of the arrests have been high-profile, including a retired member of
the security services who was sentenced to death in February for spying and for
his involvement in the murder of two Palestinian militant leaders. Israel has
made no public comment on any of the arrests. Convicted spies face life in
prison with hard labor. They are given the death penalty if found guilty of
contributing to Lebanese loss of life.(AFP) Beirut, 25 Jun 10, 13:51
Zahra: Maritime Boundaries Demarcation Came as Surprise to Lebanese
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said Friday that the issue about the
demarcation of maritime boundaries came as surprise to Lebanese. "Lebanese were
suddenly placed before a fait accompli situation regarding the demarcation of
maritime boundaries," Zahra told the Voice of Lebanon radio station. He said the
Lebanese were all of a sudden faced with having to deal with issues like
approving a law to protect the oil wealth, demarcation of maritime borders and
later on settle the land border demarcation with Syria. Beirut, 25 Jun 10, 12:50
Israeli Infrastructure Minister Warns Lebanon that Jewish State Will Fight for
its Gas Fields
Naharnet/The Jewish state will not hesitate to use force to protect its natural
gas fields from being claimed by Lebanon, Israeli National Infrastructure
Minister Uzi Landau has warned in an interview. Israel would "not hesitate to
use our force and strength to protect not only the rule of law but the
international maritime law," Landau told Bloomberg News.
"Whatever we find, they will have something to say. That's because they're not
challenging our findings and so-called occupation of the sea," he said. "For
them, our very existence here is a matter of occupation. These areas are within
the economic waters of Israel." Earlier this month, Speaker Nabih Berri urged
the Lebanese government to start exploring its offshore natural gas reserves,
claiming that otherwise Israel would claim the resources. "Lebanon must take
immediate action to defend its financial, political, economic and sovereign
rights," said Berri, who has submitted a bill to launch exploration of potential
offshore reserves. "Exploring our options in this field is our best bet to pay
off Lebanon's debts," he told reporters.
"Israel is racing to make the situation a fait accompli and was quick to present
itself as an oil emirate - ignoring the fact that, according to the maps, the
deposit extends into Lebanese waters," Berri said. Beirut, 25 Jun 10, 07:35
Jonathan Kay: Politicians should skip parades that preach hate
National Post/Jonathan Kay June 24, 2010 – 2:40 pm
Four years ago, in the summer of 2006, pro-Hezbollah marchers took to the
streets of Montreal to denounce Israel, which was then waging war on the
Lebanese terrorist group. To their shame, several prominent politicians were
among the marchers, including Liberal MP Denis Coderre, BQ leader Gilles
Duceppe, and then-PQ leader André Boisclair. The politicians claimed they were
merely marching for peace. But in the end, what many Canadians remembered —
especially in the case of Mr. Coderre — was that they participated in an event
that, with banners and chants, glorified a terrorist group seeking the
destruction of Israel. It’s a lesson worth remembering for all those politicians
— from mayor David Miller, to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, to possible
Liberal leadership contender Bob Rae — who might be considering an appearance at
Toronto’s gay pride parade on July 4. Now that the Pride Toronto organizing
committee has changed its rules to permit the inclusion of Queers Against
Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) — a one-issue activist group that purports to agitate
for gay rights, but actually just seeks to demonize the Jewish state — the Pride
parade will suffer from a similar taint. Regardless of QuAIA’s own
representations about its message and tactics, its inclusion in the parade will
attract hateful hangers-on, and it would not be surprising if vicious arguments
(or worse) break out on parade day between QuAIA marchers and attendees who are
(understandably) offended by their message.Pride is supposed to be about
acceptance and diversity. But QuAIA is about bigotry — just like the bigots who
once denied members of the Canadian gay and lesbian community the rights they
now enjoy. It is a sad irony that a Pride parade would become the venue for
those who target hatred at one particular nation — especially since that one
nation happens to be an island of gay rights in an otherwise homophobic Middle
East. Is that a movement that Canadian politicians should want to be part of?
But if that’s not enough reason for politicians to stay away from this parade,
here’s another: the law.
As Toronto’s own general manager of economic development and culture has
concluded, a march featuring QuAIA would likely break the city’s own
anti-discrimination policy. Pride Toronto’s fudged solution, allowing groups to
decide for themselves whether they are in compliance with the
anti-discrimination policy, doesn’t get around this problem: As attorney and gay
activist Martin Gladstone has pointed out, “the Declaration of
Non-Discrimination is between the City and the Recipient, and it is the
Recipient [Pride Toronto] that is responsible to ensure compliance with terms of
funding. It is for the Pride Board — like any other not-for profit — to be
responsible for the character and content of its parade. A Recipient cannot
accept city funding and agree in writing to comply with the Declaration of
non-discrimination, and then simply rescind it by saying going forward
participants will ‘self declare’ compliance. That makes a mockery of City
funding and support and essentially asks the City to govern Pride.”
Of course, ordinary parade-goers also will have to think long and hard about
whether or not they will attend a Toronto Gay Pride parade that includes QuAIA.
But politicians have a special responsibility in this regard. And we urge our
leaders to stand united against bigotry of all forms by refusing to march in an
event infected by hatred.
jkay@nationalpost.com
87 US senators support Israeli self-defense
(AFP) –
WASHINGTON — Eighty-seven of the US Senate's 100 members have voiced support for
Israel's right to self-defense in the face of threats from Hamas, Hezbollah and
Iran, the Senate said Wednesday. The lawmakers wrote in a letter to President
Barack Obama that they "fully support Israel?s right to self-defense. "In
response to thousands of rocket attacks on Israel from Hamas terrorists in Gaza,
Israel took steps to prevent items which could be used to support these attacks
from reaching Gaza," they said, referring to Israel's four-year naval blockade
of the Palestinian territory. Israel last week announced it was easing its siege
to allow all strictly "civilian" goods into Gaza, after a crisis exploded when
Israeli forces killed nine activists during a May 31 raid on a flotilla of aid
ships attempting to run the blockade. The lawmakers, from both sides of the
political aisle, also stressed that "it is our national interest to support
Israel at a moment when Israel faces multiple threats from Hamas in Gaza,
Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the current regime in Iran." The lawmakers brought
particular attention to the Turkish Muslim charity involved with organizing the
aid flotilla, and urged Obama to consider branding the IHH -- the acronym for
the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation -- as a terrorist organization, as
Israel did earlier this month. They also commended Obama for the action he took
"to prevent the adoption of an unfair United Nations Security Council resolution
(about the deadly raid) which would have represented a rush to judgment by the
international community." A UN Security Council statement condemned the attack,
but fell short of a call for an independent investigation, with the United
States backing an Israeli probe. **Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.
How a negotiated peace could leave Afghanistan looking like Lebanon
By Daniel Serwer
Friday, June 25, 2010
While President Obama is surging troops into Afghanistan and money into
Pakistan, plans are being laid for a negotiated settlement to be reached before
the beginning of the American drawdown in July 2011. Gen. David Petraeus's
appointment this week as U.S. commander in Afghanistan increases the urgency of
defining the terms of such a settlement.
For those of us who listen carefully to silence, the most interesting part of
the president's West Point commencement address last month was his failure to
declare any end state for the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was clear he
wanted "an Iraq that provides no safe haven to terrorists; a democratic Iraq
that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant." But he said nothing comparable
about Afghanistan.
This notable silence is rooted in the growing conviction that even if the United
States and its coalition allies can succeed this summer in clearing a town like
Kandahar of Taliban fighters, there is no one to hold the terrain, build the
necessary institutions or accept responsibility once the military has completed
its work. This spring's experiment in clearing Marja, where Taliban fighters
have been leaking back in, has demonstrated how difficult the task is likely to
be in Kandahar.
The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which
have quadrupled the number of civilians in Afghanistan in the past year, are
still not confident of civilian capabilities. The Afghan government clearly
cannot carry the burden.
So the administration is looking for a decent, negotiated exit. The Pakistani
intelligence service would act as a surrogate (and guarantor) for the Taliban,
as Slobodan Milosevic did for the Bosnian Serbs 15 years ago. The Americans
would deliver Kabul. The deal might leave the Taliban in control of large parts
of Afghanistan but keep al-Qaeda in Pakistan, where Islamabad would agree to
deal harshly with its fighters.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly enunciated her "red lines" for
such an agreement: Taliban renunciation of violence and willingness to abide by
the Afghan constitution (which guarantees women equal rights), as well as
refusal to allow al-Qaeda or others to operate against the United States.
If the Taliban does come to power in part of Afghanistan -- say, controlling the
south and sharing power in Kabul -- Afghanistan could start to look like
Lebanon: Hezbollah controls large portions of the country, operates its own
military forces and delivers services to large parts of the population, but the
United States and other countries have embassies in Beirut, deal regularly with
the government and parliament, and try to persuade Lebanese authorities to limit
the sway and reach of Hezbollah.
The parallels suggest less palatable comparisons: Hezbollah-controlled territory
is far from free. It is hard to imagine that Taliban-controlled territory would
be more so. At least Hezbollah is contained by strict Israeli border security.
Nothing like that exists on the highly porous Afghan-Pakistan border. The
Taliban is far less interested in governing than Hezbollah is and is far less
popular.
Hezbollah projects Iranian influence and is an important source of regional
instability, training and arms to those who threaten Israel and more moderate
Arab states. Even if the Taliban did not try to attack the United States, it
could still prove inimical to U.S. interests, as it has in Pakistan.
While Afghan President Hamid Karzai would gladly end a war that pits him against
fellow Pashtuns, the Taliban's Afghan enemies -- the Tajik- and Uzbek-dominated
Northern Alliance -- are unlikely to appreciate a large fraction of their
country being turned over to those who regard the Quetta Shura, which runs the
most important segment of the Taliban, as the ultimate authority.
Karzai recently fired two key security officials, ostensibly for allowing
attacks on the national peace conference (jirga) that gave him more or less a
blank check in dealing with the Taliban. The men he fired were tough Afghan
nationalist opponents of the Quetta Shura and their perceived backers in
Pakistan.
Who replaces them as interior minister and intelligence chief will send signals
to Pakistan and the Taliban. If Karzai replaces them with people more to the
liking of Islamabad, and the Americans nod approvingly, it will indicate that
the door is open to negotiations.
What is not clear is whether the Taliban wants to come calling. The fighters
seem to be feeling little pain despite courageous Afghan and American efforts on
the battlefield. And Pakistan may not be willing, or able, to force the Taliban
to deal.
Assuming negotiations start in earnest by fall, it is doubtful that Clinton's
red lines can be made to hold in any part of Afghanistan under Taliban control.
The only one that seems really to matter to Obama is blocking al-Qaeda's return
to Afghanistan. The women of southern Afghanistan already wear burqas. What will
be their fate if the United States accepts Taliban control?
Other outcomes are still possible. The president should start by specifying his
desired end state. "An Afghanistan that provides no safe haven to terrorists,
ensures equal rights to all its citizens and maintains its sovereignty with
international help but without foreign troops on its territory" might be a good
place to start. But then he would likely have to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan
well past the next election, as he seems increasingly to be recognizing.
Petraeus would do well to insist on a clearly defined end state as he takes up
his new responsibilities.
**The writer is vice president for Centers of Peacebuilding Innovation at the
United States Institute of Peace. The views expressed here are his own.
Hizballah's "change
of mind" over assassinating Israeli - a face-saver
http://www.debka.com/article/8867/
/Naharnet
DEBKAfile Special Report June 22, 2010, 1:22 PM (GMT+02:00) Hassan Nasrallah
fails twice, stays in bunker Hizballah's secretary general Hassan Nasrallah did
not feel safe enough to take up Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan's
invitation to visit Ankara last week even under the protection of the four
intelligence agencies of Iran, Syria, Turkey and Hizballah's own service,
debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose. To compound this fiasco, the two
Lebanese vessels he planned for breaking Israel's sea blockade of Gaza are still
stuck in Beirut despite bulletins about their imminent departure.
To save face, Nasrallah had his sources "leak" to the Kuwaiti A-Rai a claim that
his organization pulled back at the eleventh hour from a plan to kill an unnamed
high-ranking Israeli on vacation, who was thereupon recalled to Tel Aviv.
Our intelligence sources report that Nasrallah decided to stay home in his
Beirut bunker, where he has lived in hiding for four years, for fear that even
he went to Ankara with the promised fourfold security shield, an Israeli hit
team would get him.
The cancellation of his Ankara trip turned out to suit both host and invitee:
1. Nasrallah, who looks after his security in person, found the two travel plans
on offer were chancy. One was to be flown in to Ankara by a Syrian or Iranian
military aircraft after Turkey refused to provide one. But neither was keen to
provide this service or in a hurry to make the arrangements.
The other was to make his way to Turkey secretly by road through Syria.
Nasrallah decided that the 10-hour journey on Syrian highways would expose his
convoy to surveillance by Israeli drones and he would very likely not reach his
destination alive.
2. As the negotiations between Nasrallah and Turkish security MIT officials in
Beirut on his personal security dragged on, Erdogan cooled on the prospect of
hosting him.
Not only would this vindicate the Israeli charge that the Turkish leader is not
above using terrorists in his hate campaign against Israel, but the campaign
itself is running into more and more criticism at home from broad political,
military and intelligence circles, who accuse him of a policy which is
detrimental to the country's own interests.
Erdogan was persuaded to shelve his plans for Nasrallah's visit and order the
MIT team to return home.
To save face for this humiliation - and his failure to browbeat the Lebanese
government into permitting the flotilla he sponsored to embark for Gaza - the
Hizballah leader engineered a leak to the Kuwaiti A-Rai of Tuesday, June 22. The
same story also threatened that an Israeli attempt on the lives of any Hizballah
leaders would be deemed a declaration of war and precipitate hundreds of rockets
against Tel Aviv and its environs and thousands against other locations.
debkafile recalls the dire Shiite terrorists' threatened to avenge the murder of
Imad Mughniyeh, head of their special security branch in a high-scale Damascus
suburb in February 2008. While accusing Israel, they have never made good on
their threat .
ME war tensions mount over Gaza-bound "enemy ships." Hizballah pledges reprisal
http://www.debka.com/article/8869/
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 24, 2010, 1:11 PM (GMT+02:00)Tags: Enemy vessels
Gaza blockade Hizballah Lebanese PM Hariri
The stop-go Lebanese JuliaOminous clouds gathered over the Mediterranean
Thursday, June 24 after Israel announced that ships bound for Gaza would be
deemed "enemy vessels" and halted by its navy by whatever means were necessary.
Hizballah shot back with a threat of violent retaliation, while Israel's
northern commander warned that the IDF was prepared to deal with threats from
Lebanon by "appropriate means."
With two ships, one Lebanese and one Iranian, already at sea, the Lebanese Prime
Minister Saad Hariri was reported by debkafile's intelligence sources as
coupling his public support for the sea campaign to break Israel's blockade of
Gaza with a quiet bid to stall it.
He privately asked Cypriot President Demetris Christofias, Turkish Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and the Maltese
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to deny Lebanese ships bound for Gaza permission
to drop anchor, refuel or load provisions at their ports, in order to prevent
them from proceeding to Gaza.
Hariri explained that he feared the flotilla campaign to break the Israeli
blockade would precipitate a new Middle East war.
Last week, the freighter "Julia," docked at the North Lebanese port of Tripoli
was denied permission to head to Gaza Port. Refusing to be put off, the
activists decided to sail first to Cyprus and then head for Gaza. Permission was
granted by the Lebanese Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi Wednesday, June 23.
On Thursday, June 24, Israel repeated its warning that ships trying to breach
its blockade against the Gaza Strip would be deemed "enemy vessels." The Israeli
Navy has been instructed to employ every available means to bar their access to
Gaza's shore. Israel OC Northern Command Gen. Gadi Eizenkot said: "The Lebanese
side is issuing threats against Israel and we are confident that the Israeli
army is preparing to confront these threats in an appropriate manner."
He was referring to Hizballah's announcement: "We will not stand by idly if
Israel attacks ships bound for Gaza. Detainees taken into Israeli custody
(aboard those vessels) will be deemed prisoners of war who must be released.
As the climate over the Mediterranean heats up, two ships are either at sea or
hours away from embarkation - the Julia from Lebanon and an Iranian ship, which
is said to be making for the Suez Canal from the Persian Gulf port of
Khorramshahr.
In his calls to the Greek, Turkish, Cypriot and Maltese leaders, the Lebanese
prime minister admitted that the embarkation of the pro-Palestinian vessels from
his ports violates US Resolution 1701 enforcing the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire
which ended the 2006 war, but he was helpless to stop them because they were
backed by powerful elements. Hariri did not say who they were, but they were
understood to be Syria and Hizballah.
He stressed that more urgent issues confronted Beirut than the Gaza blockade,
such as the Shaaba Farms on the Hermon slopes, which he said, "Hizballah only
talks about liberating but has not fired a single shell." Hariri made it clear
that by sponsoring the ships for Gaza, Hizballah is bringing Lebanon dangerously
close to a clash with Israel.
Unlike the May 31 episode, when the activists who resisted Israel's raid of a
Turkish ship to prevent if from reaching Gaza were unknown quantities, this
time, on Thursday, Israeli intelligence sources released the identities of the
ships' owners and the organizations mounting the expeditions.
The Lebanese "Julia" belongs to a Syrian shipping firm headed by a cousin of
President Bashar Assad, who made it available to Hizballah for the challenge to
Israel. The Lebanese flotilla effort is funded by a Palestinian by the name of
Yasser Kashlak who, posing as a wealthy businessman, serves as Tehran's secret
channel for remitting funds to Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist
organizations, including Hamas.
Therefore, Israel's designation of these ships and those of Iran as enemy
vessels meets the case.
From Washington, debkafile reports that when Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on June 22, he voiced extreme concern
about the Lebanese Prime Minister's inability to rein in Hizballah. Because of
this, the situation in the region could rapidly deteriorate, said Barak.
Right after the meeting, the US issued a statement about the "aid" flotillas
saying, "Direct delivery by sea is neither appropriate nor responsible, and
certainly not effective, under the circumstances. There is no need for
unnecessary confrontations, and we, along with our partners in the Quartet, call
on all parties to act responsibly in meeting the needs of the people of Gaza."
Iran on war alert over "US and Israeli concentrations" in Azerbaijan
http://www.debka.com/article/8868/
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 23, 2010, 1:23 PM (GMT+02:00)Tags: Azerbaijan
Iranian war preparations US-Israel
Iran's land forces on the readyIn a rare move, Iran has declared a state of war
on its northwestern border, debkafile's military and Iranian sources report.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps men and equipment units are being massed in
the Caspian Sea region against what Tehran claims are US and Israeli forces
concentrated on army and air bases in Azerbaijan ready to strike Iran's nuclear
facilities.
The announcement came on Tuesday, June 22 from Brig.-Gen Mehdi Moini of the
Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), commander of the forces tasked with "repelling"
this American-Israeli offensive. He said: "The mobilization is due to the
presence of American and Israeli forces on the western border," adding,
"Reinforcements are being dispatched to West Azerbaijan Province because some
western countries are fueling ethnic conflicts to destabilize the situation in
the region."
In the past, Iranian officials have spoken of US and Israel attacks in general
terms. debkafile's Iranian sources note that this is the first time that a
specific location was mentioned and large reinforcements dispatched to give the
threat substance.
Other Iranian sources report that in the last few days, Israel has secretly
transferred a large number of bomber jets to bases in Azerbaijan, via Georgia,
and that American special forces are also concentrated in Azerbaijan in
preparation for a strike.
No comment has come from Azerbaijan about any of these reports. Iranian
Azerbaijan, the destination of the Revolutionary Guards forces reinforcements,
borders on Turkey, Iraq and Armenia. Witnesses say long IRGC convoys of tanks,
artillery, anti-aircraft units and infantry are seen heading up the main
highways to Azerbaijan and then further north to the Caspian Sea.
On Tuesday, June 22, Dr. Uzi Arad, head of Israel's National Security Council
and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's closest adviser, said "The latest round
of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran is inadequate for thwarting its nuclear
progress. A preemptive military strike might eventually be necessary."
debkafile's intelligence and Iranian sources point to three other developments
as setting off Iran's war alert:
1. A certain (limited) reinforcement of American and Israeli forces has taken
place in Azerbaijan. Neither Washington nor Jerusalem has ever acknowledged a
military presence in this country that borders on Iran, but Western intelligence
sources say that both keep a wary eye on the goings-on inside Iran from
electronic surveillance bases in that country.
2. Iran feels moved to respond to certain US steps: The arrival of the USS Harry
S. Truman Strike Group in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea and its war games
with France and Israel, which included live-fire bombing practices against
targets in Iran.
3. The execution of Abdolmalek Rigi, head of the Sunni Baluchi rebel
organization (including the Iranian Baluchis), on June 20 was intended as a
deterrent for Iran's other minorities. Instead, they are more restive than ever.
Several Azeri breakaway movements operate in Iranian Azerbaijan in combination
with their brethren across the border. Tehran decided a substantial buildup in
the province would serve as a timely measure against possible upheavals.
Suffocation in the Lebanese Air
Fri, 25 June 2010
Hussam Itani/Al Hayat
The list of prohibitions in Lebanon keeps getting bigger while the issues which
journalists, writers and citizens are prevented from tackling, whether in
writing, reading or in speech are growing increasingly diverse. Indeed, each
morning, new headlines are annexed to what can and cannot be talked about out of
concern for civil peace or out of fear over being legally pursued or attacked by
the non-official monitoring apparatuses which are nowadays multiplying and
procreating.
After the Lebanese-Syrian relations file was pulled out of circulation due to
the defeat and collapse of the March 14 forces, and following the ban imposed on
the discussion of the arms of Hezbollah, especially after the discoverers
discovered a new job, i.e. the defense of Lebanon's wealth in oil and gas (?),
and in light of the emergence of the threats of cultural normalization from Gad
el-Maleh to Amos Oz, it was no surprise to see the recovery of the climate which
prevailed in the second half of the 1990s and the accession to the choir of the
one voice.
The latter choir thus resumed its activities with vigor and vitality and devised
ways to link any position that is not to the liking of its strongmen to funds
coming from Washington or instructions issued by the government of Benjamin
Netanyahu that is directed left and right.
Some suggested the discussion of the issues related to the rule and the Lebanese
political system, but it turned out that any discussion extending beyond the
exchanged national lying regarding "the necessity to rally in the face of the
urgent foreign threats and the difficult and sensitive stage" and affecting,
even if slightly, the relations of the sects and the future drawn up by the
Lebanese for their sons, bluntly meant an instigation of the next round of civil
war.
Others created interests related to equality and social justice, trying to shed
the light on the great discrepancies affecting the living standards of the
Lebanese and the social and economic divide endured by the weaker and poorer
factions. However, the latter did not secure the expected success and soon found
out that the social and economic issues which were intensively used on the eve
of the 1975 war, no longer attracted the audience, which found the string that
moved the unions and workers associations and rendered them mere tools in the
hands of the dominating sects. This does not mean that the social issues and
demands are not serious, but rather that those calling for them were unable to
drag them away from the claws of the political-sectarian apparatus.
As for the issue of homosexuals, which a group of writers believed deserved to
be tackled and taken out to the spotlight, some came out to say they did not
feel about their homosexual reality as they felt after the liberation of South
Lebanon from the Israeli occupation, assuring that the issue of the homosexuals
could not be placed ahead of the liberation of the Shaba'a Farms and the Kfar
Shouba Hills and that any attempt to depict this matter as one of personal
rights and civil freedoms was completely void.
Maybe one of the reasons behind the retreat affecting the margin of freedom of
expression and thought in Lebanon, rather the state of suffocation that has
started threatening its existence, is the inability to develop the governance in
it. In this context, one of the facets of this impotence was seen in the
parliament's refusal to lower the voting age in the municipal and parliamentary
elections. We can say at this level that there is an indirect link between the
aforementioned refusal and the insistence on keeping the Palestinians deprived
of their civil rights, while it is unfortunate that the sides which opposed the
two projects are almost the same.
Nonetheless, the stalemate and the inability to introduce the necessary change
into the Lebanese legal and constitutional structure, is allowing our countries
to be torn apart by the monitoring apparatuses of the half-educated, by
quasi-politicians and by traders dealing with all sorts of products and values.
What if Geagea said Aoun’s words?
Hazem al-Amin, June 25, 2010
Now Lebanon/
What if Samir Geagea, in a press conference, said the same words uttered by
Michel Aoun in his last conference about the Palestinians? Using the same tone
and the same words? In the context of his defending the Christian MPs’ position
regarding the Palestinians’ civil rights, General Michel Aoun used expressions
taken from a jargon hostile to the Palestinians, in a context meant to confirm
that he is not against their rights. Many of his expressions do not betray the
affection of the general to the Palestinians or to the Palestinian cause. For
example, when he said, “We will demand their right to roam and work in all the
states that have ratified the decision of the partition of Palestine,” he said
it as if their roaming and working in Lebanon annoyed him. The peak of the lack
of affection in Aoun’s speech was when he said, “Lebanon cannot support them
financially.” By cutting up this sentence we do not mean to amputate the
general’s idea, but to reveal the logic in his words, for we did not originally
claim that the lack of affection resides in the meaning of the sentence but in
its structure. Saying “support” carries subliminal negative feelings that a sane
mind does not miss.
Back to our question on the types of reactions that would take place, should
Geagea be the one who said those words, we shall draw a fictive scenario
portraying them:
- Some newspapers publish the idea of the speech excluding its substance, and
consider that what Geagea (hypothetically) said was a part of a militant
rhetoric, and an attempt to restore moments Samir Geagea has always longed to
restore.
- Some commentators, “ultra-sensitive” to racism, analyze the substance of the
language adopted by the Lebanese Forces head in his hypothetical speech, and
they draw conclusions and symbols showing that the man is waiting for the
arrival of the Israelis to attack the Palestinian civilians in their camps.
- We read a statement issued by the Progressive Socialist Party noting the
decadence of the Lebanese Forces (and not that of Aoun, of course) in giving an
inflammatory speech; and a Hezbollah MP comes out of nowhere to talk from his
secular and highly sensitive position about the rights of civilians, to tell us
how his human conscience was struck by what he heard.
This is not a presentation aimed at discharging Geagea from a speech similar to
the general’s, for nothing is guaranteed in the light of the facts, and we do
not accredit Geagea with qualities we do not accredit Aoun with. However, it is
a presentation to condemn “the guardians of conscience” for overlooking the
content of General Aoun’s speech. How wouldn’t they when they always have “their
finger on the trigger” when it comes to everything Geagea says! One does not
exaggerate when one concludes, as tens of times before, that this sensitivity is
made of lies, that it is not called upon except in the contexts of internal
grudges, be them sectarian or partisan. Walid Jumblatt, for example, could be
forgiven for much graver mistakes he has already made in his speeches about the
other confessions, such as divorce in the Shia confession and the story with
“the cursed species” (the Maronite Christians).
In his speech, Michel Aoun does not mean to hurt the Palestinians despite his
short and recent history in defending their rights. As for Amin Gemayel’s
solidarity with the people of Jerusalem, it is an unaccepted, strange topic of
mockery and a field of linguistic proofreading that the general has been exempt
of.
Let us inquire as to some names that have been accepted on the committee for the
regulation of ships heading for Gaza, for it will help us draw a conclusion on
how boring those “ultra-sensitive” people have become.
*This article is a translation of the original, which appeared on the NOW Arabic
site on Friday, June 25 2010