LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِOctober
08/2010
Bible Of The
Day
Luke 21/34-36: “So be
careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and
cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. 21:35 For it will
come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. 21:36
Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to
escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Free
Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Lebanon set to allow Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to visit Israeli border/By: Ian Black/October 07/10
Messaging System/By: Lee Smith /Tablet Magazine/October 6/10
Hariri pushed into corner over Syrian demands/By Michael Bluhm/October 07/10
The '73 war drags on in Lebanon/By Jamil K. Mroue/October 07/10
Let's party like it's
1973/Haaretz/By Gideon Levy/October 07/10
Hezbollah Mobilize to Welcome Iranian President/Asharq
Alawsat/October 07/10
Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for
October 07/10
Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah to
appear together at rally/Now Lebanon
'Nobody Can Interfere' in
STL Work, UN Chief/Naharnet
US: International Tribunal Will Not
Be Political Bargaining Chip/Naharnet
Ban, Livni Discuss Implementation
of 1701, 1559: Concerns over Hizbullah Rearmament/Naharnet
Abul Gheit Denies Egypt
Arming Lebanese Groups/Naharnet
Assad Warns: Lebanon
Situation Not Secure/Naharnet
Anti-Ahmadinejad
Banners Appear in Tripoli: You Are Not Welcome/Naharnet
Muallem Says STL 'a
Lebanese Affair', Describes Arrest Warrants as 'Purely Procedural/Naharnet
Declining Palestinian
Christian populations fears its churches are turning into museums/Associated
Press/Haaretz
Assad: Chances of
Israel-Syria peace deal up in the air/By Reuters/Haaretz
UN chief tells Lebanese not to disrupt tribunal/AFP
Ahmadinejad may travel by helicopter to south with Sleiman - report/Daily Star
Geagea describes Aoun as a liar who has reached 'very low levels/Daily Star
Lebanon and the STL/Huffington Post
Lebanese Fed up with Hezbollah, report/Ya Libnan
Anti-Semitic preacher to address London conference/J.Post
Israel To Iran: Time's Up/The Jewish Week
Lebanese Forces: We Will Take Legal Action against those Spreading Lies that We
are Arming Ourselves/Naharnet
Hizbullah: Refusal to Hand
Sayyed Documents on Investigation is Interference in Legal Course/Naharnet
Saqr: What We Possess in
False Witnesses Case Eliminates 90 Percent of Rumors/Naharnet
Houri: A Governmental
Change at this Stage Will Take Us to the Unknown and Cause More Concerns/Naharnet
Southern Villagers Eager
to See Ahmadinejad at Israel's Doorstep/Naharnet
Najjar: False Witnesses
Report Needs Updating and Each Minister Will have a Copy on Tuesday/Naharnet
Nicola: Geagea was
Released from Prison Thanks to Aoun/Naharnet
AMAL Ministers Insist on
Debating 'False Witnesses', Berri: We'll Boycott Any Session Not Devoted to
Studying the Issue/Naharnet
March 14: Lebanese Fed up
with Hizbullah Threats, Militia-Style Practices/Naharnet
European Sources: Hof to
Reassure Syria, Lebanon Their Role in Peace Process 'Definitely Coming'/Naharnet
Geagea to Aoun: I Didn't
Predict a Disgraceful End for You Such as the one We are Witnessing Today/Naharnet
Qahwaji Warns: Lebanese Army Will
Confront Attempts to Stir Discord/Naharnet
US: International Tribunal Will Not Be Political Bargaining
Chip
Naharnet/U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan Rice, warned
that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon "will not be a political bargaining chip."
"It is very important to remember that the Lebanese government and people were
the ones who requested the International Tribunal, and the United Nations
provided support for their wish," Rice said. "The Court cannot be a political
bargaining chip or a political soccer game," she said, adding that the STL, too,
"cannot be an opportunity for the intervention of foreigners. " Beirut, 07 Oct
10, 07:19
Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah to appear together at rally
October 7, 2010 /Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah Secretary
General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are set to appear together next week at a rally
at the Al-Raya stadium organized by Hezbollah for the Iranian leader's visit to
Lebanon, a Hezbollah official said on Thursday. "We expect Nasrallah to make an
appearance," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. It was
unclear, however, whether Nasrallah would appear in person or via video link as
is usually the case for security reasons.
Ahmadinejad's official visit to Lebanon from October 13-14 is eagerly
anticipated by Hezbollah, which is planning to give him a warm welcome as well
as a tour of the southern border region with Israel.-AFP/NOW Lebanon
Lebanon set to allow Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Israeli border
Wednesday 6 October 2010
By: Ian Black/ Middle East editor guardian.co.uk,
Lebanon looks set to allow the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to make a
highly controversial visit to its border with Israel next week.
The US has been leading diplomatic efforts to persuade the Beirut government
that Ahmadinejad's presence in strongholds of the Shia movement Hezbollah in
south Lebanon will pose a security risk that could provoke serious violence. But
the signs are that the trip will go ahead, diplomats said today. According to
some reports Ahmadinejad will symbolically throw stones across the border fence
into Israel, which he regularly attacks as an illegitimate entity, as well as
questioning the truth of the Nazi Holocaust. Israel is also concerned by Iran's
nuclear energy programme, which it claims is intended to produce nuclear weapons
which would challenge its own undeclared atomic arsenal. The reported two-day
itinerary for Ahmadinejad's first state visit to Lebanon includes Qana, where he
is to lay a wreath on the graves of Lebanese killed by Israeli forces. Another
likely stop is Bint Jbeil, the scene of heavy fighting between Hezbollah and
Israel in the 2006 war. Posters welcoming Ahmadinejad in Arabic and Persian have
already appeared in the area amid reports that the Iranian leader, with a
business delegation in tow, will bring investment, financing for oil exploration
and a controversial offer to sell weapons to the Lebanese army.
Iranian embassy officials in Beirut have refused to confirm details of the
southern leg of the trip, but Hezbollah is said to be massing supporters to
welcome Ahmadinejad as a hero of the resistance. Hezbollah, which is supported
by Iran, has warned that the US and Israel have no right to oppose the visit,
which its TV channel al-Manar hailed yesterday as "a non-conventional bomb in
the face of enemies wherever they are". Representations have been made to the
Beirut government by the US, France and the UN. Britain believes a direct appeal
to cancel the visit to the border would be counterproductive as it could be seen
as infringing Lebanese sovereignty. But it and other western governments have
urged the exercise of caution in a highly volatile area. Hillary Clinton, the US
secretary of state, raised the issue with the Lebanese president, Michel
Suleiman, at the UN in New York last week. US officials also stress that Iran is
undermining Lebanon's sovereignty by backing Hezbollah. The Shia organisation
has refused to yield its largely-Iranian supplied weaponry to the Lebanese armed
forces and is listed by the US as a terrorist organisation. Israel is urging
that the visit should be cancelled as it will undermine regional stability as
well as strengthen the axis between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.
The well-informed Beirut daily an-Nahar reported that Ahmadinejad's visit would
go ahead despite objections. But observers in Beirut said one possibility was
that he would only visit Iranian-financed reconstruction projects and not go
right up to the Israeli border for the stone throwing — on obvious security
grounds. Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, insisted on Tuesday that
it was natural for the president to visit such projects. Ahmadinejad is due to
meet Suleiman; the prime minister, Saad al-Hariri; the speaker, Nabih Berri; and
Hezbollah leaders. Supporters of Hariri's March 14 group have attacked the visit
as a bid to underline Iran's ability to disrupt regional peace efforts. Hariri's
bloc is also concerned about Hezbollah manoeuvring around the tribunal
investigating the 2005 murder of his father Rafiq. Israeli officials say they
fear the visit will go ahead and are ramping up border security following an
armed clash in August that left five dead. Aluf Benn, a respected liberal
columnist with the Haaretz newspaper, has suggested that Ahmadinejad be abducted
and tried in Israel for incitement to genocide and Holocaust denial.
Ban, Livni Discuss Implementation of 1701, 1559: Concerns over Hizbullah
Rearmament
Naharnet/U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon reviewed the Lebanon situation with Israeli
opposition leader and former FM Tzipi Livni, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
He said Ban and Livni also discussed implementation of U.N. Security Council
resolutions 1559 and 1701, "While concern was expressed at reports of the
rearmament of Hizbullah, with whom Israel fought a month-long war in 2006, the
Secretary-General urged respect for the Blue Line separating Israel and
Lebanon," Nesirky said. "As he has in the past, Mr. Ban called on Israel to
cease its over-flights of Lebanese territory and expressed the hope that
progress could soon be realized on Ghajar, the northern part of which is still
occupied by Israel," according to his spokesperson. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 07:33
Lebanese Forces: We Will Take Legal Action against those Spreading Lies that We
are Arming Ourselves
Naharnet/The Lebanese Forces press office condemned on Thursday the March 8's
campaign against it, "which is based on the same lie that the LF is arming
itself and training military members.""Some hired pens are now drawing up
security and military scenarios that allege that the LF is ready to drag the
country towards sectarian strife through which it will be able to seize
Christian-dominated areas," it said in a statement. "The Lebanese Forces
adamantly denies these lies and warns that it will take legal action against
those promoting them," it added. "The LF advises those manipulating people's
nerves and hopes to be quiet if they have nothing to say in politics," it
concluded. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 16:00
Hizbullah: Refusal to Hand Sayyed Documents on Investigation is Interference in
Legal Course
Naharnet/Hizbullah's foreign relations chief Ammar Moussawi criticized on
Thursday the United Nations' direct meddling in the functioning of the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon.
Hizbullah said in a statement after Moussawi's meeting with Norwegian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs Director General Geir Pedersen that the U.N.'s refusal to
grant Major General Jamil Sayyed documents on the international investigation is
interference in the STL. It added that the U.N. has no right to exercise
hegemony over the international tribunal or intervene in it.
Furthermore, it noted that this latest development confirms "without a doubt"
that the investigation and tribunal are being politicized to serve the interests
of major international powers. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 15:06
Assad Warns: Lebanon Situation Not Secure
Naharnet/The situation in Lebanon is shaky in light of heightened political
rhetoric swirling around the International Tribunal, Syrian President Bashar
Assad warned. "The situation in Lebanon is not secure, particularly in light of
the recent escalation and attempts by foreign countries to interfere (in
Lebanon)," Assad told Turkey's TRT television. "But at the end, we count on the
awareness of the Lebanese," Assad stressed. On arrest warrants issued by Syria
against 33 Lebanese, Arab and other officials over false testimony given in the
probe into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Assad said:
"This is an independent, judicial issue that has no political meaning or
political interpretation. It is a purely judicial issue. "Some in Lebanon very
much like to give a meaning to anything," Assad believed, adding that the issue
of arrest warrants was being exploited to harm Lebanon-Syria relations. "The
judicial decision would not change the Syrian position and will not lead to the
achievement of certain Syrian interests in Lebanon," he assured. "So why would
it be a political decision? the issue is purely judicial that goes back to a
lawsuit filed by Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed," Assad added. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 06:51
Qahwaji Warns: Lebanese Army Will Confront Attempts to Stir Discord
Naharnet/Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji on Thursday warned that the
military will confront attempts to stir discord.
"There are no negative signs at present of repercussions of regional conflicts
on the Lebanese arena," Qahwaji said during a meeting with command chiefs and
unit commanders in Yarze. "The more Lebanon is immune, the less vulnerable the
country is from external repercussions," he added. He gave instructions
regarding the necessary tasks of the units in the next phase -- at the forefront
to defend Lebanon against Israeli threats, combat terrorism and preserve civil
peace. On the internal situation, Qahwaji said that differences between the
various Lebanese sides are basically a democratic phenomenon, particularly if it
does not harm fundamental national principles. "But linking this variation with
statements on division and strife pose a threat to the country and we will not
allow that at all," he warned. Qahwaji said there is no "fear on the path of
security and stability in Lebanon regardless of how much these developments
reach." "The army will strongly confront any attempts to stir discord or put our
own citizens at risk under any circumstances," he warned. Beirut, 07 Oct 10,
14:28
Houri: A Governmental Change at this Stage Will Take Us to the Unknown and Cause
More Concerns
Naharnet/Mustaqbal bloc MP Ammar Houri stated on Thursday that the AMAL
ministers' withdrawal from Cabinet on Wednesday would not have an effect on the
situation in government. He told Voice of Lebanon radio that any talk of a
governmental change during this current phase would lead the country to the
unknown and cause more concern. Furthermore, he stressed that the warnings and
threats being issued will not deter Prime Minister Saad Hariri from his
convictions nor will it deter an entire political team from its national
inclinations.
Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 13:42
Najjar: False Witnesses Report Needs Updating and Each Minister Will have a Copy
on Tuesday
Naharnet/Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar revealed on Thursday that his report on
the false witnesses case in the investigation in the assassination of former
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has been ready for some time, but it needs updating.
He told Future News that the updates are a result of new developments that have
taken place in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon during the past month, adding
that President Michel Suleiman had requested the update. Najjar stated that
ministers will probably each have a copy of the report during Tuesday's Cabinet
session. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 13:32
Anti-Ahmadinejad Banners Appear in Tripoli: You Are Not Welcome
Naharnet/A Sunni Islamist group in the northern city of Tripoli sent a blunt
"not welcome" message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday ahead
of his visit to the country.
Several banners and pictures of the Shiite Iranian leader, who is due in Lebanon
October 13-14, went up in the mainly Sunni port city expressing discontent at
the visit.
"You are not welcome in Lebanon", read in Arabic one banner hung over a
pedestrian bridge in the Abu Samra neighborhood and signed by the Islamic Labor
Front-Emergency Committee. "No to Wilayat al-Faqih" said another banner in a
nearby neighborhood, referring to Iran's brand of Islamic rule. A picture of the
hardline leader in another part of the city bore an X over his face and a
message that read "Wilayat al-Faqih is not welcome here". The doctrine of
Velayat-e Faqih, as it is called in Iran, grants absolute authority over all
matters -- religious, social and political -- to a marjaa, or senior spiritual
leader. Next week's visit will be Ahmadinejad's first official trip to Lebanon
at the invitation of his counterpart Michel Suleiman.
The visit has sparked controversy, with members of the pro-Western parliamentary
majority calling Ahmadinejad's plan to tour the border region with Israel a
"provocation" and Washington also expressing concern. Iran is a key ally of
Lebanon's Shiite group Hizbullah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in
2006.(AFP) Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 16:22
Declining Palestinian Christian populations fears its churches are turning into
museums
By The Associated Press
Latest update 12:49 07.10.10
Today, Christians make up just 1 percent of the mainly Muslim population of the
Palestinian territories; in 1920, they were a tenth of the population of
Palestine.
In the land where Jesus lived, Christians say their dwindling numbers are
turning churches from places of worship into museums.
And when Christian pilgrims come from all over the world to visit the places of
Christ's birth, death and resurrection, they find them divided by a concrete
wall.
Members of the Abu al-Zulaf family, Palestinian Christians, have left the hills
and olive groves of their village near Bethlehem for Sweden and the United
States, seeking a better life than that on offer in the Israeli-occupied West
Bank.
Ayman Abu al-Zulaf, 41, moved to France in 1998. But he returned to Beit Sahour,
the village where he was born, a year later. "I needed to be here, not in
France," he said. "Without Christians, the Holy Land, the land of Jesus, has no
value." That's his message to Christian pilgrims he meets through his work as a
tour guide. "Christians have a very major mission here in Palestine. We are the
bridge to the West," he said. Today, Christians make up just 1 percent of the
mainly Muslim population of the Palestinian territories, said Hanna Eissa, who
is in charge of Christian affairs in the Palestinian Authority's religious
affairs ministry. In 1920, they were a tenth of the population of Palestine --
land where today Israel exists alongside the occupied West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. The Palestinians remain stateless. Decades of conflict, shifting borders
and occupation are the root causes of the poor economic situation that is
forcing Christians to seek better lives abroad, Eissa said. Rising Muslim
fundamentalism, a trend across the Middle East, concerns some. But most cite
Israeli occupation as the prime cause of emigration and the decline of their
community. "If there was no political problem, the economic situation would be
good, so the problems are linked," Eissa said.
In Bethlehem alone, the Christian population has slumped to 7,500 from 20,000 in
1995. Then, the Middle East peace process had created hope that a Palestinian
state would emerge alongside Israel. Some Christians who had left came back.
Sandra al-Shoumali, Abu al-Zulaf's sister, and her husband were among those who
invested at the time. They thought peace was imminent and saw a prosperous
future in a new state. But talks collapsed in 2000 and several years of violence
ensued. "There was no work, no way to live," she said. "Our family has been
scattered," she said. They moved to the United States. She is visiting Beit
Sahour for the first time in two years. Abu al-Zulaf knows personally of 50
people who have left Beit Sahour in the last decade. "When I talk to them, they
say: 'We want to come back, but there is no work there'." He holds Israel
responsible for the departure of Christians. "The occupation is menacing
everyone's existence," he said. His tours take in Palestinian refugee camps as
well as conventional pilgrimage places, such as the Church of the Nativity,
revered as the site of Jesus's birth. "Our resistance is through staying here
and sensitizing people," he said. The economy has improved since the Second
Intifada, or uprising, abated. Tourists have returned, but their path to
Bethlehem from Jerusalem has been complicated by the West Bank barrier Israel
has constructed on the grounds of security. Abu al-Zulaf has not been to
Jerusalem since he was 19 years old. He was jailed by Israel two decades ago
because of activism in a previous uprising. "Jerusalem is the core of
Christianity and as a Christian you are deprived of going there," he said.
"I am lucky to have seen Jerusalem," he said. "There are people here who have
never been." "I am not optimistic because I don't think things are going to
change. I don't trust the leadership on either side."
Assad: Chances of Israel-Syria peace deal up in the air
07.10.10/By Reuters/Haaretz
Syrian president says that western efforts to renew Israel-Syria peace talks are
focusing on finding common ground; says chances of success are unknown.
Western efforts to renew peace talks between Syria and Israel are focusing on
finding common ground, but nothing has crystallized yet and the chances of
success are unknown, Syrian President Bashar Assad said. In his first public
assessment of U.S. and French moves to relaunch the talks, Assad told Turkey's
TRT television that envoys from the two countries are trying to accommodate
Syria's demands for the return of the Golan Heights and Israel's security
objectives. An official Syrian transcript of the interview was published on
Wednesday.
"What is happening now is a search for common ground to launch the talks. For us
the primary basis is the return of the whole land. For the Israelis they are
talking about security
arrangements," Assad said. Assad said that if the talks were to resume they
would be initially indirect, similar to the last four rounds that were mediated
by Turkey and broke off in 2008 without a deal. "There is more than one movement
in the region, including France and the United States ... a movement between
Syria and Israel to search for ideas, but nothing has crystallized yet, and we
cannot know what will happen," he said. Assad last month separately met U.S.
envoy George Mitchell, who is trying to rescue Israeli-Palestinian talks, and
Jean-Claude Cousseran, who was appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to
pursue the so-called Syrian-Israeli track. The two envoys also visited Israel,
which Assad said was scuttling peace efforts by Judaizing Jerusalem and building
settlements on occupied land. Turkey still on"Talking about a mediation (between
Syria and Israel) is premature and what is going on now is search for common
ground," Assad said. He said Syria still wants a role for Turkey despite
heightened contacts with the United States, the only power Syria considers
capable of delivering a final peace deal. "The question (now) is about
negotiations. Who can succeed in managing these talks and solving the many knots
that will appear and remove the big obstacles?" Assad said. Israel, which wants
Syria to distance itself from Iran and Lebanon's Shi'ite movement Hezbollah,
insists on talking with Syria without preconditions
Damascus has stuck to its demand for a total Israeli pullout from the Golan, a
strategic plateau that Israel captured in the Six Day War in 1967, but has been
softening its tone.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said after meeting U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton this month that while Damascus would not compromise on the
Golan, an Israeli
commitment to restore the territory was a requirement for renewing the peace
negotiations and enshrined in United Nations resolutions, not a precondition for
talks.
Semantics could play a crucial role in resuming talks between the two sides.
Almost 10 years of U.S. supervised talks collapsed in 2000 after an Israeli
offer fell just short of total withdrawal from the Golan. A U.S. official said
after the Moualem-Clinton meeting in New York that Syria was "very interested"
in pursuing peace with the Jewish state, as the issue of Israeli settlement
building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem threatened to stop
Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly
said Israel was willing to resume the talks without preconditions, although an
adviser to his defense minister said last year that Syria may not be able to
curb Hezbollah, a major Israeli calculation behind any talks with Syria.
Let's party like it's 1973
Haaretz/By Gideon Levy
Latest update 02:12 07.10.10
Nothing has changed in 37 years. Israel has the same arrogant hubris and the
same obstinate resistance to any prospect of a peace agreement. The act of
atonement in which we are engaged over the recently declassified documents from
the Yom Kippur War is nothing but a hollow pagan ritual. Suddenly we learn that
Golda Meir considered ordering an "insane" operation against Syria and said the
world was "contemptible;" defense minister Moshe Dayan called for abandoning
wounded soldiers in the field and was thoroughly depressed; and Israel Defense
Forces chief of staff David Elazar tended to lie to the public.
We love to indulge in discussing the blunders of 1973, imagining that they
belong to the ancient past. All the responsible parties are dead, but the topic
is still alive and kicking. The winds of 1973 blow hard today, and nothing has
changed. The fact is that today, when each of Golda's pronouncements and Dayan's
proposals are headlines once again, nobody remembers another error from this
period, a much more critical mistake, by the same gang, made when it squandered
the opportunity, in the early 1970s, of reaching an agreement with Egypt. Had a
real lesson been learned from the Yom Kippur War, the scandal would have been
attributed to this missed chance for negotiations - the same error that is being
made today.
In the early 1970s, there was a genuine prospect for peace with Egypt. President
Gamal Abdel Nasser agreed to the Rogers Plan, to which all subsequent peace
proposals bear a striking resemblance, and even invited World Jewish Congress
head Nahum Goldmann to confer with him. Golda blocked the meeting and ridiculed
the idea, and Dayan declared, "Better to have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace."
The rest is history: Israel always prefers war to peace, and if there is no
choice then we'll make peace after a war, never before. Peace with Egypt, the
withdrawal from south Lebanon and recognition of the Palestine Liberation
Organization, all took place only after blood was shed, never before.
Nothing has changed in 37 years. It's the same arrogant hubris, the same
obstinate resistance to any prospect of an agreement, the same failure to
recognize that only peace will save us from another defense minister who sinks
into an existential depression while warning of an impending holocaust. What's
the point of this festival of 1973 war documents and this retroactive dance of
death? Why look back, if on the day the settlement building freeze ended the
settlers did a remarkably accurate imitation of the dance of arrogance that
preceded the 1973 war?
There is no difference between the Plymouth Valiants driven by the lords of
Israel in those days, the generals who went to Tel Aviv restaurants where their
photographs decorated the walls, and today's torpor. The same drunken blindness
is at play, even if the cult of the generals has since been curbed. Nasser
sought peace in the early 1970s, and Bashar Assad, Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab
League are knocking in vain at Israel's closed door in 2010. We mocked and
turned a deaf ear then; we mock and turn a deaf ear now. We have examined
photographs from parties in those power-drunk days and failed to find a hint of
sobriety, or even a hangover, today. Look at us then and see us today. The fun
and games continue, and the state shouts for joy, now as then.
Clip and save the bread and circuses: National Infrastructure Minister Uzi
Landau promising power stations on the occupied Golan Heights and Transportation
Minister Yisrael Katz promising a railroad on the occupied West Bank, just as
Dayan and Shimon Peres promised a "deep-water harbor" at Yamit. It's the same
story - the jubilation over natural gas discoveries, the roars of joy over the
bulldozers in the settlements, the blunt indifference to world opinion, the
apathy to the ills of the occupation, the obsession with trivialities, the
gossip columns that bow to the rich and powerful, the small screen that keeps us
from knowing what is really happening and the smokescreen of complacency that
shrouds it all. Clip and save, and when the next scandal over a failure of
leadership arises, in much less than 37 years, once again we won't be able to
pretend to be shocked and surprised.
Take the Home Front Command public service message in which a cute soldier tells
actress Tiki Dayan not to hurry, she can continue to fry her schnitzels. Listen
to the soldier, in her voice: Keep pounding those chicken cutlets, thin, just
the way we like, there's nothing urgent.
Messaging System
Tablet Magazine
October 6, 2010
by Lee Smith
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going to Lebanon next week, where he intends to throw a
stone at Israel across the border. While this set piece of information warfare,
or propaganda, may seem more Japanese than Persian in its stark simplicity, it
is best to think of it as a metaphor for Tehran’s regional strategy. For the
last 30 years the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been throwing the same
stone at Israel, a stone called Hezbollah.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s general secretary, is credited by many Arabs and
Westerners, including his adversaries, as among the greatest of all modern Arab
statesmen and warriors, a man of probity and honor. Unlike other Arab leaders,
he makes his threats against the Jewish state come true, sometimes even before
the very eyes of his captivated audience, as when Hezbollah struck an Israeli
boat in the first week of its summer 2006 war with Israel. “Look at the warship
that has attacked Beirut, while it burns and sinks before your very eyes,”
Nasrallah said on live television, as though he were directing a movie. This was
one of his most famous information operations, but the fact is that everything
Hezbollah does is part of its information-warfare strategy.
The Hezbollah T-shirts and lighters sold to tourists are Hezbollah media, and
the coloring books that indoctrinate children into Nasrallah’s cult of
personality are as much a part of Hezbollah’s information war as the party’s Al-Manar
TV station. Even Hezbollah’s military operations are part of its larger
information-warfare strategy. Kidnapping Israeli soldiers and firing missiles on
civilian population centers are real military actions, but sinking a single ship
is of little strategic value against a state with an army, lots of other boats,
and even nuclear submarines. As an asymmetrical warrior, Nasrallah understands
that even his most capable guerrilla units are no match for Israel, so he wages
war against what he correctly perceives as the Jewish state’s center of
gravity—public opinion. Hezbollah’s information operations are among the most
sophisticated in the history of modern warfare because the Party of God is
itself an information operation, designed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
What makes the relationship between Iran and Hezbollah seem complex is the fact
that the Party of God is an information operation directed at several audiences
at once. For instance, when Nasrallah says that Israel is like a spider’s web,
flimsy and on the verge of being swept away by the winds of history, he is
speaking not only to the Israelis. He is also addressing a Lebanese and a
regional Sunni Arab audience and even an Iranian audience. And yet even with all
the smoke and mirrors, the multiple audiences, and Nasrallah’s reputation, there
is nothing ambiguous about the fact that Hezbollah is a projection of Iranian
military power on the Eastern Mediterranean. There is nothing Lebanese about
Hezbollah except the corporal host; its mind belongs to the Revolutionary Guard.
“During the 2006 war, we captured a number of Hezbollah documents, dealing with
everything from religious ideology to military doctrine, the lion’s share of the
important texts was clearly written by and for the IRGC and then translated into
Arabic,” Shmuel Bar, a former Israeli intelligence officer, told me. “In human
influence operations, Hezbollah’s modus operandi is the same as Iran’s.”
Bar, the founder of IntuView, an Israeli tech firm that does automated
meaning-extraction from terrorist-related documents, likens it to how the
Soviets produced material for their Arab clients, from Syria to Palestinian
organizations. “We couldn’t understand the Arabic used to explain how to utilize
a certain weapon, so we translated the Arabic into Russian, then went to our
Russian linguists, who explained what it meant. The Iranians have done the same
with Hezbollah. These documents were not authored by Hezbollah but translated
from Farsi and prepared by the Iranians.”
The difference is that the Palestinians were notoriously difficult to control,
with Yasser Arafat often playing the Soviets against his various Arab backers.
“But unlike the Palestinian organizations of the 1970s and 1980s, which jockeyed
back and forth between Syrian, Libyan, and Iraqi patrons,” Bar said, “Hassan
Nasrallah cannot wake up one day and decide that he has chosen to side with
someone else. Hezbollah is a surrogate; it has no existence without Iran.”
This interpretation of course runs counter to the standard account, which sees
Hezbollah as a strictly Lebanese entity—a militia that may receive support from
Iran, as well as Syria, but has steadily integrated itself into the fabric of
Lebanese politics and society. Known as the Lebanonization thesis, this idea is
itself a Hezbollah information operation, one whose target audience consists of
the Western intelligentsia and, more dangerously, policymakers like the White
House’s counterterrorism czar, John Brennan, who would like to find a way to
engage Hezbollah but need a cover story that whitewashes Tehran’s real role. In
this account, Hezbollah owes its existence less to Iran than to the Israeli
occupation that brought it to life.
“The popular view of Hezbollah’s origins sees it as a reaction to Israel’s 1982
invasion, which presumably radicalized the Shi’a,” said Tony Badran, a Hezbollah
specialist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (and a Tablet Magazine
contributor). It’s not just left-wing academics hostile to Israel and war
correspondents stage-managed by Hezbollah’s media handlers who believe that
Israel’s 18-year occupation, from 1982 to 2000, gave rise to the party. Even
Israel’s current defense minister, Ehud Barak, argues that, “It was our presence
[in southern Lebanon] that created Hizbullah”—a rationalization for his decision
as prime minister to withdraw from Lebanon that dovetails perfectly with this
Hezbollah info op.
In reality, Hezbollah’s conception pre-dates the Israeli invasion, Badran said.
“Hezbollah is the result of an inter-factional struggle between two strands of
the Iranian regime, who fought bitterly between 1979 and 1981. The faction that
prevailed, the Islamic Republic Party, dubbed itself the Party of God and
created its namesake in Lebanon, which was a critical theater for projecting
power, including against its domestic enemies in Iran.”
There were also Iran’s Arab enemies, especially Saudi Arabia, and hence one of
the audiences for Hezbollah is the Arab political arena, both the ruling regimes
and the masses, which the Iranians hoped to set against each other. By
continuing the fight to liberate Jerusalem, Tehran had picked up the banner of
Arab nationalism that the Sunni Arab regimes had tossed by the wayside. Here was
another reason for the Arab masses to despise their cruel and now obviously
cowardly rulers—and admire a Shia and Persian power they might otherwise fear
and detest: As the Arabs got weaker, Iran got stronger, even in the eyes of the
Arabs
In other words, what seems like Hezbollah’s war with Israel is in reality the
Iranian Republican Guard’s 30-year war against almost everyone else. The Zionist
entity in this contrived scenario is a little like the Washington Generals to
Hezbollah’s Harlem Globetrotters—except that here it’s the eternal rival who
sets the tempo and the Globetrotters who can’t get a break. Nasrallah boasts
that he understands his Israeli enemy well, that he has made a study of their
society and mores. But the fact that he says he reads biographies of all of
Israel’s military and political leaders is just an index of how much time he has
on his hands, hiding underground since the end of the 2006 war in fear of an
Israeli assassination attempt. Hezbollah is never going to tip the balance of
power against Israel, but that was never Iran’s main project. Understanding the
political terrain of their real target audiences, the Republican Guard sought to
create an effect that was best elicited by making war against the Jewish state.
Lebanon was fertile ground for such an info op, where any arms taken up against
Israel are considered sacred. The Palestinians set the precedent in the 1970s by
using Lebanon to wage war against the Zionists, so Iran could do the same,
through Hezbollah. And yet now the Lebanese are confounded that Hezbollah calls
anyone who doesn’t stand entirely behind the resistance and all of its actions
an Israeli agent. But this turn of events is the logical outcome of the
information war that Iran has been waging against Lebanon, with Lebanese
connivance, for three decades.
Consider that it took most Lebanese some five years to recognize that the
organization that pioneered the car-bombing during the 1980s might have had a
hand in assassinating former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri with a massive car
bomb. Few Lebanese believed that the resistance would ever turn their arms
against fellow Lebanese before Hezbollah killed their Sunni and Druze neighbors
in the streets of Beirut in May 2008. Those arms were pure, the Lebanese
thought, because they had been directed at Israel—even as few asked what it
means to “resist” an enemy whose enmity you have brought upon yourself with acts
of terror. Iran can destroy Lebanon anytime it likes, either by getting Israel
to retaliate massively, or directly through Hezbollah.
If Hezbollah engineers the coup against the Lebanese government that many
dread—there is speculation that this is why Ahmadinejad is coming to Lebanon—and
finally takes total control of the country, the most significant audience for
this info op is domestic—not Lebanese but Iranian. The Iranian foreign legion
that runs Lebanon has no problems slaughtering their Lebanese countrymen in the
streets of Beirut, and the Iranian people should understand that the
Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s supreme leader, and its president will do at least
as much in the streets of Tehran to hold on to power.
**Lee Smith is a visiting fellow at Hudson Institute and is the author of The
Strong Horse: Power, Politics and the Clash of Arab Civilizations (Doubleday,
2010).
Hariri pushed into corner over Syrian demands
Prime Minister cannot risk his domestic legitimacy by giving Damascus what it
wants
By Michael Bluhm /Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Analysis
BEIRUT: The latest unexpected twist in the rollercoaster relationship between
Syria and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has left the premier in a vise, as
Damascus continues squeezing Hariri for further concessions to neuter the
Special Tribunal for Lebanon and add to Syria’s soaring regional standing, a
number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
Five years ago, Hariri had accused Damascus of involvement in the February 2005
assassination of his father, five-time former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; after
Saad became prime minister following June 2009 general elections, he shocked
many by making peace with Syria, making his first visit to Damascus last
December. Hariri has been to Damascus five times as head of the government, and
last month stunned many observers again by saying he had made a mistake in
blaming Syria for his father’s killing.
Last weekend, however, Syrian arrest warrants came to light for 33 Lebanese
politicians and journalists – many among Hariri’s close allies – in connection
with allegedly false testimony given in the investigation of Rafik Hariri’s
assassination.
Syria has also been pushing its demands on Saad Hariri that he withdraw
Lebanon’s support for the international tribunal and the country’s 49 percent
share of the court’s budget, leaving the prime minister in an unenviable
position, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political science at
various universities. If he chooses to back the tribunal, Hariri will anger the
Syrians and squander the undoubtedly painful concessions he has already given to
Damascus – but if he renounces the tribunal, he will destroy his own legitimacy
as a politician among the Lebanese, Hanna added.
“It’s a lose-lose situation,” Hanna said.
Hariri’s handling of his fraught relationship with Syria has only underlined
that the head of the Cabinet remains a political novice, said Raghid al-Solh,
political analyst and adviser to the Issam Fares Center, a non-partisan think
tank. Hariri did not seek a career in politics, only assuming his father’s
political mantle after his father’s killing. Hariri spent most of his life
outside Lebanon and outside the political sphere, and now he needs to “expedite
the move from an amateur politician to a professional politician,” added Solh.
“He is put in a position where he needs to be a 24-hour politician, like his
father,” said Solh, adding that Hariri’s father well understood Syria’s motives
and interests. “He still has many things to learn in the facts of life of
Lebanese politics.”
Once he became prime minister, though, Hariri was forced by political reality to
build a relationship with Damascus; with Syria’s undeniably sizable influence in
Lebanon, no premier here could hope for a long or successful term in office
without engaging Damascus, Solh said.
In addition, Hariri’s Saudi patrons also strongly encouraged the freshly
ensconced premier to start anew with Syria, Solh said. The Hariri family made
its initial fortune in Saudi Arabia, and Hariri’s father kept the Saudis closely
involved – particularly with their Sunni coreligionists – in the post-Civil War
rebuilding of Lebanon. For their part, the Saudis had long maintained a close
political relationship with Syria, interrupted temporarily by the assassination
of Hariri’s father, when Syria fell into international isolation and sealed a
strategic partnership with Iran, Solh added. In the past two years, Riyadh has
begun to reconstruct its ties with Damascus.
“You can even talk about a sort of [historic] Saudi-Syrian axis,” Solh said.
“Saudi Arabia played a part in convincing Hariri that it’s important not to
disturb that. I don’t think the Saudis could tolerate [an anti-Syrian] attitude
while they were trying to develop relations with the Syrians.”
In his present predicament, however, Hariri might well be paying the price for
working so closely with Saudi Arabia, said Hilal Khashan, who teaches political
science at the American University of Beirut. Saudi interests in cooperating
with Syria and Hariri’s interests in the tribunal and his own political standing
have left the prime minister with no attractive next move – most likely, Hariri
will simply have to wait out his dilemma until external forces provide him with
an escape, Khashan added.
“The Syrians know that he cannot go any farther; he will never renounce the
tribunal,” Khashan said.
“This is what happens when the prime minister becomes the employee of another
country. He’s not in a position to back off from his new openness toward Syria.
He will have to depend on the good offices of Saudi Arabia. There’s nothing he
can do.”
The Syrians’ perspective on their relationship with Hariri, on the other hand,
is that since they have gained a measure of control over Hariri, they will
relentlessly press the premier for greater and greater demands, Khashan said.
“Once one capitulates, then there is no end to concession,” he said.
At the same time, Syria remains genuinely worried by the international tribunal
and is using all of its levers to defang the court, Khashan added. “The Syrians
want [Hariri] to renounce the tribunal,” Khashan said. “They have intrinsic
anxiety. They see the tribunal as a rope around their necks. They will not feel
at ease until the tribunal disappears.”
Damascus also took the dramatic step of issuing the arrest warrants because it
considers the issue of the false witnesses central to the investigation, Solh
said. Syria wants to know who gave misleading testimony and why – information
which, Damascus believes, could cause the court’s indictment to crumble, he
added. Syrian authorities thought they had agreed with Hariri that he would
pursue the issue, but his failure to take any real steps drove Damascus to prod
Hariri with the arrest warrants, Solh said.
For Syria, “this issue is not a minor issue, a side issue – it is a major
issue,” Solh said. “It’s not something that could be overlooked, at least from
the Syrian side. There is a basic disagreement on that [with Hariri].”
Syria’s ties with Hizbullah are also shaping the Syria-Hariri dynamic, Hanna
said. Hariri cannot forge ties with Syria and simultaneously clash with
Hizbullah, Hanna added. Hizbullah plays a crucial role in helping Syria achieve
its wider regional aims, so Damascus is also leaning on Hariri in order to
protect Hizbullah, which many expect to be a target of the tribunal’s looming
indictment, Hanna said.
“Hizbullah is the linchpin of the Iranian-Syrian strategy in the region,” he
said. “It’s highly important for the Syrians, and they will not allow anyone to
harm the resistance.”
Syria has also gone on the offensive against Hariri out of simple revenge,
Khashan said.
The mass popular demonstrations that forced the exit of Syrian troops in April
2005 were fanned by fiery speeches made by many of Hariri’s cohorts in the March
14 camp who had long had difficult relations with Damascus; now that Syria has
regained much of its sway here, it wants to punish those who embarrassed it
years ago, Khashan added.
“The Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon five years ago was not dignified,” he said.
“They want to avenge. They want to dismantle the Hariri team.”
Of course, Syria also deals with Hariri with a view toward the regional dynamic,
Hanna said. Syria has regained political momentum and is wielding its influence
throughout the Middle East; Damascus sees its play for power in Lebanon as part
of its reward for outlasting the era and policies of former US President George
W. Bush, who led the drive to ostracize Syria, Hanna said. For example, Syria
has backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in his bid to retain his post,
so his apparent victory in securing sufficient backing last week to stay in
office would represent another victory for Syria, Hanna added.
“It’s the time for Syria to reap the benefits … of standing up to the Americans
for five, six years,” he said. “The Syrians can sell and buy in every direction.
Everybody needs the Syrians today.”
In that light, the Saudis were essentially ceding control over Lebanon – and
Hariri’s government – to Syria when Saudi King Abdallah and Syrian President
Bashar Assad visited Lebanon together on July 30 to declare their commitment to
maintaining calm here, Hanna said. Riyadh sees itself surrounded by rising
Iranian influence and conflict in Iraq, Yemen and Qatar, and the kingdom was
willing to give in to Damascus on Lebanon in order to get Syrian help in Iraq,
Hanna said.
“It was a formal declaration of Saudi acceptance of the Syrian role over Lebanon
again,” he added. “What is important for the Saudis is Iraq, not Lebanon. The
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is surrounded by hotspots. Maybe making some concessions
on the Lebanese level will help the Saudis to balance the Iranians.”
In the end, regional vicissitudes will probably not determine the evolution of
the Syrian-Hariri dynamic; Syria can likely count on always having a wealth of
partners here to work with it in keeping the upper hand over Hariri, because
Lebanese politicians never cease to run to Damascus for partnership when
political fortunes turn against them at home, Solh said.
“The lack of consensus of Lebanese politicians on basic issues will always help
the Syrians, especially, to have influence in Lebanon,” he said.
Geagea describes Aoun as a liar who has reached 'very low levels'
By The Daily Star
Thursday, October 07, 2010
BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces (LF) chief Samir Geagea lashed out at his Christian
rival Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun Tuesday, describing him as a
liar.
Geagea’s words come a day after Aoun, addressing reporters Tuesday, said
“Christian areas would be spared” if violence erupted in the country as a result
of tensions over a potential indictment by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the
UN body tasked with probing the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik
Hariri.
“Christian areas would be spared the violence of a potential civil strife in the
country if Samir Geagea avoided using schemes or resorting to weapons,” Aoun
said.
In a letter sent to Aoun, Geagea said Aoun had reached “very low levels” and
accused him of convincing his allies, in reference to Hizbullah, of attacking
the LF.
“I did not expect you to make up so many lies … Tell me General [Aoun], is it
the LF or your allies that possess weapons?” “Yesterday you justified Syria’s
arrest warrants by saying the Lebanese judiciary was too slow in carrying out
its duties, does this mean every Lebanese citizen who believes the judiciary is
being lax should resort to a foreign judiciary to speed up his demands?” Over
the weekend, it was revealed that the Syrian judiciary issued 33 arrest warrants
against individuals who allegedly provided false testimony in the Hariri murder.
“My dear friend, General [Aoun], I had predicted an unsuccessful political end
for you, but nothing like the disgraceful end we are witnessing today,” Geagea’s
letter concluded. – The Daily Star
Ahmadinejad may travel by helicopter to south with Sleiman - report
By Carol Rizk /Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 07, 2010
BEIRUT: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be transported by helicopter
to South Lebanon along with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Sleiman, a
well-informed source told the Central News Agency on Wednesday.
Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Lebanon on October 13, for a two-day official
visit on the invitation of Sleiman. The visit sparked political controversy
inside and outside Lebanon but was seen as supportive of “Lebanon’s stability,”
by Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Ghazanfar Roknabadi, in comments on Wednesday.
The well-informed source from south Lebanon told the CNA that Iranian president
would be transported along with Sleiman by helicopter and would kick off the
tour by visiting the village of Qana.
He will then move on to Maroun al-Ras, Bint Jbeil and Kfarkala, where he is
expected to inaugurate an Iranian funded garden near the Fatima Gate. The
president will also have lunch with Sleiman and dinner with Speaker Nabih Berri.
He might also visit the Beaufort castle, the Resistance museum in Mlita and a
number of Resistance martyrs memorials.
The source added that the tour would be accompanied by intensified security
measures from the parts of the Lebanese Army, the United Nations Interim Force
in Lebanon, Hizbullah, and Ahmadinejad’s own security team.
“Iranian security and media teams arrived to South Lebanon and they coordinated
the details of the visit with the Army and Hizbullah,” the source said,
stressing that only a few places would be visited due to security reasons.
The visit will be Ahmadinejad’s first to Lebanon since taking office in 2005 but
it has sparked great controversy since being announced and has raised fears of a
potential escalation along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Over the past week, Israel has sent warning messages to Lebanese leaders saying
the visit should be canceled as it would undermine regional stability and the
Middle East peace talks.
Other foreign powers have commented on the matter. US State Department spokesman
Philip Crowley voiced his concern on Tuesday because Iran, through its
association with Hizbullah, was undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty. British
Ambassador to Lebanon Francis Guy reminded Foreign Minister Ali Shami, during a
meeting, about the UN’s sanctions against Iran.
The travel plans also received criticism from Lebanese factions, the March 14
alliance deeming it as a symbol of Iranian influence over Lebanon. March 8
factions have refused such criticism, calling for more openness and tolerance.
“The message behind Ahmadinejad’s visit is to confirm the importance of national
unity on the Lebanese scene and the importance of unity between various
political factions, the people, the government and the Resistance,” the Iranian
ambassador to Lebanon told As-Safir.
“Solidarity is the key to confronting the occupying Zionist entity that is
always seeking trouble on the Lebanese scene,” he added. Roknabadi also denied
the existence of any divide between the Lebanese and said, “We didn’t feel such
divide but, rather, we felt that officials in this country welcome the visit.”
“Iran has always declared that it supports Lebanese consensus and it is against
any divide on the Lebanese scene. But this is what Israel is about: it’s always
looking for trouble in the region in general and in Lebanon in particular,” he
added. The ambassador then revealed a few details of Ahmadinejad’s visit and
said the Iranian president would be accompanied by a political and economic
delegation, among them 50 of Iran’s leading businessmen in the private sector.
Members of the delegation had previously visited Lebanon in preparation for this
visit.
As for political companions Roknabadi said no names have been decided, except
for Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
About 15 agreements are expected to be signed during the Iranian president’s
visit and they will tackle dual taxation, encouraging reciprocal investment in
shipment, and banking and political affairs.
The visit will include as well the opening of a 45-million euro trust fund by
the Iranian Export Development Bank and the launching of reconstruction and
infrastructure projects.
Roknabadi revealed he sent an invitation to Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros
Sfeir to visit Tehran, and said the latter promised to accept the invitation and
coordinate its details with the Iranian Embassy.
Lebanese Iranian diplomatic relations started in 1912 with the opening of the
first Iranian consulate in Lebanon.
The ties strengthened after the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and
economic and trade relations flourished in the 1990s.
UN chief tells Lebanese not to disrupt tribunal
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, October 07, 2010
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday strongly reaffirmed
UN backing for a special international tribunal investigating the assassination
of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
“I urge all Lebanese not to interfere in its work – I reaffirm our belief in the
importance of the tribunal. It has a mandate, its own role. We will strive so
that it can go on with its work,” the UN chief said.
His comments came after Syrian judicial authorities issued arrest warrants for
33 Lebanese, Arab and foreign nationals in response to a suit by a former
Lebanese general who alleged that they had given “false testimony” to tribunal
investigators. Among those targeted by the arrest warrants were individuals
close to Saad Hariri, the current prime minister of Lebanon and Rafik Hariri’s
son.
Tensions also have risen over the possibility that the international court could
indict members of Hizbullah, which some fear could rekindle civil strife between
Shiites and Sunnis. But in affirming UN support for the tribunal, Ban said,
“Nobody can interfere or prejudge.”
“Peace and stability should be one thing but the work of the tribunal must go
on,” he said.
The probe initially implicated high level Syrian and Lebanese security officials
in the assassination, which Syria has denied.
Jamil al-Sayyed, who once headed the Lebanese security services, has charged
that false testimony was used to fabricate evidence against him during the
investigation into Hariri’s assassination on March 14, 2005 in Beirut.
He was jailed in 2005 in connection with the murder and then released for lack
of evidence with three other former generals in 2009. – AFP
The '73 war drags on in Lebanon
By Jamil K. Mroue
Publisher and editor in chief
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Thirty-seven years after Egyptian and troops Syrian last waged a war against
Israel, Lebanon is the sole country in this region where the fear of mayhem and
destruction at the hands of Tel Aviv generals remains a daily concern for its
people.
The 1973 Arab-Israeli war was as devastating as any other war pitting Arabs
against Israelis.
But, in hindsight, despite its human cost, the conflict might have served a
necessary purpose – that of having been a defining moment that raised the
awareness of all participants that their survival hinged on their ability to
scale down their confrontation.
And since then, across the Arab world, frontiers that were once the regular
scene of bloodshed and destruction – armistice lines between Syria, Jordan,
Egypt, and their arch foe Israel – have seemed immune to war.
But the 1973 conflict has had a much less constructive impact on the interests
of this country.
While countries that clashed in 1973 largely shunned direct confrontations in
the decades that followed, their antagonism never really waned.
And it is Lebanon – the new battleground where their angst has been re-directed
– that has since then nearly exclusively bore the brunt of Israel’s madness.
Still today, even after futilely funding proxies that only succeeded in tearing
each other to pieces during this country’s 15 year-long Civil War, countries of
this region continue to wrestle each other to bend our will.
In the face of such suffering in our homes, the question looms high over the
towering sense of insecurity that has since plagued our daily existences: Where
have we gone wrong to deserve being chosen as this region’s sacrificial lamb?
Have we not, despite a history made of challenges and treasons, despite being
pushed to the margins of our own existences, proven that we are a worthier
partner in times of peace?
Sure, we have stood up to be counted when the enemy came knocking on our door,
ousting the Israelis with the guns of our resistance, and bloodying their noses
during the 2006 war.
But, undoubtedly, we have contributed much more to the prosperity of our
politicians and of their Arab masters when reinventing our economy, shining in
the field of science, and excelling in technology.
Will our decision-makers finally recognize that despite our ability to prosper
even in the toughest conditions, our unique strengths are worth more when
deployed in the comfort of peace?
Amid internal tensions that have threatened Lebanon’s delicate balance over the
past few weeks, it seems they have not. Decades after Arab countries first cured
themselves from the follies of war, it is us who have finally succumbed to their
disease.
Jamil K. Mroue, Editor-in-Chief of THE DAILY STAR, can be reached at
jamil.mroue@dailystar.com.lb