LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِSeptember 15/2010

Bible Of The Day
John12/24-26: "Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. 12:25 He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. 12:26 If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there will my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him".

1 Corinthians 15:55/"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
Today's Inspiring Thought: Not Far From Home
In his Morning and Evening devotional series, Charles H. Spurgeon writes on the morning of April 20: "O child of God, death hath lost its sting, because the devil's power over it is destroyed. Then cease to fear dying." This little devotional deeply touched me, as I first read it on the one year anniversary of a dear loved one's death.
Here is a bit more: "Living near the cross of Calvary thou mayst think of death with pleasure, and welcome it when it comes with intense delight. It is sweet to die in the Lord: it is a covenant blessing to sleep in Jesus ... The distance between glorified spirits in heaven and militant saints on earth seems great; but it is not so. We are not far from home�a moment will bring us there ..." (about.com)

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Our World: Saad Hariri�s cautionary tale.ByL Caroline B.Glick/J.Post/September 14/10
Moussa Sadr and the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Lebanon/By Tony Badran/September 14/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for September 14/10
Tensions cloud Sharm peace talks/Ynetnews
Ban: Progress Made in Investigation, International Tribunal Not in Danger/Naharnet
Hizbullah has Drones, Israeli Officer Warns: We Will Strike Syria if it Continues its Support /Naharnet
False Witnesses Case Studies Completed /Naharnet
Egyptian Ambassador: Sayyed's Statements Baseless /Naharnet
Saqr: Hariri Pressed Charges against Sayyed /Naharnet
Assad Promises Bassil to Provide Lebanon with Electricity /Naharnet
Jumblat: Why is a Campaign Being Waged against Hariri Who Took Important Steps in Political Reevaluation? /Naharnet
March 14 Quarters: The Battle to Undermine the Country Has Begun at the Other Camp's Hand /Naharnet
Kataeb Says 'Campaign against Sami Gemayel' Waged over Party's Stances on Key Issues /Naharnet

Tensions cloud Sharm peace talks
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves for Sharm el-Sheik peace talks but political sources are already assigning blame for talks' possible failure. PA must act responsibly, they say
Attila Somfalvi Published: 09.14.10, 09:23 / Israel News
SHARM el-SHEIL � Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, Tuesday morning, ahead of a day of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
Israel, it seems, is already assigning possible blame should this round of talks fail: "We expect the Palestinians to act responsibly," a source in Netanyahu's entourage said.
According to other sources, the prime minister was infuriated by recent Palestinians' threats suggesting the PA is on the verge of walking away from the negotiating table, and intends on demanding Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "rein his people in."
Netanyahu intends to remind Abbas of their Washington agreement to keep the talks discreet and refrain from making vehement statements in the press � if in deed he intends to pursue peace seriously. The Palestinian's attitude, added another source, "Had led to a nine-month standstill on negotiations. The notion of 'all or nothing' led to deadlock.
"If the parties cannot pass the hurdle posed by the settlement freeze, how will they overcome the questions of borders and refugees?"
The difficulties noted in the negotiations so far have prompted the Prime Minister's Office to cancel a series of events planned for Tuesday, including a joint press conference in which Israel and the Palestinian Authority were to announce the official launch of their direct talks. With tensions high, it is unclear at this time whether Netanyahu will meet with Abbas in private.
Sources in the premier's entourage said such a meeting was up to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as "she sets the agenda."Clinton arrived in Egypt on Monday night and repeated US President Barack Obama's call for Israel to extend the 10-month moratorium on settlements that is due to expire on September 26. Accompanying Netanyahu to Egypt are National Security adviser Uzi Arad, communications director Nir Hefetz, Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser, Yitzhak Molcho and Military Secretary General Yohanan Locker.

Nadim Gemayel: When the State governs the 10452km2, then Bachir�s project will be implemented
BEIRUT, By Nayla Chahla | iloubnan.info -September 14, 2010
President Bachir, Nadim Gemayel stressed, on Tuesday, September 14, 2010, that his father was killed because he turned into a whole project o solution and salvation for Lebanon.
Speaking before hundreds of Lebanese Forces and Kataeb supporters who rallied in Achrafieh for the occasion, Nadim emphasized that none of the assassins� practices could really kill the spirit and the project of Bachir in having a free, independent and developed Lebanon. �They feared their occupation to Lebanon to end, but it happened even if late, so they spared no terrible practice to terrorize us. But we will tell them that we fear no one neither in Lebanon nor abroad�, he said.
Our people resisted over 1500 years and no enemy or occupant would defeat us no matter what. The election of Bachir as president was the major victory in the history of Lebanon because the Lebanese Forces leader and the Lebanese resistance leader turned into a president. It is also a victory for Muslims because Bachir proved to be moderate once in charge of the whole country. His election was a national victory that threatened the plans of Lebanon�s enemies�, he added.
�Bachir imposed authority and rule of law before being a president. His killing was the biggest shock for all Lebanese, and, since that time, they had fears and some surrendered�, he went on. But, he said, the Christians proved they are the pioneers of resistance, renaissance, freedom, development and civilization among the Arab world, leading their compatriots to prove the same.
Addressing the Lebanese current situation, Nadim Gemayel said the Lebanese would not rose again if they don�t invest their capabilities for the best of the country or if the State wouldn�t respect the rights of the citizens by rejecting the smaller states within. �It�s time for all parties, namely Hezbollah, to abide by the authority of the one and unique State in Lebanon, that�s why it should shelter Lebanon dangers that neither people, nor the Army, nor the State, nor the People, nor Hezbollah itself would bear�, he stressed.
�The Lebanese chose Lebanon First but Hezbollah chose Iran First. The Lebanese chose the State, but Hezbollah chose the private state. The Lebanese chose peace but Hezbollah chose war. The Lebanese chose State-governed arms, but Hezbollah chose the State of arms�, Nadim emphasized. He warned against tests encountering the Lebanese entity, among others, the challenge of unity, sovereignty and independence against the threat of a new tutorship, adding that illegitimate arms have been conquering Beirut since 2008.
�To face all occurring dangers is, from now on, the responsibility of State not the parties, militias or the communities. Any failure from the State side would open the gate for civil war and chaos. To face it, the State should counter foreign decisions and give priority to the national unity and domestic decisions only�, MP Gemayel stated.
�Achieving the Syrian reign over Lebanon required the assassinations of Kamal Jumblatt, Bachir Gemayel, Rene Moawad, Dany Chamoun and Rafic Hariri. That�s why we entirely blame Syria for all these assassinations�, he emphasized. Any solution for the Lebanese-Syrian problems would require: 1st Syria should let go its dream to occupy Lebanon; 2nd To let go the mentality and its behavior towards our country; 3rd, to achieve border demarcation, 5th to settle and release all Lebanese missing and detainee, 6th to hand over the assassin of Bachir and the rest of Lebanese leaders to the Lebanese justice.
�We rallied and faced many countries but were always with Lebanon and refused to abide by the rules of other countries. Our responsibility and commitment to defend Lebanon goes beyond all limits. No one can overbid us in our nationalism, because when there is a danger facing Lebanon all criteria and standards fall down�, Nadim insisted.
Addressing Hezbollah�s campaign against the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb parties namely accusing them of betrayal, Gemayel lashed out on the Lebanese Shiite group asking, �Was defending Iran against Iraq with Israeli weapons acceptable? Were Iranian leaders betrayers when they defended Iran with Israeli arms? Was the Imam Khomeini a spy? �
�The Kataeb party is proud of its victorious history. The ever-resisting Kataeb, to keep the free people in Lebanon alive and root human values in their mentality, is proud of it historical role in defending Lebanon. The Lebanese resistance is proud of its victories and its history to meeting the best interests of the country�, he stressed.
Tackling the citizenship issue, the Kataeb bloc MP called on all the Lebanese youth to believe, despite everything, in their country and State and stop immigrating or leaving their country to foreigners. He urged them entering public administrations, working together to set up a new social scheme; to commit to the good and appropriate citizenship, to participate in State building and to enrich it with their modern mentality and competencies.
In conclusion, Nadim Gemayel stressed that the Lebanese State was the State of all the Lebanese not a specific party. He added that the Bachir�s commemoration was dedicated to implementing Bachir�s project and dream. �When priority is given to Lebanese interests over our private ones, and when the State governs the 10452km2, then Bachir�s project will be implemented and Bachir will, indeed, live in us�, Nadim Gemayel concluded

Sami Gemayel defends Phalange party's past, allies
By The Daily Star /Monday, September 13, 2010
BEIRUT: Metn MP Sami Gemayel reiterated that his Phalange party was proud of its past and not ashamed of its alliances. �We will not bow to anyone and we are not ashamed with our history, our resistance, and out policies,� he told delegations who visited him in his hometown of Faraya to express support. Recent remarks by Gemayel over the Phalange Party�s relations with Israel during Lebanon�s 1975-90 Civil War have drawn controversy last week. Gemayel had said the Phalange party was not ashamed of the Israeli assistance it received in countering the Syrian presence. �No one should blame us because we received arms from the devil to defend ourselves, this issue was over when the war ended in 1990,� Gemayel told a news conference on Wednesday. He said said anyone collaborating with another friendly or aggressive state against the interests of his country was an agent.
On Sunday, Gemayel told supporters that he would no longer allow any individual or group to insult the Phalange Party. �We will not concede to attempts to tarnish our glorious past and we will teach our children how their parents made sacrifices for them,� he said. Gemayel added that from now on he would stand in the face of anyone who criticizes his party or �anyone who tries to silence or attack us.� Meanwhile, Gemayel�s attorney announced he would take legal action against what he described as a Hizbullah website for threatening the young MP with crucifixion, the Phalange party said on its website over the weekend. Marc Habka said Gemayel said the Constitution protected the MP�s right to voice his political opinions.
Habka said he would file a suit against the website, called the Islamic Resistance Forum, which described Gemayel as an Israeli spy and called for his �crucifixion on a pole in the Pride and Dignity Square.� � The Daily Star

Hizbullah has Drones, Israeli Officer Warns: We Will Strike Syria if it Continues its Support
Naharnet/Head of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau in Israel, Brigadier-General Nitzan Nuriel, said Hizbullah owns drones and long-range missiles."Hizbullah has weapons that are not found in Europe," Nuriel said during a lecture at the annual conference of counter-terrorism in Herzliya, a city located on the central coast of Israel. "Hizbullah has unmanned drones and missiles with a range of more than 300 km and so is the case of Hamas in Gaza," Nuriel added. "There is a strong relationship between global terrorist organizations and terrorism taking place in Israel," he said. Nuriel said terrorist organizations continue to get support and military assistance from countries like Syria. "Today, terrorist organizations have capabilities equal to States," he added. "If we are to fight terrorism, this requires an international will to combat the State which funds and supports terrorist organizations," Nuriel believed. He said there are government sides in Syria which provides Hizbullah and Hamas with rockets. "These sides are working hard to provide rockets for these organizations, and for this we send a clear message to Syria: next time you transfer missiles we will respond by destroying this government side," Nuriel warned. Beirut, 14 Sep 10, 06:58

Saqr: Hariri Pressed Charges against Sayyed
Naharnet/Lebanon First MP Oqab Saqr on Tuesday said Prime Minister Saad Hariri has pressed charges against former head of Lebanon's General Security Directorate Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed for threatening to kill him. "My objective is not to challenge anyone," Saqr said in remarks to al-Jadid TV. He stressed that he neither aims at "burning" Sayyed. Saqr said he was only trying to "deter" Sayyed from devastating Lebanon. "What he (Sayyed) has done was demolition of the State, and all those accusations and all the information he has given were mostly illusionary," Saqr said. He encouraged Sayyed to press charges against him, vowing to bring down his own immunity. Saqr refused to name the "mediator" he said Sayyed had dispatched to Hariri. On Monday, Saqr said Sayyed had sent a negotiator to Hairi in a bid to blackmail the Premier for $15 million in return for giving up his case. Beirut, 14 Sep 10, 12:29

Assad Promises Bassil to Provide Lebanon with Electricity
Naharnet/Syrian President Bashar Assad has promised visiting Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil to provide Lebanon with the much-needed electricity, al-Bairaq newspaper said Tuesday, citing well-informed sources in Damascus. An-Nahar daily, for its part, said Bassil has likely briefed Assad on the mood of the Free Patriotic Movement and the interaction of the issue of the arrest of FPM official Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam. On Monday, Assad met Bassil at al-Shaab Palace in Damascus, the Syrian Arab News Agency said. SANA said talks tackled the Lebanon situation and ways to enhance ties between Beirut and Damascus. Al-Bairaq said Assad stressed to Basssil his commitment to the calm and stability in Lebanon in line with the outcome of the tripartite summit which took place at Baabda Palace between Assad, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Saudi King Abdullah. Beirut, 14 Sep 10, 08:39

False Witnesses Case Studies Completed
Naharnet/The false witnesses case studies have been completed, An-Nahar newspaper said Tuesday. It said Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar has completed the "legal studies" on this case and will present it to Cabinet at its next meeting. Najjar had received written questions and answers from Hizbullah with regards to the false witnesses' issue. The justice minister, however, declined to disclose the content of his study prior to submission to Cabinet. Beirut, 14 Sep 10, 07:13

Egyptian Ambassador: Sayyed's Statements Baseless
Naharnet/Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Ahmed Badawi reiterated that remarks made by Jamil Sayyed are baseless. "The Egyptian Embassy has said that Sayyed's recent statement included baseless claims and incitements against embassy employees," Badawi told the Egyptian al-Ahram newspaper. The Egyptian Embassy in Lebanon on Monday stressed in a statement: "Egyptian diplomats meet Lebanese officials of different political views within their legal and legitimate work on Lebanese territory."
"Major General Sayyed's false claims are unacceptable, illegal, and immoral incitement against embassy diplomats and it holds him completely legally responsible for any attack against any embassy employee," the statement added. Beirut, 14 Sep 10, 11:01

Jumblat: Why is a Campaign Being Waged against Hariri Who Took Important Steps in Political Reevaluation?
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Monday the "vehement campaign" launched against Prime Minister Saad Hariri "who has taken important steps within the framework of political revaluation." He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated Anbaa magazine that his revaluation "demands support, praise, and encouragement instead of the attacks, pressure, and threats" that it was met with. "Hariri demonstrated an eagerness to rebuild Lebanese-Syrian ties according to the Taif agreement in a way that would protect the interests of both countries," he said. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 18:08

March 14 Quarters: The Battle to Undermine the Country Has Begun at the Other Camp's Hand
Naharnet/Some March 14 camp quarters have warned that "the battle to undermine the country has begun at the hand of the other camp which has declared a countercoup against the turnout of 1.5 million Lebanese who took to the streets and regained Lebanon's independence." The quarters revealed to the Central News Agency that the March 14 camp had "a clear roadmap to face this coup," declining to reveal its content. On the other hand, opposition sources told the agency that "many political forces in the (parliamentary) minority camp have nothing to do" with the latest remarks of Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, former head of General Security Department, "given that he spared no one -- neither from the March 8 camp nor from the March 14 camp." "The messages he addressed to his allies, Speaker Nabih Berri and other parties were similar to those he addressed to PM (Saad) Hariri. Sayyed was clear when he said that he did not belong to the opposition or the Resistance and that he was speaking as Jamil Sayyed," the sources added. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 22:43

Kataeb Says 'Campaign against Sami Gemayel' Waged over Party's Stances on Key Issues
Naharnet/The Phalange Party on Monday condemned "the suspicious and tendentious campaign that was waged against (Kataeb's) Central Committee Coordinator MP Sami Gemayel, which involved odious expressions and direct threats that go beyond the acceptable and ordinary political discourse."In a statement issued after the weekly meeting of its politburo, the party stressed its "full solidarity with the patriotic and courageous stance" taken by Gemayel. Kataeb noted that the reason behind "this campaign" was the party's stances on key issues in the country such as "its rejection of the ministerial Policy Statement's 'army-people-resistance' trilogy; its demands on the restructuring of Lebanese-Syrian ties on new basis and the treatment of Hizbullah's arms; its confrontation of the legislative steps that lead to naturalization (of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon); and the adherence to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon."
The party called on the State to "face those who disparage its authorities and its constitutional, political, judicial and security institutions because there would be no State without a prestige," adding that "what is happening today is a systematic plan to undermine the State's prestige and prevent its rise."
On a separate note, Kataeb urged the government "to follow up on the course of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that will be resumed Tuesday," noting that "the latest Israeli remarks do not call for reassurance at all regarding finding a solution to the Palestinian refugees" issue. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 20:36

Moussa Sadr and the Islamic Revolution in Iran... and Lebanon
Posted by Jpost.com Staff
By Tony Badran
Last Tuesday marked the anniversary of the disappearance of Shia cleric Moussa as-Sadr - often dubbed the father of the Shia resurgence in Lebanon - during a visit to Libya in 1978. While the view assigning responsibility for his disappearance to the regime of Moammar Qaddafi is a matter of general consensus, another less-discussed angle involving early factional infighting among Iran's Islamic revolutionary cadres deserves attention for its critical impact on the outcome of the Islamic Revolution, both in Iran and in Lebanon.
The consensus view rightly holds that Sadr's relations with the Palestinian Liberation movement in Lebanon and its allies (both local and regional) and weapons suppliers (such as Libya), had become irreparable by 1978, especially after Israel's Operation Litani against the Palestinians had inflicted much damage on the Shia residents of southern Lebanon who were stuck in the middle. By then, Sadr's pronouncements against the Palestinians had become regular, and the Libyan-funded press in Beirut attacked him constantly. Consequently, they had every motive to eliminate him.
Nevertheless, reference to the possible involvement (often characterized as indirect) or collusion of Ayatollah Khomeini and some of his closest associates in Sadr's disappearance can be found in the relevant literature, ranging from personal memoirs of former Iranian officials, such as Shapur Bakhtiar, to books and articles on the Amal Movement (established by Sadr, and whose existence was made public in 1975), on Sadr himself, as well as on Iranian-Lebanese and Iranian-Syrian relations.
For example, in Syria and Iran, Jubin Goodarzi cites a former Iranian official "intimately involved with Lebanese affairs" to corroborate his statement that "Khomeini had had an indirect role in the elimination of Musa Sadr, whom he despised." Khomeini, according to Goodarzi's source, "intentionally misinformed Qadhafi that Musa Sadr had used financial aid provided by Libya for his own personal gain."
Several authors have pointed out the ambiguous relationship between Sadr and Khomeini and the personal tensions that existed between them (and Khomeini's entourage) as well. For example, at the 40-day memorial service of the Iranian ideologue Ali Shariati in 1977, over which Sadr presided, he did not allow any pictures of Khomeini to be put up, and only conceded to one small picture after being pressured by one of Khomeini's most radical associates, Mohammad Montazeri - a close ally of Qaddafi and an advocate of strong ties with Libya and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and whose father was one of the main architects behind the creation of Hizbullah.
But why would Khomeini and some of his associates have an interest in Sadr's removal from the scene, when he had been a supporter of Iranian revolutionary cadres, having helped provide them with access to training and sanctuary in Lebanon? The answers may lie in a factional power struggle within the early revolutionary cadres, which intensified in the immediate years after the success of the Islamic Revolution, between 1979 and 1981, and the differences they had regarding the trajectory of the revolution and its alliances abroad.
Sadr had cultivated close ties with leaders of the Islamic Revolution, such as Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and Mostafa Chamran - who was intimately involved in the establishment and organization of the Amal Movement. However, these figures, who would go on to assume leading positions in the new Islamic regime between 1979 and 1981, had belonged to a particular faction within the Iranian Islamic opposition movement, namely the Liberation Movement of Iran (LMI).
The rival faction - which included students and prot�g�s of Khomeini, such as the aforementioned Montazeri as well as the operational mastermind of Hizbullah in Lebanon, Ali Akbar Mohtashami and a host of radical clerics such as Hadi Ghaffari - would coalesce under what became known as the Islamic Republican Party (IRP), which served as Khomeini's task force. They were behind instruments such as the Association of Combatant Clergy (which also sprung up in Lebanon at the time in 1978-79, along with the Committees Supportive of the Islamic Revolution) and the paramilitary Hizbullahi, which served as the IRP's strong arm and was supervised by the aforementioned Ghaffari. In fact, the IRP-aligned hardliners officially dubbed themselves "Hizbullah" and referred to their adversaries in the LMI as "liberals."
The IRP was concerned with eliminating so-called "liberal" influence over the revolution. In his book on the Amal Movement, Augustus Richard Norton notes a belief among "well-informed observers" that "even after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, there was real fear that the 'Amalists would take over the revolution.'" The ensuing battle was bitter and violent. Sadr's associates in the regime would eventually all get either physically liquidated (as happened with Chamran and Ghotbzadeh) or politically sidelined in a time span of a mere three years after Sadr's disappearance.
It can be said, then, that the struggle for control over the Shia of Lebanon was integral to the power struggle inside Iran itself, especially since figures like Montazeri and Mohtashami despised and distrusted Amal and its Iranian allies. For instance, about a year after Sadr's disappearance, Montazeri tried to organize the first dispatch of a contingent of Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to Lebanon to help his allies in the PLO. It was Sadr's former associates, such as the aforementioned Ghotbzadeh, who scuttled that effort. Iran's factionalism was projected onto the Lebanese arena.
Indeed, the latter half of 1978 and early 1979 was a critical moment in this struggle. Sadr had been eliminated and Amal was in disarray. Pro-Khomeini Lebanese cadres such as Abbas Moussawi and Hassan Nasrallah returned to Lebanon from Najaf, and there was a systematic infiltration of Amal in order to seize control over its direction. When that effort failed, Amal splintered and the process eventually crystallized in the IRP's creation of an alternative Shia movement, directly under Khomeini's command and fully loyal to him. The Hizbullah of Iran created the Hizbullah of Lebanon, or, as it called itself, the Islamic Revolution in Lebanon.
While Libyan responsibility for Sadr's disappearance is not under any serious dispute, the early power struggle among Iran's revolutionary cadres provides a critical context to better understand the full impact of the elimination of a towering figure in Lebanon who was deemed, along with his allies in the Islamic revolutionary movement, a threatening rival to Khomeini and his hard-line lieutenants. Perhaps, then, it could be said that Sadr's elimination was the first shot in the battle over the Islamic Revolution on two intertwined fronts: Iran and Lebanon.
**Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. This article first appeared on NOW Lebanon.

Our World: Saad Hariri�s cautionary tale
By CAROLINE B. GLICK /Naharnet
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=188019
09/14/2010 /J/Post
No one could have imagined that within five years, Lebanon�s young PM would become a slave of his father�s murderers. No one, that is, aside from his father�s murderers.
Lebanon is a sad and desperate place. And its disastrous fate is personified today by its prime minister.
All who claim to love freedom, democracy, human rights and dignity should take note of Saad Hariri�s fate. They should recognize that his predicament is a testament to their failure to stand up for the ideals they say they champion.
All those who say they seek a Middle East that is friendly to the West should see Hariri�s plight as a cautionary tale. Policy-makers in Washington, Paris, Jerusalem and beyond who envision the 21st century Middle East as a place where the US and its allies are able to project their power to defend their interests should study Hariri�s story.
All those who insist peace is possible and even incipient need to cast a long, lingering glance in his direction.
His story exposes all of their paradigms of peace and appeasement and compromise as nothing more than the hollow, callow, arrogant and irrelevant protestations of a transnational ruling class wholly detached from the reality of the world it would lead.
ON MONDAY, Yediot Aharonot reported that Iranian and Syrian intelligence agencies are applying massive pressure on Hariri to openly join the Iranian axis.
Today that axis includes the Syrian regime, Hizbullah and Hamas. If and when Hariri openly joins, Lebanon will become its first non-voluntary member.
Chances are good that Hariri will succumb to their pressure. Yediot reported that the Iranians and Syrians made him an offer he can�t refuse: �If you don�t join us, you will share your father�s fate.�
His father, of course, is former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in Beirut by Syrian and Hizbullah agents on February 14, 2005. A month later, on March 14, Saad led more than a million Lebanese in a protest in Beirut. Their demand was for Lebanon to be free of Syrian rule.
Everyone knew the March 14 movement had no chance of militarily defeating either Syria or its Hizbullah ally. But the US and France both lined up behind the young Hariri and his followers. The unlikely alliance of the Bush administration and the Chirac government just two years after Franco-American ties were seemingly irreparably frayed in the lead up to the US-led invasion of Iraq was enough to intimidate Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
After 29 years of Syrian occupation, he ordered his forces to withdraw from Lebanon.
As the head of the March 14 movement, Saad Hariri was flying high. No one could have imagined that within five short years he would become a slave of his father�s murderers. No one, that is, aside from his father�s murderers.
IRAN SAW what happened in Lebanon and decided to take a gamble. In the face of Franco-American unity, it gambled that they were bluffing. That they would not stand by the Lebanese if their will was challenged.
Iran prepared well for its challenge. At home, dictator Ali Khamenei lined up his ducks. He promoted Teheran�s fanatical mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency. With his man in power, Khamenei and his regime ratcheted up their challenge to the US in Iraq.
First there was al-Qaida. Its leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, received his orders from the al- Qaida leadership which decamped to Iran from Afghanistan in 2002. So too, Shi�ite terror boss Muqtada al-Sadr took his orders from Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Their orders were to turn Iraq into a bloodbath. Their stepped up insurgency weakened George W. Bush�s political standing in the US. For a chastened Bush, expanding his campaign to Iran became more and more unthinkable as US casualties mounted.
At the same time, Iran massively expanded its military ties and political control over Syria. In the Palestinian Authority, it brought Hamas under its control.
As for Hizbullah, the IRGC transformed the militia into a professional guerrilla army.
And all the while, the Iranian regime withstood US and international pressure to end its illicit program to develop nuclear weapons.
IN 2005, Israel was too busy with Ariel Sharon�s initiative of expulsion and withdrawal to pay much attention to what was happening in Lebanon or anywhere else in the region. It greeted the March 14 movement with little more than a yawn. The narrative Sharon and his lackeys Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni were peddling was that Israel�s greatest threat was internal. Who had time to pay attention to Iran and its proxies when there were Jewish �settlers� challenging the state�s legal authority to throw them out of their homes?
In the aftermath of the expulsions and withdrawal from Gaza, Sharon and his followers committed themselves to repeating the expulsion-withdrawal program tenfold in Judea and Samaria. After Sharon was felled by a stroke, Olmert�s electoral platform called for expelling some 100,000 Israelis from their homes in Judea and Samaria.
Although distracted by Iran�s Iraqi proxies, the US began arming and training a Palestinian army in late 2005. At the same time, it demanded that Israel allow Hamas to run in the January 2006 elections and keep Gaza�s border open.
Iran watched as the US and the rest of the West refused to recognize the strategic significance of Hamas�s electoral victory lest they be forced to acknowledge that the Palestinian conflict with Israel had nothing to do with Palestinian nationalism. The mullahs watched too as Israel refused to acknowledge that Hamas�s victory signaled the failure of the peace/withdrawal/expulsion paradigms.
Iran saw an opportunity in its enemies combined strategic dementia. And so in June 2006, it went to war. First it attacked Israel from Gaza. A cross-border attack left three soldiers dead and Gilad Schalit was taken hostage.
Two weeks later, as Israel stammered out incoherencies about Gaza and Olmert barred the IDF from taking measures that might have freed Schalit lest his hopes for further withdrawals be exposed as strategic absurdities, Hizbullah struck. What became known as the Second Lebanon War began.
The only ones who openly acknowledged the stakes were the leaders of the March 14 movement. Druse leader Walid Jumblatt repeatedly warned that if Hizbullah was not completely defeated, Lebanon would become an Iranian colony.
But the withdrawal-crazed Olmert government wouldn�t listen. It couldn�t listen.
SO TOO, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice ignored the March 14 movement leaders� entreaties. A full Israeli victory would require full US backing. And full US backing would require an admission on her part that Iran was engaged in a direct war and a proxy war against the US and that the war against Israel and the war against the US were two fronts in the same war.
These were realities that Rice would never accept.
And so together with her fantasy-driven Israeli counterparts, Rice sued for a cease-fire that left Hizbullah in charge.
The rest was preordained history. In 2007 first Hizbullah and then Hamas staged putsches in Lebanon and Gaza and wrested control over their respective governments from their Western-backed rivals in the March 14 movement and Fatah.
The US responded by massively increasing its military assistance to the Lebanese armed forces and Fatah. Continued Fatah terrorist attacks against Israelis in Judea and Samaria and last month�s lethal ambush of IDF forces along the border by the Lebanese army expose the strategic insanity of that policy. And yet it continues.
SAAD HARIRI�S March 14 movement still enjoys the support of most Lebanese. But this is of no consequence. Hariri was only able to form his government last December by granting Hizbullah veto power over government action. The price he paid for his premiership is not merely his personal freedom. The last embers of the Lebanese independence movement his father�s assassination inspired have also been extinguished.
Since he formed his government, Hariri has travelled three times to Damascus to kiss Assad�s ring. And in so doing, he gave up his call for justice for his father�s killers.
This became clear when last month Hariri embraced Nasrallah�s allegation that Israel murdered his father.
Then last week, following his latest trip to Damascus, Hariri announced that his past claims that the Syrian regime assassinated his father were unfounded.
As he put it, �We made mistakes in some places; at some point we accused Syria of assassinating the martyr and this was a political accusation.�
Hariri went on to profess his warm sentiments for Syria. As he put it, when he visits Damascus, �I feel myself going to a brotherly and friendly state.�
Obviously Hariri believes his only chance for survival is to bow before those who killed his father. It is also obvious that the killers � Iran, Syria, Hizbullah � will continue to use him as their front man and apologist for as long as his service is of use to them. And then they will murder him.
Today Hariri is useful. Ahmadinejad is planning a victory trip to Lebanon next month and Hariri will be a valuable prop. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive on October 13. While there he will make a major speech at Bint Jbeil � the town where former IDF chief of General Staff Dan Halutz wanted to stage a battle that Israel could use as an �image of victory.�
In the event all Halutz got was a shooting gallery where Golani Brigade fighters were the ducks.
Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to peer over at Israel from Maroun Aras, also the site of heavy, inconclusive fighting in 2006.
As he uses Hariri as his figurehead host, Ahmadinejad will have more to celebrate than just Lebanon�s transformation into an Iranian colony. As a spate of recent reports make clear, he is probably just months away from declaring his regime a nuclear power.
The most recent allegations that Iran has yet another undeclared uranium enrichment facility are no skin off his back. He and his boss Khamenei took a measure of their enemies and are convinced they have nothing to worry about.
For his part, Hariri can rest assured that his humiliating transformation from freedom champion to slave will go largely unremarked. Israel and the US are in the throes of yet another worthless peace process.
Again they have agreed that the greatest threat to peace is the �settlers� and their supporters who want to wreck the peace/expulsion/withdrawal paradigm by building homes. Again our leaders and the chattering classes they cater to have chosen to embrace their fantasies at the expense of our national security and interests.
Of course it isn�t just Hariri whom they ignore. They ignore the basic fact that freedom must be defended with blood and treasure. Otherwise, as happened in Lebanon, it will be defeated by blood and treasure.
caroline@carolineglick.com