LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 17/07

Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11,2-11. When John heard in prison of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him
with this question, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me." As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, "What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.' Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Releases. Reports & Opinions
Scapegoats in an Unwelcoming Land.By Nir Rosen.December 16/07
The Game of Delegation and Recanting in Lebanon-By: Walid Choucair-Dar Al-Hayat-December 16/07

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 16/07
Lebanon under Western pressure to fill presidential void-AFP
Israel rules out attacks by Hezbollah, Syria in 2008: report-AFP
Sfeir Sets the Priorities: Presidential Election First-Naharnet
Welch Meets Suleiman, Stresses on 'Importance" of Presidential Election-Naharnet
Abu Faour Predicts Categorical Measures by March 14 to Elect Suleiman-Naharnet
Immigrant Lebanese Businessmen Smoke Out Worries in China-Naharnet
Lebanese Man Stands Trial in Germany on Terrorism Charges-Naharnet
Berri Tries to Absorb Sarkozy's U.S.-Backed 'Last Chance" Warning-Naharnet
Pakradoni No More Head of Phalange Party-Naharnet
Lebanon at the edge-Boston Globe
Sfeir: Despite El-Hajj's Loss, Army Remains Lebanon's Shield-Naharnet
US Envoy Urges Lebanon to Elect President-Voice of America
Western powers press Lebanon to fill vacant presidency-AFP
Welch Urges Lebanese to Elect President to Restore Dignity, Face Challenges-Naharnet
March 14 Considering New Alternative-Naharnet
Sarkozy Threatens to Isolate Forces that Would Try Block 'Last Chance" to Elect President-Naharnet
Lebanese Forces Sues Retired Army Officer Over False Criminal Charges-Naharnet
Bush Demands Syria to Release Activists, Including Man Jailed for Seeking Better Relations with Lebanon-Naharnet

Lebanon under Western pressure to fill presidential void
BEIRUT (AFP) — Western countries on Sunday pressed bickering Lebanese politicians to finally set aside their differences and fill the vacant presidency on the eve of a new vote in parliament, the ninth since September.
"The United States believes that it is time now to elect a new president," said David Welch, the US assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs. "There is no reason for any further delay," Welch said after meeting with Lebanese political leaders and the head of the Christian Maronite church from which presidents are drawn. "We understand that Lebanon has done the most difficult work of finding a candidate who represents the consensus," Welch said on Saturday in reference the frontrunner, army chief General Michel Sleiman. He met with Sleiman on Sunday and reiterated the election must go ahead, the army said, even as both members of the opposition and the ruling majority said Monday's session was likely to be postponed.
"There will be no election tomorrow (Monday)," MP Fares Suwaid of the majority told AFP, adding that he expects parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key opposition figure, to announce a new postponement.
Lebanon's president is elected in parliament.
Simon Abi Ramia, an adviser to Christian opposition leader General Michel Aoun, said Monday's session was "very unlikely" to go ahead as no agreement had yet been reached on a mechanism to amend the constitution.
The country has been left without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term on November 23 without a successor in place, triggering Lebanon's worst crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.
The Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and the opposition, backed by Syria and Iran, have however agreed to elect Sleiman to succeed Lahoud.
But they are at loggerheads over how to amend the constitution to allow a public servant to become president and on the make-up of the future government. France, the former colonial power in Lebanon which has been heavily involved in international mediation efforts, has warned the feuding factions and their foreign sponsors that time is running out for a solution.
"Monday is really the last chance, and France calls on all parties, inside and outside, to ensure that Lebanon can have a president," President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday. "Those (who) would take the risk of killing off that chance would cut themselves off from a number of countries, first among them France," said Sarkozy, who is due to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who has been on seven mediation visits to Lebanon, said on Sunday that he expects yet another postponement, although this was not a disaster.
"There is never a last chance in Lebanon. There will be others," he said on French radio. "But still there is no disaster for the moment, no clashes for the moment." MP Suwaid charged that Damascus through its allies in Lebanon's opposition camp was blocking the election "until it gets something in return from the United States".
On Thursday, Sarkozy said he would be willing to visit Damascus if a consensus candidate was elected president and the string of assassinations in Lebanon ended. Senior army commander Brigadier General Francois el-Hajj, tipped to become army chief if Sleiman is elected president, was assassinated in a car bombing on Wednesday. Even before the latest killing, Lebanese media predicted that a new president is unlikely to be elected before the end of the year or even March because of the continued standoff between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps.

The Game of Delegation and Recanting in Lebanon
Walid Choucair
Al-Hayat - 15/12/07//
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri returned the conflict in Lebanon to its regional arena once again. When he decided to recant on the agreement that he had reached with the leader of the Mustakbal Movement, Saad Hariri on Friday December 7, he did so because he discovered that this agreement did not have the adequate regional coverage, especially from Syria. In particular, the agreement involved amending the constitution to allow for the election of Army Commander General Michel Sleiman to the presidency without bypassing Prime Minister Siniora's government which would play its constitutional role in passing the amendment.
At the moment he recanted on the agreement, Berri privately informed a few concerned parties that the matter went beyond him as it demanded a Saudi-Syrian agreement. Quite many are using the terminology indicating that the crisis in Lebanon has returned to square one as a result of the ongoing presidential void despite the agreement of the majority and opposition on General Sleiman as a president to-be. However, returning to square actually lies in Berri returning to his talk about the equation that he proposed toward the end of 2006. Back then, the impasse between the majority and the opposition led to the resignation of the Shiite ministers, blocking the ratification of the international tribunal in parliament, and the sit-in held by the opposition in the central district of Beirut. At that point, Berri proposed what he called SS equation in reference to Saudi Arabia and Syria.
Returning to square one becomes more comprehensible if this is indeed what the issue is about. By returning to his talk about the SS formula, Berri is actually saying that he is helpless and that he cannot take the blame for the current impasse despite the fact that his opponents continue to insist on his fundamental responsibility in finding a solution for the deadlock. This is not to mention the persistent claim by opposition leaders that Berri is delegated to negotiate with the majority, and the fact that he occasionally speaks in the name of the opposition.
The matter of the fact for those following the puzzles of the Lebanese crisis and its deliberate constitutional acrobatics, can no longer distinguish when Speaker Berri is delegated to negotiate with the majority. The leader of the National Patriotic Movement, General Michel Aoun, for example, announced yesterday that he has been authorized by the rest of the opposition to negotiate. Earlier, Speaker Berri also said that he was the voice of the opposition in response to Walid Junblat's call to continue the negotiations with Berri. Last Saturday, when Berri recanted on his agreement with Hariri, he said that his ministers would not attend the cabinet's session to amend the constitution, which was part of the agreement with Hariri, and instead, he informed several sides that a minister from Hezbollah would be attending the cabinet's session, and on top of that, he said, "talk to the party [Hezbollah]." Before that, Hezbollah withdrew the delegation that it had granted to Berri when it informed all sides, after informing the Syrian leadership, that mediators should get General Aoun's approval for any solution….
This pattern has been repeated several times during the negotiations with the French and the League of Arab States among others. The bottom line is that Berri has no qualms about making it clear to anyone who wishes to understand, that he has no clout with his allies and that there is nothing that he can do. Nor does he feel any discomfort appearing helpless on the decision-making level when the time comes for escalation. Yet, Berri is counting on the fact that the majority will find no one other than him to make a settlement with the opposition. General Aoun plays the hardliner. Hezbollah, at the same time, abstains from holding direct talks with other players, but assumes leadership when the time comes for maneuvering and sends it opponents to have dialogue with Aoun who then escalates, then authorizes Berri to hold talks and then pulls the delegation off his hands….
If this is the game intended to effectively adapt to regional fluctuations, the status quo in Lebanon then becomes a reflection of the outcomes of this game. In effect, the ongoing situation in Lebanon is a direct translation of the persisting grudge between Saudi Arabia and Syria (SS). The former still ties improving relations with Syria to Syria's ending its blocking of the presidential elections and the void through its allies in Lebanon as well as leading to a balanced cabinet; the latter keeps the presidency as hostage and will not let go of it until it achieves an agreement with Saudi Arabia over a basket of issues on the regional and international level. Damascus, based on what it has informed King Abdullah II of Jordan, refuses to be questioned about its role in Lebanon by a foreign side, especially an Arab, because it considers Lebanon to be its vital sphere of influence in which no outsiders are allowed to interfere, and because Hezbollah represents an untouchable red line.
In this foggy and dusty regional situation, may God have mercy on the knight of the Lebanese army, General Francois Al-Hajj

Sfeir Sets the Priorities: Presidential Election First
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on Sunday said the nation's priority is to elect a president before discussing other topics of difference between the majority and the Hizbullah-led opposition. The ongoing split "calls up on us to speed up the election of a president so that other issues can be organized after that," Sfeir said his Sunday sermon at Bkirki. "What we witness today at the political level requires a united view regarding the nation's issues," Sfeir said.
"Attention should be focused on Lebanese worries so that we can recognize the deteriorating status that the people has plunged into and maintain loyalty to the interest of Lebanon and not those of others," the Patriarch stressed. Beirut, 16 Dec 07, 11:29 -Naharnet

Welch Meets Suleiman, Stresses on "Importance" of Presidential Election
U.S. Envoy David Welch on Sunday met Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman and stressed on the "importance of holding the presidential election" as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri sought to absorb a "last chance" warning by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Welch, who has been in Lebanon since Saturday, conveyed to Suleiman a "message of (US.) support for the Lebanese army."The two officials also discussed "cooperation between the U.S. and Lebanese armed forces." The report added without further elaboration.
The Welch-Suleiman meeting came amidst efforts by Berri to absorb a U.S.-backed French warning that Monday is the last chance to elect a president, saying the legislature's time frame to accomplish the mission extends to December 31.
Berri's remark followed U.S. backing to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Monday is the "last chance" to elect a president for Lebanon.
"We respect the French president, but Monday is not the last chance," Berri was quoted by the daily an-Nahar as telling his visitors.
"We are working day and night to accomplish this election. The chance is not open till Monday only, but to end of this year. That is why we hope to elect a new president before end of the year," Berri added.
The Parliament speaker, who also is a prominent leader of the Hizbullah-led opposition, made the remark on Saturday after Welch voiced support for Sarkozy's stand, Premier Fouad Saniora's majority government and "any decisions" that would be taken by the March 14 majority alliance to elect a president.
Welch said he "made several points to the speaker (Berri) speaking on behalf of the American administration."
"I think President Sarkozy is right. It is time to elect a president," Welch said.
Welch's talks Sunday with Gen. Suleiman, the frontrunner for the presidential office, was the last topic on the agenda of his mission in Lebanon, apparently aimed at declaring support for holding presidential elections.
Suleiman's nomination to the top post has been accepted by the feuding factions, despite an ongoing dispute on the mechanism to amend the constitution, a step needed to open the door for his election.
The U.S. envoy held talks on Saturday with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Berri, Saniora, Defense Minister Elias Murr, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, al-Moustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblat.
Welch discussed with Berri the need to elect a president "as long as the Lebanese factions have reached consensus on Gen. Suleiman."
"The United States believes that it is time now to elect a new president," said the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs after his round of talks on Saturday.
Welch's agenda in Lebanon, as released, did not include a meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, who has been assigned by the opposition to negotiate with the majority a parcel of conditions set to facilitate Suleiman's election.
An-Nahar said Berri briefed Aoun by telephone on the talks with Welch.
Sources from the March 14 majority noted that the alliance would have a new plan of action to follow if a head of state was not voted into office by end of this year.
Details of such action plan, however, have not been disclosed.
Welch said on Saturday: "it is time for this process to be completed. There is no reason for any further delay."
"We understand that Lebanon has done the most difficult work of finding a candidate who represents the consensus," Welch said in reference to Suleiman.
"It is not our job to find a president for Lebanon. It is Lebanon's job and that job has been done."
On Monday MPs must "fulfill their duty ... to restore dignity and respect to the most important Christian office" and elect a president, Welch said, stressing that Washington "supports the majority and their decision" concerning the election.
"We know there are many pressures from within and from outside, but the American people and the administration will support Lebanon," Welch said in reference to Syria, Iran and the Hizbullah-led opposition. -Naharnet-Beirut, 16 Dec 07, 12:08

Hizbullah Eulogizes Fighter
-Naharnet-Hizbullah announced on Sunday that it has lost one of its fighters in action the day before. A short Hizbullah statement identified the "martyr" as Mahdi Mohammed Abbas. The statement said he fell on Saturday while "carrying out his Jihad duty" on Saturday. It did not disclose further details. No clashes were reported on Saturday, which indicates that Abbas may have fallen in a training camp operated by Hizbullah. Beirut, 16 Dec 07, 15:38

Immigrant Lebanese Businessmen Smoke Out Worries in China
By Gariné Khatcherian
Apple and grape-scented tobacco from narguiles fills the air at a Lebanese restaurant as conversation about Lebanon's political crisis and presidential election mingles with an Arabic song, a usual scene in every day life.
But unlike any other restaurant located in Lebanon, this eatery is in the booming southern Chinese city of Guangzhou where Lebanese men have come to set up businesses.
A group of young friends dine, puff narguiles or water pipes and have their say about the more than one-year-old crisis which has catapulted with the latest wrangling over the presidential election.
Other Arab customers recline on couches, sipping tea and taking puffs from the water pipes at the "Lebanese Nights" restaurant.
Heated debate over the political tumult is what Lebanese nights are lately witnessing among those men as they worry about their country's future.
Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel "Aoun's initiative was a historic initiative that no one knew how to take advantage of," said Bassam Khnayzer, 25.
"It was rejected in half an hour," he told Naharnet as he took a puff from the narguile next to him.
Khnayzer was referring to the initiative which had called for an interim president for a term of less than two years pending general elections in the summer of 2009 in line with a new election law.
It also had called for the naming of a consensus prime minister.
About efforts to elect army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman head of state, Khnayzer said: "If elected, he will continue the path to reach full independence because he will not accept to rule without financial auditing."
On Monday, the Lebanese parliament will yet another attempt to choose a new president. The seat has been left vacant since Emile Lahoud's term ended on November 23. While Khnayzer expressed optimism, Ahmed Nesr, 22, was more pessimistic.
"Even if they bring a new president the situation will remain the same. There will always be problems," he said while holding the narguile's pipe in his hand.
"Our country will not be free from troubles. It's impossible," he added.
Khnayzer's 24-year-old brother Jebran said the situation prevents him from currently living in Lebanon as more and more youths are emigrating to look for better job opportunities and escape the unstable situation in their country.
"I'd love to go back and live in Lebanon when things become better," he said while looking at his water pipe. "This is a way to let it all out." Beirut, 16 Dec 07, 15:22

Lebanese Man Stands Trial in Germany on Terrorism Charges
-Naharnet- A Lebanese man will go on trial in Duesseldorf Tuesday on charges of attempted murder over a botched bombing plot against commuter trains in Germany.
The 23-year-old defendant, Yousef Mohammed al-Hajj Dib, is one of two men prosecutors believe placed suitcases containing homemade explosives on two trains as they passed through the western city of Cologne in July last year.
The devices failed to detonate, averting an almost certain bloodbath in what German officials said was a bid to copy the train blasts in Madrid and London.
"A detonation would have in both cases led to a significant wave of pressure; lighter fluid in the 'bomb trolleys' could have set off a fireball," prosecutors said in the charge sheet. Dib could face life in prison. He has maintained his silence in police questioning.
A charge of belonging to a terrorist organization that was originally considered against him has been dropped because German investigators do not have a third suspect in the case -- a requirement under the legal definition of a terror group.
The second suspect, fellow Lebanese national Jihad Hamad, has been on trial since April in Beirut.
Hamad has told German television that they were seeking revenge for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers.
Prosecutors say they were also angered by the killing last year by the U.S. military of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born Al-Qaida leader in Iraq.
The suspects were identified using footage from security cameras at the Cologne rail station, which captured the image of two men placing heavy suitcases on trains then leaving the station.
The defendants later flew to Istanbul then Damascus before crossing the border into Lebanon. Dib returned to Germany in August to resume his studies but was picked up by police days later at the rail station in the northern city of Kiel thanks to a tip provided to authorities by the Lebanese secret services. Five days later, Hamad turned himself in to police in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
Authorities have warned that Islamic extremists have Germany in their sights, noting that good luck and effective police work had only just thwarted a number of attacks. The latest involved three men arrested in September as they were allegedly preparing to make bombs to launch "massive" attacks on the U.S. Ramstein airbase and U.S. and Uzbek consulates. A fourth suspect was picked up in Turkey. Prosecutors said the men were members of the Islamic Jihad Union, a group with links to Al-Qaida and has its roots in Uzbekistan.(AFP) Beirut, 16 Dec 07, 13:25

Abu Faour Predicts Categorical Measures by March 14 to Elect Suleiman
-Naharnet- MP Wael Abu Faour said Sunday the March 14 alliance would adopt "categorical options" to proceed with the nomination of Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman for president if Parliament failed to elect him on Monday. Abu Faour, in an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio, said a team from March 14 factions is working on an "action plan for the forthcoming era."
The majority alliance "would exert all possible pressures and adopt all possible options to achieve the election" of Suleiman for the nation's top post, according to Abu Faour. He said the action plan would be tackled by March 14 leaders "in the few coming days if efforts to block the presidential election persisted during the session set for Monday." Abu Faour expected "many domestic, regional and international developments before end of this December that could lead to holding the presidential election."He accused the Syrian regime of "cheating" France that had tried to facilitate the presidential election. Beirut, 16 Dec 07, 12:42

Berri Tries to Absorb Sarkozy's U.S.-Backed "Last Chance" Warning
-Naharnet- Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri tried to absorb a U.S.-backed French warning that Monday is the last chance to elect a president, saying the legislature's time frame to accomplish the mission extends to December 31. Berri's remark followed U.S. backing to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Monday is the "last chance" to elect a president for Lebanon.
"We respect the French president, but Monday is not the last chance," Berri was quoted by the daily an-Nahar as telling his visitors. "We are working day and night to accomplish this election. The chance is not open till Monday only, but to end of this year. That is why we hope to elect a new president before end of the year," Berri added. The Parliament speaker, who also is a prominent leader of the Hizbullah-led opposition, made the remark after visiting U.S. envoy David Welch voiced support for Sarkozy's stand, Premier Fouad Saniora's majority government and "any decisions" that would be taken by the March 14 majority alliance to elect a president.
Welch said he "made several points to the speaker (Berri) speaking on behalf of the American administration."
"I think President Sarkozy is right. It is time to elect a president," Welch said.
Welch is to hold talks Sunday with Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman, the frontrunner for the presidential office, whose nomination to the top post has been accepted by the feuding factions, despite an ongoing dispute on the mechanism to amend the constitution, a step needed to open the door for his election.
The U.S. envoy held talks on Saturday with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Berri, Saniora, Defense Minister Elias Murr, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and al-Moustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri.
Welch discussed with Berri on Saturday the need to elect a president "as long as the Lebanese factions have reached consensus on Gen. Suleiman."
"The United States believes that it is time now to elect a new president," said the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs after his round of talks on Saturday.
Welch's agenda in Lebanon, as released, does not include a meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, who has been assigned by the opposition to negotiate with the majority a parcel of conditions set to facilitate Suleiman's election. An-Nahar said Berri briefed Aoun by telephone on the talks with Welch.
Sources from the March 14 majority noted that the alliance would have a new plan of action to follow if a head of state was not voted into office by end of this year.
Details of such action plan, however, have not been disclosed.
Welch said on Saturday: "it is time for this process to be completed. There is no reason for any further delay."
"We understand that Lebanon has done the most difficult work of finding a candidate who represents the consensus," Welch said in reference to Suleiman.
"It is not our job to find a president for Lebanon. It is Lebanon's job and that job has been done."
On Monday MPs must "fulfill their duty ... to restore dignity and respect to the most important Christian office" and elect a president, Welch said, stressing that Washington "supports the majority and their decision" concerning the election.
"We know there are many pressures from within and from outside, but the American people and the administration will support Lebanon," Welch said in reference to Syria, Iran and the Hizbullah-led opposition. Beirut, 16 Dec 07, 10:04

Pakradoni No More Head of Phalange Party
Karim Pakradoni has resigned as head of the Phalange Party, saying he has completed his mission. Prior to his resignation, Pakradoni called on the Lebanese, particularly the Christians, to "adhere to the nation's unity and the coexistence formula." Beirut, 15 Dec 07, 14:10

Welch Urges Lebanese to Elect President to Restore Dignity, Face Challenges
U.S. Middle East envoy David Welch called on Lebanon's warring leaders on Saturday to elect a new president "to restore dignity and respect" to a position that has been vacant for three weeks. "The United States believes that it is time now to elect a new president," Welsh told reporters ahead of a new session of parliament called for Monday to elect a head of state after eight previous attempts since September failed. Welch said all MPs must "fulfil their duty" to elect a president in order "to restore dignity and respect to the most important Christian office." "This is what Lebanon needs to face the challenges ... We know there are many pressures," Welch said, reiterating Washington's support for Lebanon as it faces its worst crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down November 23 without a successor in place. Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government has been unable to reach agreement with the Syrian- and Iranian-backed opposition on a replacement for the pro-Syrian Lahoud. Welch was speaking after talks with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.
After meeting Sfeir he went into talks with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Welch was due to meet later Saturday with both Saniora and pro-opposition Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. His visit came a day after a state funeral for Brigadier General Francois el-Hajj who was killed in a car bombing on Wednesday.
Hajj had been tipped to become army chief if a compromise plan to elect incumbent General Michel Suleiman as president is accepted by MPs on Monday.
His election requires an amendment to the constitution which bars government employees from becoming head of state within two years of leaving their jobs.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 15 Dec 07, 11:08

Lebanon at the edge
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
December 15, 2007
THE CAR-BOMB assassination Wednesday of General Francois Hajj, chief of operations for Lebanon's army, is being attributed to a variety of suspects. Ministers in the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, France, and the United States, blame Syria. Syria, while condemning the murder, blames Israel. Others point to Al Qaeda-inspired jihadists whom the army crushed last summer, in a vicious three-month campaign led by the slain General Hajj.
His murder, the ninth political assassination since the 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, highlights the fragility of the Lebanese state. There is widespread belief among Lebanese that outside forces have it in their power either to tear the country apart or preserve its unity.
Lately, there have been signs that initiatives involving Syria, the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others might result in a tacit pact among the outsiders to let Lebanon solve its internal problems peacefully. The Bush administration's invitation to Syria to the recent Annapolis peace conference was one such sign. Back-channel explorations of an Israeli-Syrian peace track are another.
There are many good reasons to tamp down Mideast conflicts through diplomacy. Saving Lebanon as a rare multicultural society in the region is not the least of these.
The Hajj murder came as French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was shuttling between the Siniora government and the pro-Syrian opposition that has been boycotting Parliament. The term of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud expired Nov. 23, and Kouchner is trying to foster an agreement on the parliamentary election of his successor.
An anti-Syrian governing coalition of Christians and Sunnis and a pro-Syrian opposition alliance of Christian and Shi'ite parties recently agreed to support the current army chief, Michel Suleiman, as successor to Lahoud. But Lebanon's constitution requires a two-year interlude before the army boss can assume the presidency, and the pro-Syrian alliance is refusing to vote for the needed constitutional amendment unless it receives enough cabinet posts to give it veto power over government decisions. Whether or not Hajj's murder is related to this standoff - he was apolitical and on good terms with leaders in both camps - his murder, as well as the political backdrop, reveal a Lebanon teetering on the edge of an abyss.
Kouchner had been trying to avert a political deadlock, preserve Lebanon's unity, and prevent a replay of the disasters of the 1975-1990 civil war. This is an effort that deserves support from Washington, and the soundest way to help is for the administration to lend its backing to negotiations for an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement. The entire Middle East would benefit, and nobody more than the Lebanese.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Scapegoats in an Unwelcoming Land
By Nir Rosen
Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page B02
Last Wednesday, a car-bomb blast on a crowded Beirut street killed Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj, one of Lebanon's top generals. The capital began buzzing with speculation that Hajj had been assassinated in retaliation for his role as the operational commander of the army's bloody three-month battle with an armed Islamic group last summer. In May, Fatah al-Islam -- a foreign jihadist group inspired by al-Qaeda, led by veterans of the struggle in Iraq and made up mostly of Saudis, Syrians and even some Lebanese -- ensconced itself on the outskirts of Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, and massacred Lebanese troops at an army checkpoint. Hajj's forces responded by indiscriminately bombarding the camp in the name of the war on terror, and the Lebanese public rallied 'round.
Palestinians had once again become Lebanon's scapegoats, victims of a land in which they have long faced slaughter and discrimination. Attacking them may be personally risky, but it's also often good politics; the assassinated general's boss, army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman, is poised to become Lebanon's next president. Suleiman isn't the first army commander to punish the Palestinians, and he won't be the first president to do so, either. Between 1958 and 1964, President Fuad Shehab created an elaborate, ruthless secret-service network to monitor the Palestinian camps. During his 1970-76 reign, President Suleiman Franjieh clashed militarily with Palestinian factions, even using the air force to bomb a neighborhood thought to be pro-Palestinian. I've heard followers of assassinated president-elect Bashir Gemayel, whose Maronite Christian militia massacred Palestinians in 1976, brag that he was stopped at a checkpoint in the early years of the country's 1975-90 civil war with a trunk full of the skulls of dead Palestinians. Even today, the Lebanese opposition's preferred candidate for president is Michel Aoun, a Christian retired general who also participated in the 1976 killings.
The rights of the Palestinian refugees have been ignored for six decades by a world that has wished them away. But the Middle East will never know peace or stability until they are granted justice. In 1948-49, around the conflict that Israelis refer to as their War of Independence and that Palestinians call the Catastrophe, some 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed to make way for the creation of the Jewish state. In 1967, during the Six-Day War, 400,000 Palestinians were expelled by the Israeli military, according to Amnesty International.
A series of subsequent peace processes has ignored the refugees, offered no compensation for their suffering and lost property, or refused to recognize their right to return to their homes in their homeland. It's not just the Israelis who have brutalized them; Palestinian refugees have been massacred in Jordan and Lebanon. Small numbers have become so radicalized that they have gone on to fight the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In Lebanon -- a small, weak state with a delicate sectarian balance and turbulent political system where, according to Refugees International, about 382,000 Palestinians have registered with a U.N. refugee-relief agency -- the refugee problem has never really left center stage.
Last summer, I witnessed yet another chapter in the book of the refugees' misery. By late June, most of the Palestinians from Nahr al-Bared had fled to Badawi, another refugee camp nearby. In a schoolyard there, I was stopped by a man named Abu Hadi, born in Haifa in 1946. "I am a person without an address," he told me. "I wish I was a donkey or a horse so I would have doctors and lawyers for my rights." He showed me a plastic bag with a sponge and a towel. "My bathroom is in my hand," he said.
The term "refugee camp" summons up images of tents and squalor, but Nahr al-Bared, like many of its counterparts elsewhere in Lebanon, had been a thoroughly urban camp, with low-slung apartment buildings. It even had soothing views of the Mediterranean. The 40,000 Palestinians of Nahr al-Bared wound up housed in schools in the Badawi refugee camp and Tripoli, watching from afar as their homes were obliterated. According to aid workers and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations, at least 42 Palestinian civilians had been killed by Sept. 2, when the Lebanese army and media declared that Gen. Suleiman's forces had won a great victory.
Only in October did the army finally begin to allow a trickle of Palestinians back to their homes, and then only in the so-called new camp, a small area on the outskirts of the original camp that had housed 2,000 families and been safely under Lebanese army control throughout the clash.
When about 1,000 families finally passed through the checkpoints, to the jeers of soldiers and demonstrators, they found only destruction. Every single home, building, apartment and shop that I saw had been destroyed. Most buildings had been burned from the inside; the signs of the flammable liquids that the soldiers had used were scorched on the walls, and empty fuel canisters were strewn on the floors. Ceilings and walls were riddled with bullets, shot from inside, seemingly for sport. Most homes that I saw had been emptied of furniture, appliances, sinks, toilets, televisions and refrigerators. Most shockingly, soldiers had defecated in kitchens and bedrooms, on plates, bowls, pots and mattresses; they had urinated into olive-oil jars.
The media were not permitted in, and most Lebanese outlets ignored or denied the outrages. When I managed to slip inside, I was shocked by the scope of the damage. The buildings were crumpled, windows broken, electrical wiring yanked out, water pumps destroyed, generators stolen or shot up. All the gold jewelry had been stolen, as had been the cash that so many Palestinians had stored in their bedrooms. Insulting graffiti were scrawled on the charred walls, as were threats, signed by various Lebanese army units. Every car in the camp that I saw had been burned, shot or crushed by tanks or bulldozers. The ruination had been strikingly personal; I saw photo albums that had been torn to shreds. Palestinians told me that they had seen their belongings on sale in the main outdoor market in Tripoli.
Like all institutions in Lebanon, the army is sectarian, a fact that helps explain the devastation. Most of the soldiers fighting in Nahr al-Bared had been Sunnis from northern Lebanon; the Sunnis had once seen Palestinian militias as friendly, but now they blamed the Palestinians for the outsiders of Fatah al-Islam and unleashed their fury on the camp. By contrast, refugees told me, Shiite soldiers from the south had been far kinder and more supportive after the fighting.
The camp had once been woven into the area's economy and culture. Now the Palestinians were again unwanted and rejected. "It is our destiny," one man said emotionlessly in his blackened home in Nahr al-Bared, standing near feces that Lebanese soldiers had left on his kitchen floor.
I saw Palestinian children's art from this period that depicted the Lebanese soldiers and tanks that destroyed the camp as Israelis, equating their suffering at the hands of the Lebanese with the suffering of their brethren at the hands of the Israelis. I saw videos filmed by Lebanese soldiers on the Internet, showing army medical staff abusing corpses and beating prisoners. Hundreds of Palestinians had been abused or tortured in Lebanese detention, according to human rights groups, and refugees told me that some had died from medical neglect of treatable wounds.
The refugees still faced harassment and the occasional beating by Lebanese soldiers. Nobody is helping them, but rather than giving up, hundreds of Palestinians were at work emptying their homes of debris and trying to get on with their lives. One woman stood on her balcony, throwing rubble from inside her home out onto the broken street. She was lucky; most of the Palestinians still couldn't get to their homes and could only wonder what awaited them. On the roof of one of the taller buildings in the new camp, I found Farhan Said Mansur, a sanitation worker, standing with his wife. They were gazing silently across to their distant home, whose broken roof they could just make out, as if they were looking over the border toward Palestine, where he was born. "It is a calamity to all Palestinians," he said.
nirrosen@yahoo.com
Nir Rosen is a fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of "In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq."

Western powers press Lebanon to fill vacant presidency
A US envoy urged feuding Lebanese politicians on Saturday to elect a new president to restore "dignity" to a position vacant for three weeks, as France warned a vote set for the coming week is the "last chance" to resolve the crisis.
"The United States believes that it is time now to elect a new president," US Middle East envoy David Welch said in Beirut, ahead of a new session of parliament called for Monday after eight attempts to elect a president failed.
"It is time for this process to be completed. There is no reason for any further delay," he said.
"We believe that members of parliament must fulfil their duty... to restore dignity and respect to the most important Christian office," Welch said.
"We know there are many pressures from within and from outside, but the American people and the administration will support Lebanon," he said.
Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud stepped down on November 23 without a successor in place, triggering the country's worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
The Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has been unable to reach agreement with the Syrian- and Iranian-backed opposition on a replacement for the pro-Syrian Lahoud.
Welch held a one-hour meeting with pro-opposition parliament speaker Nabih Berri, during which he said he "made several points to the speaker", ahead of separate talks with Siniora and ruling majority leader Saad Hariri.
Earlier, he met Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, spiritual leader of the Maronite Christian community from which Lebanese presidents are conventionally drawn, as well as Christian leader Samir Geagea. Welch's previously unannounced visit came a day after a state funeral for senior army commander Brigadier General Francois el-Hajj who was killed in a car bombing on Wednesday. Hajj had been tipped to become army chief if a compromise plan to elect incumbent General Michel Sleiman as president is accepted by MPs on Monday. Sleiman's election requires an amendment to the constitution which bars government employees from becoming head of state within two years of leaving their jobs. France, the former colonial power in Lebanon which has been heavily involved in international mediation efforts, warned the feuding factions and their foreign sponsors that time was running out for a solution.
"Monday is really the last chance, and France calls on all parties, inside and outside, to ensure that Lebanon can have a president," President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday. "Those (who) would take the risk of killing off that chance would cut themselves off from a number of countries, first among them France."
On Thursday, US President George W. Bush accused Syria of "interference" in Lebanon and said this action must end.
Efforts to push through Sleiman's election have foundered amid demands by the Hezbollah-led opposition for agreement on the shape of the next government ahead of the vote. "We want a consensus president as part of a full basket... All we are talking about is the cabinet which must represent all parties and confessions," deputy Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in comments published on Saturday.
The opposition pulled its six ministers out of the cabinet in November last year, demanding a national unity government to replace Siniora's cabinet which they consider illegitimate. The standoff has paralysed the government's legislative programme, including flagship plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of five-times prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a crime widely blamed on Syria.
The outgoing head of the UN inquiry into the killing Serge Brammertz of Belgium and his successor Daniel Bellemare of Canada met separately with Berri and Siniora on Saturday, officials said. Sources with the March 14 alliance expressed disappointment over the naming of Gen. Michel Aoun as the opposition's negotiator.
The sources said the opposition issued "an indirect death notice" of the presidential election session scheduled for Monday by naming Aoun its negotiator.
"They took us back to square one," one March 14 source said, adding that the majority was not officially informed of the opposition's decision.
The sources said talks between MP Saad Hariri and Speaker Nabih Berri were based on the concept that Hariri negotiates on behalf of March 14 while Berri for the opposition. "How can the role of the government be rejected (by the opposition) when it comes to constitutional amendments and accepted when it comes to holding an extraordinary (parliamentary) session?" one March 14 source asked.
He accused the opposition as well as Syria and Iran of "once again seeking to show that blockage over (presidential) elections is an inter-Christian problem."
Commenting on Berri's remarks regarding "new negotiators," which was interpreted as an indirect reference to Walid Jumblat who contacted the speaker hours after Wednesday's car bombing attack, a leading March 14 figure said Berri has no right to strip the majority of its negotiator.
Aoun on Thursday said the opposition has assigned him to take part in political dialogue with the majority based on a written document.
Aoun refused to disclose details of the dialogue document.