LCCC ENGLISH NEWS BULLETIN
NOVEMBER 24/06Biblical Reading For today
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 9,41-44.
Jesus said in reply, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and endure you? Bring your son here." As he was coming forward, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion; but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and returned him to his father. And all were astonished by the majesty of God. While they were all amazed at his every deed, he said to his disciples, Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.
Latest New from miscellaneous sources for November 24/11/06
UN wastes no time adding latest assassination to probe-Daily Star
Cries of mourning, calls for justice-Daily Star
Aridi expresses 'deep sorrow'-Daily Star
Hundreds of thousands bid Gemayel farewell-Daily Star
Engaging Syria over Gemayel's dead bodyDaily Star
Mourners join call for anti-Syria revolution-Times Online
Douste-Blazy vows French support for Lebanon-Daily Star
Buses bring mourners from all over-Daily Sta
The funeral concluded with Lebanon's leaders lashing out at Syria-Daily Star
Jumblatt singles out Damascus in murder-Daily Star
Shia protests rattle nervous Beirut-Aljazeera.net
Bidding farewell to Pierre Gemayel-Daily Star
Funeral for slain Lebanese leader turns into rallySan Jose Mercury News Lebanese Pay Their Last Respects To Slain Gemayel
Playfuls.com
French 'allowed to fire on Israeli planes'-Daily Star
Minor clashes break out near Martyrs Square demonstration-Daily Star
Minister 'asked for less security' ahead of fatal attack-Daily Star
Israel should consider a Hamas truce - and deal with Syria-Daily Star
Lebanese crowds defy Syria at Gemayel's funeral-Washington Post
Lebanon Bids Gemayel Farewell as Father Announces 'Countdown' for New President-Naharnet
March 14 Leaders Lash Out at Syria, Lebanon Allies-Naharnet
U.N. Investigators to Assist Lebanon Gemayel Probe-Naharnet
Mehlis Points Finger at 'Pro-Syrian Forces in Lebanon'-Naharnet
U.N. to probe Gemayel slaying-CNN
Mourners Pay Tribute to Lebanon Christian Leader-ChristianToday
Silence and sorrow grip Lebanon after assassination-Los Angeles Times
Syria rules out cooperation with UN tribunal on Hariri ...Guardian Unlimited
Lebanon bid Industry Minister farewell-People's Daily Online
Lebanon on the Brink of Civil War (3)-Middle East Media Research Institute - Washington,DC,USA
France not to resume high-level contact with Syria: French FM-People's Daily Online
Jumblatt blames Syria for Gemayel ‘s murder-Ya Libnan -
IDF helping UN force dismantle s. Lebanon bombs-Jerusalem Post
White House ramps up diplomacy across Middle East-CNN
Lebanon: End risks of another war-United Press International
Lebanon mourns Gemayel; seeks UN help to probe murder-Peninsula On-line
Hidden Plots in Lebanon-Monthly Review
Italy's Prodi urges talks with Syria-Reuters
Lebanon slaying complicates US hopes-Cleveland Plain Dealer
Robert Fisk: Gemayel's mourners know that in Lebanon nothing is ...Independent
When assassination will come to an end in Lebanon?People's Daily Online
Lebanon crisis reflects fading US clout-Los Angeles Times
Opinion Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory-The Suburban
Lebanese fear clashes after Gemayel funeral-Globe and Mail - Canada
Making sense of Lebanon mess-Ynetnews
Lebanon: The global lie-Newropeans Magazine
Crowds fill Beirut to bury Lebanese minister-Times Online
Lebanon waits with bated breath to bid farewell to Pierre Gemayel-AsiaNews.it
Lebanon: Latest Crisis Renews Spotlight On Syria's Role-RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Siniora Calls on Ministers to Sleep in Parliament-Arutz Sheva
ANALYSIS-Syria expects foes to tar it over Gemayel killing-Reuters.uk
Republican congressman to visit Middle East, but scraps Syria.International Herald Tribune
Report: South Korea to Send 400 Peacekeepers to Lebanon-NaharnetLebanon Bids Gemayel Farewell as Father Announces 'Countdown' for New President
Naharnet: Hundreds of thousands of mourners Thursday bid slain Christian politician Pierre Gemayel farewell as his father, former President Amine Gemayel, announced that the "countdown for the election of a new president has started."
"Independence can only be achieved through the election of new president," said Gemayel, father of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel who was gunned down along with a bodyguard Tuesday. The young politician was the sixth outspoken opponent of Syria to be assassinated in the past two years.
Anti-Syrian leaders have been calling for the resignation of Syrian protégé President Emile Lahoud whose mandate was extended for three years through a controversial Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment in 2004.
Prominent Lebanese leaders and ambassadors packed the St. George Cathedral as the casket was placed on the altar along with the coffin of his bodyguard, Samir al-Shartouni. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Arab League chief Amr Mussa were among the dignitaries attending the 1:00 p.m. funeral service in downtown Beirut. Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hizbullah ally, surprised the mourners by showing up unexpectedly at the funeral.In a message read at the funeral, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the "unspeakable" assassination of Gemayel.
"We are all very moved by this unspeakable act," he said in the message read by a Jesuit priest at the cathedral where Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, head of the Maronite church to which Gemayel belonged, led the service in a rare move. "I hope that all Lebanese remain united in these circumstances and that they renew their determination to rebuild an autonomous Lebanon... where all communities are ensured active participation," he said.
In his sermon, Sfeir said that the "series of crimes continue in an attempt to prevent Lebanon from achieving stability."
Gemayel's casket, wrapped in flags of the Phalange party and Lebanon, was taken to Bikfaya for burial in the family graveyard at the end of the funeral.
From the family home in Bikfaya, through the village's main street to the entrance of the town, Gemayel's coffin was carried on shoulders by relatives and supporters before being placed in a cortege and driven to the Phalange party headquarters in Saifi from where it made the final trek to the cathedral.
Amid a sea of red and white flags in a show of patriotism for the funeral, hundreds of thousands assembled at nearby Martyrs Square in a show of force against opponents led by Hizbullah and their Syrian backers.
Young men stamped on Lahoud portraits and his Syrian and Iranian counterparts, Bashar Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the principal backers of Hizbullah and its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. "Nasrallah, come and see who is the majority" in Lebanon, chanted the crowd.
"We want only the army to bear weapons," the mourners chanted, referring to Hizbullah's persistent refusal to lay down its weapons in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions following the devastating summer war with Israel. Others brandished anti-Syrian posters. One poster read "Get Bashar's agent out of Baabda," a reference to Lahoud. Another placard read: "Caesar of Baabda, Get Lost!" Baabda is the presidential headquarters.
Schools, shops and other businesses across Lebanon have been asked to remain closed Thursday as a mark of respect.
On the eve of the funeral, convoys of cars covered with portraits of Gemayel and Hariri criss-crossed the streets of Beirut playing patriotic music.
Security around the capital has been stepped up since the minister's murder, with extra roadblocks around the presidential palace and on the main highway to Damascus. On Thursday Lebanese troops, backed by armored vehicles, were out in force across Beirut for the funeral.
Army command sources told the pro-Syrian Al-Akhbar newspaper that the military "remains neutral" to the political disputes in Lebanon and will continue to protect all state institutions, including the presidential palace.
Before Gemayel's slaying, Hizbullah had threatened to hold its own mass protests in an attempt to bring down Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government. Hizbullah officials said Wednesday the group would take no action in the coming days to allow emotions to cool.
Many feared Thursday's demonstration could be the first in a round of shows that could bring the political standoff into the volatile streets.
Gemayel's assassination introduced new tensions into the already dangerous power struggle in Lebanon. The polarization has become as sharp and exposed as it has been since the end of the 1975-90 civil war between Muslims and Christians.
The anti-Damascus politicians who run the government were quick to point the finger at Syria and called for a huge show of public determination to be rid of the meddling of its larger neighbor. The leader of the anti-Syrian majority in parliament, Saad Hariri, who himself lost his father to an assassin's bomb last year, called on people from across the nation to attend the Beirut funeral in a "show of support for freedom and independence".
Christian opposition leader and Hizbullah ally General Michel Aoun called on all Lebanese to attend the funeral, but indicated he would not be there himself. Aoun told the private television channel NBN Wednesday he regretted that the Gemayel family did not allow him to present his condolences. "They told me this was not the time. I regret that," he said. Damascus stressed that the timing of Gemayel's murder, on the day the United Nations endorsed a blueprint for a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of Hariri, was designed to cause it maximum damage.
The governing anti-Syrian camp in Beirut, faced with a growing challenge from Hizbullah since its war with Israel, is the only party which stands to gain from the minister's assassination, the official press in Damascus argued. Hizbullah and other the pro-Syrian Amal movement of Speaker Nabih Berri pulled their ministers out of the cabinet earlier this month after all-party talks failed to reach agreement on a government of national unity and has threatened a campaign of street protests to achieve their goal.(Naharnet-AP-AFP)(Outside photo shows Gemayel's coffin, and inside photo shows his mother, Joyce, comforting his widow, Patricia) Beirut, 23 Nov 06, 13:40
March 14 Leaders Lash Out at Syria, Lebanon Allies
Naharnet: Leaders of the anti-Syrian March 14 camp lashed out at Syria Thursday in fiery addresses to huge crowds gathered for the funeral of slain anti-Damascus minister Pierre Gemayel. After paying their respects to the latest victim of an assassin's bullet in Lebanon, Druze leader Walid Jumblat and then Sunni leader Saad Hariri, speaking from behind a bullet-proof glass screen, railed against Syrian meddling in Lebanese affairs.
"They will not nail down our determination for life. They will not nail down our determination to refuse the culture of sorrow and death," Jumblat told the hundreds of thousands massed in Martyrs Square near St. George Cathedral where the industry minister's funeral service was held.
"They will not nail down our determination to keep the arms in the hands of the state, and our demands for the truth, justice and the international court," he said. He was alluding to the ruling majority's insistence on an international tribunal to try the February 2005 assassins of five-time premier Rafik Hariri, and to the refusal of Syrian ally Hizbullah to lay down its arms in accordance with U.N. resolutions after its summer war with Israel. Jumblat said the slain minister joined "the previous martyrs... who had refused ... the regime of tutelage, killings and assassinations." Hariri told the crowd waving red-and-white Lebanese flags: "You are here for a new revolution to show the entire world that the sons of Rafik Hariri and the brothers of Pierre Gemayel are the majority in Lebanon."
"They said that you are a virtual majority, but we are the reality and they are virtual." "National unity is stronger than their arms ... and their terrorism."
The slain minister's father, Amine Gemayel then took the podium to call for a new Lebanon, without pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.
He hailed "the start of the second revolution for the independence of Lebanon, which should start at the top.""This is the start of the countdown for the election of a new president," he said. Presidential elections are due next autumn. The anti-Syrian coalition has long challenged the legitimacy of Lahoud, whose mandate was extended for three years through a controversial Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment in 2004. The crowds gathered in Martyrs' Square had chanted slogans against the president and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, throughout the morning.
"Get Bashar's agent out of Baabda," they shouted in reference to the presidential palace. Gemayel pledged that the anti-Syrian ruling majority "will soon adopt practical measures so that your voice does not wither away ... so that it covers the treacherous bullets and explosions," he told the crowd.
"We will not tire until we bring the killers to court," he said.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea spoke out against the demands of Hizbullah and its allies for a government of national unity.
"This government is our government, and it takes its legitimacy from our parliament, our presence and the blood of our martyrs," he said.
"We will not accept its replacement with a government of tutelage, killings and crimes," he said. Geagea reiterated the coalition's accusations that Hizbullah and Amal ministers had resigned at Syria's bidding in a bid to block approval of the proposed international tribunal that was approved by the Security Council just hours after Gemayel's murder."They wanted a confrontation over the tribunal, but they did not dare declare it as such ... but the masks have fallen," he said. "We pledge to continue... until we know the truth."However on Thursday, Syria again strongly condemned Gemayel's murder and some people were "exploiting the crime for personal ends."
"(Syria) strongly denounces the odious crime which cost the life of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel and believes this attack is aimed at Lebanon's stability," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Those who prejudge the inquiry into this crime and into the other murders, scarcely minutes after their execution and without having any proof, aim to exploit the blood of the martyr for personal ends, far from the true interests of Lebanon," said the statement.(AFP-Naharnet) (Photo shows Amine Gemayel addressing the crowd at Martyrs Square) Beirut, 23 Nov 06, 15:58
Gemayel Asked Police to 'Stay Behind' Ahead of Murder
Naharnet: Slain Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel has asked a police patrol which usually escorts him in his trips to 'stay behind' the day he was assassinated. The daily As Safir, citing sources close to the probe into the Gemayel's killing, said U.N. investigators probing the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri inspected on Wednesday the crime scene where Gemayel and his bodyguard were gunned down in the north Beirut suburb of Jdeideh on Tuesday. U.N. investigators have begun assisting the Lebanese inquiry into the murder of Gemayel after the Security Council agreed to a request for help. But Ashraf Kamal, spokesman of the U.N. commission of the Hariri inquiry, declined to confirm As Safir's report, saying: "That's a matter for the investigation." "We confirm that the commission is complying with the request of the Security Council," Kamal told Agence France Presse.
On Wednesday, the Security Council directed the commission to provide technical help in the investigation, following a request from Prime Minister Fouad Saniora. As Safir quoted security sources as saying that the investigation was now focused on a fingerprint taken from one of the bullet shells found inside Gemayel's KIA automobile. It said witnesses' accounts showed that the perpetrators were three men in their 20's and 30's.
Gemayel received eight bullets in the head, As Safir reported.
The leading daily An Nahar said three to four men were believed involved in the shooting. It quoted probe sources as saying the assailants used two kinds of weapons – automatic rifles and silencer-equipped guns. An Nahar said the attackers rammed Gemayel's car from a Honda jeep, while a BMW covered up for them as they fled. It said preliminary investigation with ten witnesses lasted well through the night and resumed early Thursday morning.
The U.N. probe has already implicated several Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in Hariri's killing in a huge bomb blast on the Beirut seafront.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the latest killing and endorsed plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri murder pending final approval by Lebanese authorities.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 23 Nov 06, 17:32
U.N. Investigators to Assist Lebanon Gemayel Probe
Naharnet: The U.N. Security Council has directed U.N. investigators to provide Beirut with technical help in investigating the murder of anti-Syrian Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel. It made the decision in answer to a letter from U.N. chief Kofi Annan relaying a request from Premier Fouad Saniora for U.N. assistance "to investigate the murder of Mr. Gemayel." Saniora specifically asked for help from the U.N. commission probing the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri. The commission is headed by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz.
The council, in a letter to Annan sent late Wednesday, said it was "determined to support the government of Lebanon in its efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the assassination of Pierre Gemayel and other assassinations."
To that end, council members invited the Brammertz-led panel to "extend its technical assistance as appropriate to the Lebanese authorities in this investigation." Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters that in his view there was no end date on the assistance that the Security Council authorized the U.N. inquiry panel to provide Lebanon in probing not only the Hariri slaying but 14 other attacks on anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians. nd nature" of links between the Hariri murder and the 14 other attacks on Lebanese foes of Syria.
The 14 cases, which Lebanese authorities have been probing with U.N. help, include assassinations and murder attempts targeting anti-Syria Lebanese figures, as well as attacks on commercial interests. The Security Council on Tuesday condemned the murder of Gemayel and endorsed plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri murder pending final approval by Lebanese authorities.
The tribunal blueprint now has to be formally approved by the Lebanese parliament and ratified by the president with the agreement of the prime minister.
A State Department official, said: "The first thing you look for in a criminal investigation is the motive, and I think it is pretty darn clear that the Syrians are the ones with the motive in this instance." Recalling that other Syria critics have been attacked in Lebanon, the official added: "It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that all those acts of assassination or political intimidation are being conducted against those who have strong anti-Syrian credentials."(AFP) Beirut, 23 Nov 06, 07:26
Crushing a Flower of the Cedar Revolution
By Dr. Walid Phares
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 23, 2006
The assassination of Lebanese Christian politician Pierre Gemayel this Tuesday has revealed that the Tehran-Damascus axis remains busy with terror activities across the Fertile Crescent.
When UN Security Council resolution 1559 passed in 2004, reaffirming Lebanon's political independence and calling for the withdrawal of the Syrian occupation army and the disarming of Hezbollah, Syria's Ba'athist regime pledged heavy retribution against those Lebanese who would dare join the international campaign for freedom triggered by the U.S.-led War on Terror.
Damascus has kept its promise. In the fall of 2004, a former minister from the Druze community, Marwan Hamade, was targeted with a car bomb. While Hamade survived, Rafiq Hariri, the former Sunni Prime Minister of Lebanon, was not so fortunate. On February 14, 2005, he was killed in an explosion orchestrated by highly trained terrorists.
Dozens of Lebanese civilians were also killed and maimed in the blast. This prompted thousands, mostly students, to take to the streets and demand the withdrawal of Syrian forces and the end of the occupation of their country. In response, Syria ordered the Lebanese Army, via the pro-Syrian government headed by Prime Minister Omar Karami, to send in troops to shut down the "Lebanese intifada."
The Lebanese people refused to be intimidated. As the world watched on television, the youth of Lebanon, soon joined by the masses of the country, painted the colors of freedom on their faces and marched through the lines of Lebanese soldiers. Women first, boys behind, and the elderly following, they crossed into downtown Beirut in an inspiring illustration of national defiance. One and a half million people marched through the capital and the suburbs in what came to be known as the "Cedar Revolution."
Instead of authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism, the Lebanese longed for freedom and peace. Given political freedom, the Lebanese -- Sunnis, Druze and Christians, along with a growing number of Shiite moderates -- emerged as majorities in the country's government, including in municipalities, student unions, and parliament.
It was a powerful slap in the faces of Syria's Bashar Assad and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both disliked the emerging democratic forces. Hence, cooperation solidified between Tehran and Damascus. In partnership with their common client, Hezbollah, the two regimes launched a campaign to kill the idea of Middle Eastern freedom in its infancy.
In the summer of 2005, progressive Lebanese leaders George Hawi and Samir Qassir were assassinated. Journalist May Chidiac was maimed by a bomb. In December the bright, young and promising Jubran Tueni, a member of the Lebanese Parliament and publisher of the daily an Nahar, was killed. Hezbollah lured others, such as General Michel Aoun, into cooperation. During the winter and spring of 2005, Nabih Berri, the pro-Syrian speaker of the Parliament, played the role of Don Corleone, inviting the senior political leaders of the country to what the mafia calls a "sit down." After weeks of sterile talks, the "loaded dialogue" failed.
But the effects of the intimidation campaign were palpable. The government of Fouad Siniora hesitated to call for U.N. implementation of resolution 1559. Non-governmental organizations who appealed for action on this front were informed that the fear was too great. "Hezbollah is up to terrible things," Lebanese-Americans told the bipartisan committees in the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration. Lebanese memos to the United Nations stated: "The country has been taken hostage."
This prophecy was soon realized when Hezbollah chieftain Hassan Nasrallah, with Machiavellian success, dragged Lebanon and Israel into a surprise war this past July. For Nasrallah, the war was an opportunity, a chance to reassert himself as a "legitimate" player in Beirut and destroy the gains of the people's revolution. For Iran and Syria, it was a chance to undermine the newly independent Lebanese government. For the majority of Lebanese, it was a nightmare. They did not want a war, let alone a regional one.
By the end of October 2006, Hezbollah and its allies felt confident enough to launch a new bid for power. Nasrallah rallied his troops in the suburbs of Beirut, urging them to arm for the coming urban jihad. Thousands of militiamen, as well as the Syrian Mukhabarat intelligence service and possibly suicide bombers, were tasked to invade the capital.
Mukhabarat' operatives were readied to cut off water and electricity and to surround Lebanese police stations. Hezbollah also demanded that Prime Minister Siniora's government recant its decision to accept the UN Tribunal investigation of Rafik Hariri'z assassination. It was expected that the ensuing indictment would touch high-ranking officials in the Syrian regime, Hezbollah's patron. Also discernible was the influence of Iran. If the Syrian regime were to be weakened, so too would be the Iran-Syria axis, leaving the mullahs alone in the Middle East. The Lebanese democrats had to go.
If Iran and Syria had any doubts about their strategy of destabilization, the midterm elections in the United States dispelled them. On November 7, the opposition party in the United States grabbed both houses of Congress. Although an unremarkable feature of American and Western politics, this shift in power was read by Iranian and Syrian elites as a collapse of American determination to defend democracies in the region. Ayatollah Khamenei declared: "The defeat of Bush in Congress is a victory for us." He was echoed in Lebanon by Hassan Nasrallah: "America is being defeated and is leaving the region. Those who worked with the US will pay the price."
Further reinforcing suspicions in Tehran and Damascus, the Iraq Study Group, headed by presidential advisor James Baker, is slated to recommend next month that Washington backtrack from its policy of promoting democracy in order to cut deals with…Iran and Syria.
On the basis of these developments, Iran and Syria concluded that the time was ripe to strike a punishing blow against democratic forces. But Lebanese leaders moved first. They emphasized that they would go to the UN and lead the masses into the streets against foreign interference in Lebanese politics. Calculating the numbers of the opposition, the "axis" commanders in Lebanon shifted tactics. Instead of sending in troops, a decision was made to send in the death squad to "mollify" the resistance.
The warning signs came last week. The ministers of Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal Party resigned from the Lebanese council of ministers to shake the "legitimacy" of the cabinet. They failed. The Lebanese Constitution is clear: You need more than one third of the members to collapse a cabinet. Therefore, the "axis" needed to eliminate three members, one after the other. Thus the decision was made to kill the youngest, brightest and most vocal Lebanese minister, a true symbol of Lebanon's civic revolution: Pierre Gemayel.
Unlike the warlords and senior politicians, the 34-year-old MP acted like a head of a happy family, with a wife and children. He drove his own car in the middle of the most dangerous urban areas, and socialized with neighbors, partisans and friends. He was living the life he was struggling to defend: one of peace, freedom and democracy. It was abruptly ended on Tuesday. Two vehicles blocked Pierre Gemayel's car, while several assassins shot the young leader "execution style."
Gemayel is dead, but, as his younger brother Sami told his friends, "The march continues." On these shores, the question arises: What should be done?
The answer is clear. The United States and the new Congress must be implacable in resisting the onslaught of terror and fascism in the Middle East. When cynical politicians, interest groups and apologist academics call for the appeasement of Iran and Syria, resist them. When a population is endangered and its leadership is being eliminated, assist them. Will the new Washington rise to the occasion?
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Dr Walid Phares is the author of the newly released book Future Jihad. He is also a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington DC.
Lebanese crowds defy Syria at Gemayel's funeral
By Yara Bayoumy
Reuters
Thursday, November 23, 2006; 11:42 AM
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Lebanese paid tribute to assassinated Christian politician Pierre Gemayel on Thursday, turning his funeral in central Beirut into a display of defiance towards Syria and its Hezbollah allies.
Raucous crowds carrying Lebanese flags and those of Christian factions, including Gemayel's Phalange Party, swarmed around Beirut's St George Cathedral, where top Marionite cleric Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir conducted the rites.
Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian leaders, standing together behind bullet-proof glass, called for solidarity in the struggle against the influence of Syria and its allies in Lebanon.
"National unity is stronger than their weapons, their crimes and their terrorism," said Saad al-Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri who was assassinated in 2005.
The leaders had accused Syria of killing the industry minister, the 34-year-old scion of one of Lebanon's most prominent Maronite clans. Damascus condemned the assassination.
"We will not rest until all the criminals are brought to justice," Gemayel's 64-year-old father, Amin, told mourners.
Gemayel was shot dead on Tuesday in the sixth killing of an anti-Syrian figure in less than two years in Lebanon.
The government says its Syrian-backed opponents, led by Shi'ite party Hezbollah, want to weaken it and to scupper an international tribunal under U.N. auspices that is being set up to try suspects in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri.
"Our suspicions are big that Syria is behind this (killing) to destroy national unity, to destroy us living together and to fuel sectarianism," Sunni mourner Ghada Hakim, 63, told Reuters. Anger at Syria and resolve to support Lebanon's anti-Syrian majority coalition swept through the crowd. Inside the cathedral, family members wept and prayed over Gemayel's coffin. "Whatever they do to remove young men, there will always be more young men to raise the flag," said Marwan Haj, 25. "Syria doesn't want us to be free and make our own decisions."
Mourners turned out in force but not in the vast numbers of March 14 last year after Hariri's killing, when an outpouring of anti-Syrian anger coupled with international pressure forced Damascus to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after 29 years."They will not suppress our demands for the truth, justice and the international court," said Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. The week's events from around the world, captured in pictures.
Troops and police ringed the cathedral which is next to a huge mosque built by Hariri. His tomb abuts Martyrs' Square.
After the funeral, Gemayel's coffin was driven back to his home town of Bekfaya in the mountains above Beirut, where it was laid to rest in the family vault. Even before Gemayel's killing, Lebanon was in crisis over efforts by Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, to clip the wings of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government, despised by the Shi'ite Muslim group as Washington's puppet. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, whose country has been a strong opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, was the most prominent foreign dignitary to attend the funeral along with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal faction is allied to Hezbollah, was the most senior pro-Syrian figure there. Maronite Christian leader Michel Aoun, who is aligned with Hezbollah, stayed away but said he shared the mourners' grief. Hezbollah leaders, who have said Gemayel's assassins sought to stir civil strife in Lebanon, were also absent. The cabinet has been depleted by the resignation of six ministers from Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian factions. They quit after all-party talks on a new government collapsed.
The government, keen to ensure the international tribunal is established, would fall if it lost two more ministers.
Hezbollah had pledged street protests aimed at toppling the government but Gemayel's killing has put those plans on hold. The U.N. Security Council approved on Wednesday a Lebanese government request to add Gemayel's killing to the string of previous attacks being investigated by a United Nations inquiry into Hariri's assassination. U.N. investigators met Lebanese prosecutors and visited the site of Gemayel's assassination where they began initial investigations, Lebanon's government news agency reported.
Early reports by the U.N. inquiry into Hariri's death implicated Syrian security officials and their Lebanese counterparts. Syria denies involvement.
Anti-Syrian leaders had called for a huge turnout for the funeral of Gemayel, the son of former President Amin Gemayel and the nephew of Bashir Gemayel, killed in 1982 when he was president-elect. Amin Gemayel called for change and reform in Lebanon, saying it must start with an early presidential poll to replace Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud, whose term was extended in 2004 under Syrian pressure.(Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki, Tom Perry and Leila Bassam)
Mehlis Points Finger at 'Pro-Syrian Forces in Lebanon'
Naharnet: Former chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis accused on Wednesday "pro-Syrian forces in Lebanon" of involvement in Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel's assassination. The German prosecutor who led the investigation into ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's murder before handing over the U.N.-backed probe to Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz in January also said Tuesday's killing was an attack on the United Nations.
"It is an attack on the Lebanese government and the planned international tribunal (to examine Hariri's murder) and it is also an attack on the U.N.," Mehlis told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily newspaper to be published on Thursday.
"It is apparent to anyone who is unbiased that all the clues after this attack clearly point to the forces who want to bring down the Lebanese government and get in the way of the tribunal. "These are the so-called pro-Syrian forces in Lebanon. They have an obvious motive." Just hours after Gemayel's shooting, the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday endorsed plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri murder case.
Mehlis said it remained "in no way certain" that the tribunal would ever be set up. He said the Security Council's backing was only a quarter of the approval process. The idea of the tribunal now had to be given the green light by the Lebanese parliament and possibly also by the president or the prime minister, he said. Mehlis' investigation into the Hariri case pointed the finger at the Lebanese and Syrian secret services. In one report, Mehlis implicated Brig. Gen. Assaf Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief and the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
His successor, Brammertz, has shied away naming anyone but has described it as a very complex operation. Four Lebanese generals — top pro-Syrian security chiefs under President Emile Lahoud including his presidential guard commander — have been under arrest for 14 months, accused of involvement in Hariri's killing. Syria has denied involvement in the murder and condemned the assassination of Gemayel as "a crime aimed at destabilizing" Lebanon.(Naharnet-AFP-AP) Beirut, 22 Nov 06, 18:58
Mourners Pay Tribute to Lebanon Christian Leader
A large crowd gathered to mourn Lebanese Christian leader, Pierre Gemayel, Wednesday as supporters readied themselves for a huge show of force at the dead government minister’s funeral, which takes place on Thursday in Beirut.
by Daniel Blake
Posted: Thursday, November 23, 2006, 7:07 (GMT)Font Scale:A A A
A large crowd gathered to mourn Lebanese Christian leader, Pierre Gemayel, Wednesday as supporters readied themselves for a huge show of force at the dead government minister’s funeral, which takes place on Thursday in Beirut.
Relatives and friends of prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel, mourn on his coffin draped in the flag of his Phalange Party, at his family home in Bikfaya, Lebanon Wednesday, Nov...(AP)The anti-Syrian Gemayel, one of the most powerful Christian leaders in the region, was laid to rest following his assassination. It is feared, however, that if a strong turnout is seen on Thursday the political crisis could deepen between anti-Syrian forces who back the Lebanese government and pro-Syrian groups led by the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, which wants to topple the Western-backed prime minister, Fuad Saniora. Hezbollah had already threatened to hold mass protests against the government just days before the assassination on Tuesday. However, in light of the current developments Hezbollah announced on Wednesday that it would not make any drastic moves in the next few days to allow emotions to calm Some, though, are still fearful that violence may break out in the highly tense atmosphere.
Tony Gemayel is a 35-year-old relative who will participate in mourning ceremonies held by the Maronite Christian family in their ancestral hometown of Bikfaya, in the mountains above Beirut. He said, “This is scary. If things continue this way, who knows where we are heading.”
Pierre Gemayel was killed after two cars blocked his vehicle at an intersection in a Beirut suburb as he left a church. Assassins shot him multiple times through a side window. The incident makes Gemayel the fifth anti-Syrian leader killed in Lebanon in two years.
Following Tuesday’s tragedy, Pierre Gemayel's father Amin, who is a former president, joined the Maronite Church in quickly urging calm, in the hope to avert an explosion of violence in the region amid the deepening political crisis.
Roman Catholic head, Pope Benedict XVI said on Wednesday: “In the face of the dark forces that try to destroy the country, I call on all Lebanese not to be overwhelmed by hatred, but to strengthen national unity, justice and reconciliation.”
Independence Day celebrations across Lebanon were cancelled on Wednesday, and in the Christian hubs in the north and northeast of Beirut, schools and shops were closed. Gemayel's coffin, draped in the flag of his Phalange Party, was driven from Beirut up to the town in Mount Lebanon's pine woods. Supporters were seen jolting the coffin in a traditional expression of extreme anguish as it passed through hundreds of weeping mourners, AP has reported. Women on apartment balconies showered rice on the coffin as it made its way. In the Gemayel family home, nuns and priests were led in prayer by a bishop relative around the closed coffin as relatives and thousands of villagers and supporters walked past and paid condolences to his father. In the Beirut suburb where he was murdered, hundreds of supporters turned out Wednesday night for a candlelight vigil around the bullet-filled vehicle, which was guarded by troops. The head of the Maronite church expressed fears of more killings of Cabinet members aimed at undermining and weakening the government, to prevent it from approving the Hariri tribunal, which the UN Security Council approved hours after Gemayel's slaying.
Grieving in a more divided Lebanon
A slain Christian politician is mourned in his family's village. An uneasy silence pervades the country.
By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer
November 23, 2006
BIKFAYA, LEBANON — The mourners stood for hours Wednesday in a creeping line, crushed together in this tiny village perched high above the Mediterranean Sea. Praying and weeping quietly, they doggedly awaited a chance to say farewell to Pierre Gemayel, the Christian Cabinet minister whose assassination has paralyzed a fragile nation.
The 34-year-old industry minister and heir to a Christian political dynasty was the latest critic of Syria to be killed in the streets of Beirut. He will be buried today, and his political allies have urged Lebanese to turn out en masse.
Outside Gemayel's ancestral home, nuns stood silent, shifting their weight in the thin winter sunlight. Pale-faced teenage girls shuffled along, shoulder to shoulder with aging men. Politicians in expensive suits, flanked by beefy guards, shoved their way through the crowd without apology.
Deepened differences
On the eve of Gemayel's funeral, an uneasy silence suffused the empty streets of the country. There was a sense of suspension, of a perilous political struggle shot in freeze-frame. The yawning crisis and refreshed communal hatreds seemed to pause only long enough to allow the burial of one of Lebanon's youngest politicians.
"This is traditional in Lebanon; it's some kind of respect," said Maroun Zeidan, a 28-year-old lawyer and member of Gemayel's Falangist Party who stood weeping in the courtyard of Gemayel's home. "First we bury the body, and then we look at our differences."
There is a Lebanese saying that translates, loosely, to: "They kill a man, then march in his funeral." If anything, Lebanon's differences have been deepened by Gemayel's death.
Wednesday was Lebanon's Independence Day, a holiday marking the break from French control. But instead of parties and military parades, daybreak illuminated a landscape of shuttered shops and people lurking inside their homes.
Before Gemayel was killed, Hezbollah and its allies had mounted a campaign to seize a greater share of power in the government. The Shiite Muslim ministers and their allies had resigned from the Cabinet. Hezbollah's charismatic leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, told his vast army of followers that the government was illegitimate. He repeatedly threatened to use massive demonstrations to attempt to force the anti-Syria bloc, which includes Christians, Sunni Muslims and Druze, out of power.
The street protests remain a strong threat; both sides fear that they could degenerate into street fights. But now it is the slain Gemayel's anti-Syria allies who will hold a massive demonstration. The funeral march is set for today.
Grief-stricken Amin Gemayel, former president and father of the slain minister, had wanted to bury his son the day after his death, members of his party said. But Saad Hariri, the head of the ruling parliamentary bloc, argued that the younger Gemayel's death belonged to all of Lebanon and that he should be given a patriotic funeral. There were hints here Wednesday that Gemayel's allies might use his funeral to demand the resignation of Syria-backed Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.
Hezbollah and its allies quieted their criticism in the hours after Gemayel was gunned down. But a political aide to Nasrallah appeared to hint Wednesday that the Lebanese government, not Syria's, may have had a role in the minister's death.
"We were about to take to the streets. They were facing a crisis. They needed blood to get some oxygen," Hussein Khalil, a political aide to Nasrallah, told the party's Al Manar television channel. "This country is at the edge of an abyss. Some people are blowing fire in the air."
Threat of unrest Gemayel's assassination was expected to delay Hezbollah's street demonstrations.
But the threat of unrest from other quarters remained. Prominent government officials accused Syria of choreographing the slaying and issued warnings about continuing violence.
Jumblatt blames Syria for Gemayel's murder
Thursday, 23 November, 2006 @ 2:41 AM
Beirut - Anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt on Wednesday blamed Syria for the assassination of Lebanon's Industry Minister and said he expected more such killings aimed at undermining parliament's ruling majority. "I bluntly accuse the Syrian regime," Jumblatt said.
"We have to expect, and this is my impression unfortunately, more assassinations of ministers and parliamentarians," Jumblatt told a news conference. Lebanese Minister Pierre Gemayel, a member of the ruling bloc, was shot dead on Tuesday.
"It seems the Syrian regime will continue with the assassinations. I expect more assassinations but no matter what they do, we are here and we will be victorious," he said. Jumblatt said Syria was trying to derail an international court to try suspects in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
He reiterated his accusation that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had ordered the assassinations of Hariri and other anti-Syrian politicians over the past two years. "Let the ruler of Damascus know that no matter how many he murders, every assassination or attempted assassination is a nail in the coffin of the Syrian regime," he said. "He (Assad) will not be able to shake the will of the Lebanese to live freely and in dignity."Jumblatt urges Berri to convene parliamentary session to approve tribunal Jumblatt called on Lebanon's Speaker Nabih Berri to convene a parliamentary session to approve a UN draft for the formation of the Hariri tribunal. "It will be for the sake of Lebanon, for the sake of Lebanon's unity and stability if Berri decided to make this historic step and hold a parliamentary session," the Druze leader said. Sources: Reuters, Ya Libnan
Lebanon: Latest Crisis Renews Spotlight On Syria’s Role
A man in Baghdad reading newspaper accounts of the events in Lebanon today
(epa) PRAGUE, November 22, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Today is Independence Day in Lebanon, normally a time for celebration.
But all festivities have been cancelled as Lebanon grapples with the fifth killing of an anti-Syrian politician in nearly two years.
Syria denies any role in these murders, and Damascus has strongly condemned Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel’s killing on November 21.
Looking At A Pattern Yet the events are again highlighting the role Syria still appears to play in Lebanon, 18 months after its forces withdrew from the country. With Gemayel's death, the resignations or deaths of two more ministers would bring down Lebanon's government.U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton refused to directly accuse Syria of the latest assassination, but he made it clear on November 21 that Damascus is a key suspect for Washington.“I think we need to find out all of the facts, but you can take a look at the pattern of who gets assassinated in Lebanon," Bolton said. Bolton was speaking as the UN Security Council approved the Lebanese cabinet’s proposals for a special international tribunal to try suspects for the February 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The Security Council action means the plan can now go back to Lebanon for final government approval.
An International Tribunal?
But the tribunal has been a divisive issue. Six pro-Syrian opposition members -- most of them members of the Shi’ite Hizballah party -- resigned last week just before the cabinet voted to approve the tribunal plans. The resignations plunged the government into deep crisis.
“The Lebanese government is currently in a very precarious position," said Mona Yacoubian, an analyst with the Washington-based United States Institute of Peace. "And I think we need to understand what’s happening along the lines of some international events as well -- namely, the UN-proposed international tribunal, which last week the Lebanese government approved, to try those who may have been involved in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.”The 34-year-old Gemayel was among those cabinet members who voted for the tribunal proposal.
Even before Gemayel was shot dead in a Christian district near Beirut, the pro-Syrian Hizballah and its Christian ally Michel Aoun, a former prime minister, were preparing street protests to topple anti-Syrian Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government.
Hizballah Calls For Protests
The pro-Syrian Hizballah accuses the government of being allied with Washington and says it has lost its legitimacy since Shi'ite Muslims are no longer in the cabinet. Siniora warned this week that any antigovernment protests could turn violent. Analyst Yacoubian says there is a danger that Lebanon could again break down along sectarian lines. She says the specter of civil war -- such as the one that destroyed the country in the 1980s -- looms again on the horizon. "A poster in Damascus in July stresses close ties between Syria and Lebanon (epa)There was great hope with the Cedar Revolution [of March 14, 2005] that perhaps the Lebanese would leave some of their sectarian identities behind and identify more as Lebanese," Yacoubian said. "This latest attack, and some of the tensions that we're seeing between Hizballah and its allies -- and the Sunni Druze coalition allied against it -- does raise some concern that civil war [or] deeper sectarian violence may be on the far horizon for Lebanon.”
Anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on November 22 that he expected more assassinations of ministers and members of parliament, actions aimed at undermining the ruling majority. Maronite Christian Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir echoed these fears and urged restraint.
With Gemayel's death, the resignations or deaths of two more ministers would bring down Siniora's government. Gemayel's body today was driven from a hospital near Beirut to his hometown of Bekfaya, northeast of the capital. Hundreds of sympathizers walked behind the coffin, waving white-and-green flags of his Christian Phalange Party.Gemayel's funeral will take place on November 23. The anti-Syrian coalition has urged a large turnout.
Republican congressman to visit Middle East, but scraps Syria from itinerary
The Associated PressPublished: November 23, 2006
LUDINGTON, Michigan: The current Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee is heading to Jordan and Lebanon next week in an effort to better understand issues in the volatile Middle East.
But Rep. Pete Hoekstra said he has dropped a planned trip to Syria from his itinerary following the assassination this week of anti-Syrian Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, who was gunned down in an assassination that many Lebanese blame on Damascus.
"With the assassination, this is a good time to just step back and not push the envelope," Hoekstra told the Ludington Daily News.
President George W. Bush has accused Syria and Lebanon of trying to undermine Lebanon's government, but stopped short of blaming Damascus for Gemayel's death. Syria has condemned the assassination of the Christian politician and denied any role.
Today in Americas
Bush is also traveling to Jordan next week to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for talks on how to speed up the transfer of security responsibilities to the Iraqis. The mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq were seen as a main reason for the Democrats' win during the midterm national elections earlier this month, and U.S. officials are under increasing pressure to hand over more responsibility to the Iraqis as a step toward bringing home American troops. Hoekstra said the much anticipated Iraq Study Group report — a congressionally chartered analysis that is expected to provide an independent assessment of the situation in Iraq and its impact on the region — may provide some new insight into how to move ahead in Iraq.
"It may offer some interesting possibilities as to what needs to be done over there and provide everybody with an opportunity to then re-evaluate their positions," Hoekstra said.
ANALYSIS-Syria expects foes to tar it over Gemayel killing
Thu 23 Nov 2006 11:39:52 GMT
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
DAMASCUS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the assassination of Christian politician Pierre Gemayel, but Damascus denies any hand in Tuesday's attack, which it says damaged its own interests.
Syria now expects its enemies to use the killing to blacken its image and dash its hopes of a thaw in ties with the West.
Many Lebanese politicians say the slaying of another anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon was a Syrian bid to block a U.N.-backed tribunal being set up to try the suspected killers of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Syria, while clearly unhappy with the tribunal and with Lebanon's Western-backed government, argues that Gemayel's death plays into the hands of its Lebanese opponents and hurts its chances of dialogue with Europe and the United States. "Syria is outraged by this terrible act," the Syrian embassy in Washington said in a statement. "In a time when the international community is advocating more engagement with Syria, such an act only stands to undermine these initiatives."
Damascus had been heartened by mounting calls for U.S. President George W. Bush to talk to Syria and Iran, instead of punishing them, and to seek their help in stabilising Iraq. Gemayel's assassins struck just hours after Syria had taken a major symbolic step in restoring diplomatic ties with Iraq, without insisting on a prior timetable for a U.S. troop pullout. British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed that move. "The very thing we have been seeking is to ensure that Syria becomes a help to Iraq ... rather than a hindrance," he said. Blair, who eased Syria's isolation earlier this month by sending a senior envoy for talks with President Bashar al-Assad on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Lebanon, has avoided blaming Syria directly for Gemayel's killing. Bush also stopped just short of accusing Damascus of killing the industry minister, but voiced support for the Lebanese people's "efforts to defend their democracy against attempts by Syria, Iran and allies to foment instability and violence".
CLOUD OF SUSPICION
So Syria finds itself again under the cloud of suspicion that has trailed it since Hariri's assassination last year and the killings of five other foes of its influence in Lebanon. "The impact is bad because it will be used by the Lebanese March 14 (anti-Syrian) bloc to point the finger at Syria," said political analyst Ayman Abdel Nour. "It has already been used to get consensus in the U.N. Security Council for the tribunal.
"And it will be used by hardliners in the U.S. administration to stop any dialogue with Syria," he said.
The U.N. Security Council swiftly endorsed plans for the Hariri court after Gemayel's death, which Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has asked the United Nations to add to the list of political murders it is already investigating.
Lebanon's final approval for the court -- from the cabinet, the pro-Syrian president and parliament -- is still needed.
Siniora's cabinet, badly weakened by the resignations of its Shi'ite Muslim members and Gemayel's killing, is desperate to get the tribunal approved while it can still resist demands from Hezbollah and its allies for a national unity government.
Hezbollah says its campaign, at least temporarily stalled by three days of national mourning for Gemayel, is not to torpedo the court, but to form a broader-based cabinet that would keep Lebanon out of Washington's orbit and deflect pressure for its fighters to disarm after this year's bitter war with Israel. The Syrian government Baath newspaper said Gemayel had been killed to prevent Hezbollah and its allies from launching planned street protests to topple Siniora's government. "The murderer wanted to impede the popular action called by Hezbollah and delay the inevitable downfall of the government," it said, suggesting that agents of Israel or another power could have killed the 34-year-old Gemayel.
Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon in April 2005 after Hariri's death left a security vacuum in a country previously controlled by Syrian troops, intelligence agencies and their local allies. Lebanese leaders say Syrian intelligence still has networks operating in the country.
Before Gemayel's killing, Syria had been in a relatively confident mood, buoyed by Western overtures and by Hezbollah's stout military performance against Israel, which it saw as a defeat for U.S. hardliners seeking to reshape the region. "The Lebanon war was the last hope for the neocons," said Syrian analyst Samir Altaqi, adding that Damascus felt it had emerged stronger, if not safe, from that test of force.
Gemayel's assassination has posed the next challenge. (Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis) © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Siniora Calls on Ministers to Sleep in Parliament
17:17 Nov 23, '06 / 2 Kislev 5767
(IsraelNN.com) Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has requested that his government ministers sleep in parliament, fearing for their lives. He feels if they travel, they will be targeted by assassins, the al-Quds al-Arabi, which is published in London reported.
According to an al-Jazeera report, Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatafat was threatened this week, possibly a target by assassins
Lebanon: The global lie
Written by Roger Akl
Thursday, 23 November 2006
It didn't start with the Lebanese resistance attack on Israeli troops but much time before, when 19 hijackers destroyed the Twin Towers. At that time, all flights were cancelled over the US, but not those that flew 140 Saudis out of the country, among them two dozens Ben Ladens. Craig Unger(1) finds the reason in the business association of the leaders of the two countries.
(cartoon by Jan Darasz) The GIs sent to Iraq thought they were fighting terrorists and liberating the country, but were actually regarded by the Iraqi as an occupying force and provoking a "constructive chaos", that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in an ethnical and religious strife, mixed with an anti-American liberation war. These are numbers, but the reality is all the suffering of human beings, killed, maimed and oppressed, because of decisions taken by people sitting down in their luxurious castles.
Some history,
The Lebanese experience is the antithesis of the principles of sionism that support the Israeli state. Lebanon was built on powersharing among different religious and ethnic communities and thriving, while Israel refused and still refuses the Security Council resolutions on the excuse that diversity of race and religion would destroy its existence. One of these United Nations resolutions is the 194 which gives the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes. This resolution is important for Lebanon, because the presence of the Palestinians in Lebanon is jeopardizing the delicate religious balance among the communities by giving more demographic, political and military clout to the Sunni Moslems.
For these reasons and because Israel has always been jealous of the Lebanese prosperity and covets the Lebanese waters, it has always tried to disrupt the Lebanese unity, cause a civil war and occupy the South of Lebanon when he has the opportunity. But with the control of the occidental medias and the alliance of the west, Israeli agressions against Lebanon were always described as defensive and anti-terrorist, while the Lebanese resistance was always qualified as terror. It is the same for the Palestinians who want to liberate their lands and homes.
Let's then try to distinguish the truth inside the smokescreen of the world propaganda campaign:
1 - When Israel attacked Lebanon, in 1982, the Shiites villagers of the South received the Israelis with flowers because they were oppressed by the Palestinian guerillas and they thought that the Israelis came to liberate them of the PLO fighters. But the Israeli occupation lasted and became unbearable. They started then a guerilla of their own, that was rapidly called terrorist. In the meantime the occidental countries sent troops to support the Phalangist government of President Amin Gemayel and force on Lebanon a unilateral peace with Israel. The Phalangist government was called a "liberal democratic government" while the majority of the population was against it, especially the Shiites and the Sunni Moslems. This resulted in the suicide attacks on the American and French barracks. Today, everybody accuses the Hezbollah of these crimes. But the Hezbollah didn't exist at that time. Furthermore, the attacks, whether suicidal or not. were attacks on soldiers seen as helping a government considered as dictatorial and traitor, wanting to betray the Arab and Lebanese cause by making peace with the enemy. It was then an act of war and not an act of terror and it was performed before the existence of the Hezbollah. Hezbollah and its resistance to Israel came from a savage Israeli occupation and to fight a foe that the Lebanese government was not able or willing to fight.
2 - No Lebanese government or Security Council resolution managed to force Israel to stop the occupation of the Southern Shiites villages and towns, until the Litani river, and to pump its water inside the Israeli territory. When you are occupied and your government is unable to defend you, you have the right and even the duty to fight back and liberate your country. This is what the Hezbollah did. It never attacked civilians but soldiers, unless as a retaliation against the attacks of Israeli planes, tanks and howitzers and their shelling of the Lebanese towns and villages, sometimes with forbidden ammunition.
3 - This continued until 1996, when Israel asked for an agreement sponsored by the Lebanese government, the US, France and ... Syria. The agreement, accepted by the parties, specified clearly that the fighting will continue between the Hezbollah and the Israeli army but the attacks on civilians will be forbidden.
Today, the Lebanese government is still unable to fight an Israeli army helped and furnished in armaments by the only superpower of the world, whereas the troops of the United Nations (Unifil) are unable to stop the continuing Israeli violations of the 1701 Security Council resolution.
So, when the Lebanese resistance attacked the Israeli soldiers on July 12, 2006 and made two prisoners (not two hostages as the western medias love to write), it was according to the 1996 agreement, but the Israeli reprisal on the Lebanese civilians and infrastructure was not. It was even forbidden by the general rules of war. Furthermore, the Lebanese operation was a reprisal for the thousands of the violations of the Lebanese space by the Israelis, the Israeli land mines killing civilians everyday, the assassination attempts on Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the assassination of two Shiites leaders (the Majzoub brothers) in the town of Saida and the Lebanese prisoners still in the Israeli jails since the end of the occupation in the year 2000. We have to add that the United Nations "Blue Line" left the Israeli occupying Lebanese territory until today.
In the meantime, news trickled about an Israeli plan to attack Lebanon prepared since they left the South in 2000. They prepared their war more thouroughly than any former war against the Arab countries and the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about an agreement, in June, between the US and Israel to allow and help the attack on Lebanon. The Americans furnished them all the armament and the ammunition they needed, worth billions of dollars. This attack was to be a rehearsal for an American air attack on Iran. For that the Israeli air attack on Lebanon was so destructive and deadly. They say that the bombs thrown on Lebanon by Israel, to fight a guerilla of 2000 fighters, in the July war, are more numerous and deadly than the ones used against 700.000 Syrian and Egyptians in the 1973 war and the double of those thrown on Iraq in the Gulf War in 1991. The Israeli prepared their war against Lebanon more thourouhly than any war against the Arab states, while the Americans furnished them with all the armament needed (more than 4.8 millon cluster bombs were thrown on Lebanon, as well as phosphorous and other forbidden ammunition). The Israelis killed more than 2000 civilians while they killed not more than 100 fighters, while the Lebanese resistance killed in total 100 Israelis, two thirds of them soldiers. But the medias in the world showed mainly the suffering of the Israeli population.
The Middle East in 2004.
Noam Shomsky (2) writes that, the American governments consider all those who disobey them or resist their allies, as dictators or terrorists, while their acts of terror and those of their allies are considered "defensive democratic and liberation" actions. For example, in the world medias, the Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and the general Michel Aoun are qualified as pro-syrians, while general Aoun is known to have fought the Syrians presence in Lebanon for decades. And President Lahoud has been much less obedient to the Syrians than those now in the govenment that are qualified as antisyrians. I can give names : the Hariris and Siniora have always been the puppets of Abdel Halim Khaddam and Ghazi Kanaan, when these people were in power (until 1994). The electoral law of the year 2000 has been concocted by Ghazi Kanaan because he wanted a Hariri victory against president Emile Lahoud that he considered disobedient. Joumblat and Marwan Hamade took profit of the Syrian backing, to kill and push the christians out of the Chouf and Saida areas, while destroying their homes and occupying their properties. Even docteur Geagea, the head of the Lebanese Forces, rebelled against the constitutionnal and legal State of the christian general Michel Aoun, who wanted to resist Syrian hegemony. When general Aoun was defeated, he thought he could put conditions on the Syrians, he had served, and was jailed, after being condemned for the murder of Toni Frangie and Dany Chamoun, who are Maronites and his former allies, and Prime Minister Rachid Karame (Sunni). These are the people who have formed the "democratic antisyrian governement" the West is supporting and defending.
Let's return to Iraq where the Americans, after a swift victory against Saddam, were bogged down and mainly attacked by Sunni fudamentalists and Saddam Hussein's partisans. The administration had to find a reason for its failure and put the blame on Iran and Syria called "rogue states" supporting terror. Nobody saw the contradiction : The attacks on their soldiers came from Al Qaeda and supporters of Saddam Hussein; they put the blame on the states that were enmies of Al Qaeda and the dictator, while they are in love with the Saudis who are financing Sunni fudamentalism all over the world and many of them are still financing terrorist Sunni groups.(1) This apparent contradiction comes from the difference between the secret interests and the propaganda. The idea was to put pressure on Iran and Syria, by pushing the Syrians out of Lebanon and destroying the Lebanese resistance, so that they be more helpful in Iraq. Their goals met with those of the Israelis who wanted to finish with the Lebanese President and the Hezbollah resistance to implant the Palestinians in Lebanon. They met also with those of President Chirac who wanted, in 2004, to strengthen his billionnaire friend Rafic Hariri,(3) supported first by king Fahd and, after the death of the latter, by king Abdallah of Saudi Arabia. Hariri was weakened by the disgrace in Syria of his sponsors, vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam and general Ghazi Kanaan, then "High Commissionnar" of Lebanon (this is the appellation the Lebanese give to-day to the French ambassador Bernard Emie).
The Security Council Resolution 1559.
Rafic Hariri, after becoming the friend of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Jacques Chirac of France, played a predominant role in preparing the Taef agreement, that gave the power to the Sunni Prime minister of Lebanon and destroyed those of the Maronite President of the Republic, who refused to accept the implantation of the Palestinians in Lebanon. He was preparing himself to take charge of Lebanon, the same way his sovereign, the King of Saudi Arabia, controlled his country.
He was elected in 1992 Prime Minister, by a parliament under the orders of the Syrians, whose occupation of Lebanon was supported at that time by the Saudi and their French and US allies. His mission, given by his sponsors and indirectly by Israel, was to disarm the Hezbollah and implant the Palestinians in Lebanon.(4) For that goal, he could drown Lebanon in debts to exchange the acceptance of the implantation against the forgiveness of the Lebanese debts. In the meantime western companies could take advantage of the money of the reconstruction as well of the commissions for them and the secret operations of the governements implied. He was able to reach the first goal. The debts of the country reached the astronomic number of 41 billion dollars and the fortune of the Hariri family reached, in 2006, 16.7billion dollars, not counting the value of the center of Beirut, legally stolen to its Lebanese proprietors by Solidere, the company he created for that goal. He got all these advantages, but didn't keep his promise. When he was asked by his sponsors, he put the blame on Syria, the Hezbollah and President Lahoud. The sponsors concocted the 1559 resolution to get rid of the three : No prolongation of Lahoud's mandate, departure of the Syrians, disarmament of the Hezb.
But Hariri and his party voted for the prolongation of Lahoud's mandate. He was then assassinated. The world medias, President Chirac, the Americans and the Israelis accused the Lebanese and Syrian governements, created the revolution of the Cedars, on the model of the ones they created in East Europe, pushed the Syrians out of the country and used the same biased Ghazi Kanaan's electoral law to give the power to Saad Hariri, the subject of king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia the fundamentalist king, of the "islamo-fascist theocracy" (Craig Unger).
The first move of the new parliament was to free doctor Geagea from prison. He was condemned as said before for assassinating a A Sunni Prime minister, Dany Chamoun and Toni Frangie, his wife and their little girl (one year old), in internecine christian fighting. The price of his grace was to free also more than three dozens of fundmentalist Sunni terrorists who killed many Lebanese soldiers, some of them after they were kidnapped. This "democratically" elected parliament, according to the western governments and medias, brought about christian representatives representing, instead of the christians, the Sunni Moslems partisans of the wahhabi Saad Hariri and their first decision was to free terrorists. Their second decision was to nominate christian ministers elected by the Moslems or Dhimmis obeying the decisions of Saad Hariri who in turn have to obey the Saudi fudamentalist king, allied to the US which is allied with Israel and furnished it with the armaments that destroyed Lebanon and killed more than 1200 Lebanese civilians. The cluster bombs thrown by Israel in the south have left there more than one million small fragments that kill any person, child, peasant or woman that touch it.
I said our government is now illegal, because it is not anymore constitued by all communities in Lebanon after the resignation of the chiites ministers. It is illegal because it broke the constitution more than once, mainly because it sent an agreement on the international court without referring to the approval of the president of the republic, who is the only person entitled to sign and approve international agreements (article 52 of the constitution).
Moreover, the christian ministers of the Lebanese Forces (FL) have betrayed their community (the Maronites) by accepting to diminish the powers of the Maronite President of the republic. It is not acceptable to let this precedent pass, or else the only powers remaining in the hands of the Maronite community will become "junk" powers destabilyzing the power balance in Lebanon, more than it is now. This will harbinger the end of Lebanon and its message. I then pray that the christians ministers that still are in the government will obey their conscience and resign.
It's a pity that the Maronite church has accepted and even seemed to approve such weakening of the powers of the Maronite presidency. It reminds me of the remark of a prominent Occidental ambassador in Beirut who said: "There is no Maronite church, because if the church did its duty, it would have formed spiritually christian politicians who care much more for the state's interest than for their own pockets.
In a partial conclusion, a government that disobeys the constitution should be pushed out by any means, because it is working against the interests of the country. And it is working to give all the power to a small minority directed by a fundamentalist country, using its oil money and its international allies to force the Lebanese to accept slavery.
They are using the debts they forced us to do to blackmail us saying : you obey and accept being governed by pe0ople obeying a fundmentalist king and accept the implantation of the Palestinians, or you drown under the debts.
We have and will not obey, preferring death with honor to life in slavery.
**Roger Akl -General Secretary of the Institut Tchobanian & Editor in chief of Europe et Orient
Making sense of Lebanon mess
Who are Lebanon's leading politicians? Who harshly swore at Syrian President Assad, before turning into an avid supporter? Who shed tears when his government was in jeopardy? A moment before what could be another civil war, Ynetnews presents Beirut's key figures
Roee Nahmias Published: 11.23.06, 12:43
This is not how Lebanon imagined its 63rd independence day: Between a (Syrian) rock and an (Iranian) hard place, split and ruined on the inside, and threatened by external forces, with more and more European troops in the country's south – and high alert in Israel ahead of the possibility of another war. Following the assassination of another minister, facing unclear legitimacy by the government, and possibly ahead of another civil war, Ynetnews presents the key figures in Israel's northern neighbor.
The anti-Syrian camp
Fouad Siniora: A Sunni Muslim and current Lebanese prime minister. Siniora was born in Sidon in 1943 and was known for his ties with assassinated PM Rafik Hariri, first as his accountant. Similarly to his political patron, was known for his anti-Syrian views, yet his pleasant character and the prestige he accumulated over the years led 126 parliament members to back him for the post of prime minister. Siniora has become the darling of Presidents Bush and Chirac. During the war and after it he criticized Hizbullah , even if implicitly. He is especially remembered for his "speech of tears" during the war when he called on the world to intervene and save Lebanon from a disaster.
Saad Hariri: Sunni Muslim, 36 years old, the majority leader in the Lebanese parliament and chairman of the al-Mustaqbal (The Future) party. After his father, the former PM and business mogul Rafik Hariri, was assassinated, he promptly stepped into his shoes. He went from being a business management student to being thrown right into the political cauldron and assumed control of the giant empire left by his father. Naturally, for many of his supporters he has become Lebanon's new hope, following about 30 years of Syrian domination of the country. During the last war and after it he slammed Hizbullah and claimed the group executes Syrian and Iranian policies in Lebanon, and serves as an agent on their behalf. His political opponents in Lebanon as well as Syria's president slammed him and his people as "collaborators and Zionist agents."
Walid Jumblatt: A Druze, was born in August 1949. Heads the Progressive Socialist Party established by his father, Kamal, who was murdered in March 1977 by agents working on behalf of former Syrian President Hafez Assad. Currently serves as the most prominent Druze leader in the country. After his father's assassination, Jumblatt was invited to the palace in Damascus, where the Syrian president told him: "You so much resemble your father," hinting at Jumblatt's expected fate should he fail to adopt a pro-Syrian line. Despite this, Jumblatt has engaged in harsh anti-Syrian rhetoric.
Samir Geagea: A Maronite Christian, born near Beirut in 1952. Currently serves as leader of the right-pint party "The Lebanese Forces." Geagea, who was the operational chief of the Phalange militia and responsible for the Sabra and Shatlia massacres was sentenced to several life terms over civil war crimes, yet in July of last year, following a parliament decision, he was pardoned. Since his release he has entered Lebanon's political life and adopted a provocative line against Syria and Hizbullah.
Pro-Syria camp
Emile Lahoud: Maronite Christian, born in 1936 and the son of General Jamil Lahoud, who was among the leaders of the Lebanese independence movement. Emile joined the army in 1956 and by the end of the civil war served under the command of General Michel Aoun. Following the ceasefire, Lahoud moved to western Beirut, which was under Syrian control. In light of his close ties with Damscus, he assumed key posts in the Lebanese governmetn's army, and eventually commanded the arm. In October 15, 1998, he was elected as Lebanon's president for a period of six years. Due to Syrian pressure the parliament extended his term in office in 2004 by another three years. This move by the Lebanese parliament that was clearly influenced by Syria was one of the factors that led to UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which called for all foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon. Lahoud is slated to complete his term in about a year, and General Michel Eon is highly interested in succeeding him.
Michel Aoun: Maronite Christian, born in 1935 in southern Beirut. Joined the army in 1956 and was appointed as the Lebanese Army's chief of staff in 1984. In 1988, outgoing president Amin Gemayel appointed him as prime minister until new elections are held. However, then-prime minister Salim al-Hoss, who enjoyed Syria's support, announced that the dismantlement of his government is invalid – leading to two governments working at the same time: Aoun's military government in east Beirut, and al-Hoss' civilian government in the west of the city. On March 14 1989, Aoun declared a "war of liberation" from Syria in order to unite the country and hold free presidential elections. His army fought the Syrian military in Beirut for months – a war that claimed the lives of many civilians and about 1,000 soldiers on both sides.
Investigation
In October 1990, Syrian fighter jets attacked the presidential palace in Baabda. Aoun, who wanted to avoid a high casualty toll, surrendered and fled to the French ambassador's residence. After 10 months he went into exile in France and acted from afar against Syria's hegemony in Lebanon. During his time in exile he was among the harshest critics of Syria's and Hizbullah's presence in Lebanon – his criticisms often included curses uttered at the Syrian regime and its leader. In May of last year, a few days following the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, he returned to his homeland. In the parliamentary elections in May of this year he surprised everyone when his party joined forces with pro-Syrian factions. He explained that after Syria's withdrawal, the split between pro-Syrian and anti-Syria forces lost its meaning. He focused his election campaign on national values such as a war on corruption, national unity vis-à-vis the ethnic split, and the establishment of a modern country.
Nabih Berri: A Shiite Muslim, born in January 1938. Currently serves as parliament speaker and heads the Amal movement. In the 1970s, Berri served as a lawyer on behalf of the movement, established by Imam Musa al-Sadr. After the Imam disappeared under mysterious circumstances while touring Libya in 1978, Berri returned to Lebanon in order to compete for the movement's leadership. In April 1980, he became the general secretary. Since the mid-'70s, Amal maintained close ties with President Assad's regime in Syria, and these ties turned to a close alliance with Damascus under Berri's leadership. Recently, and particularly with regards to the Lebanon war, the parliament speaker attempted to convey a national image and speak on behalf of "all of Lebanon." He was even appointed as Hizbullah's representative for negotiating a prisoner swap, but he abandoned the post following the Qfar Qana incident.
Hassan Nasrallah: A Shiite Muslim, born in 1960 in eastern Beirut to a family hailing from the country's south. Although the family was not considered religious by Lebanese standards, Hassan, the eldest of nine brothers, started reading fundamentalist literature while most of his peers were playing soccer. After completing high school he went on to study at Shiite colleges in Najaf, Iraq, where he met his spiritual father and former Hizbullah Secretary General, Abbas Musawi. Initially, Nasrallah joined the Shiite Amal movement, but under Musawi's leadership he left, along with dozens of others, and joined a new organization established through the initiative of spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah – the group served as an umbrella organization for pro-Iranian militant officers and their soldiers. This group was later named Hizbullah.
Nasrallah continuously extended his control over religious and military matters. In February 1992, Musawi was assassinated by Israel, and Sheikh Nasrallah succeeded him. That year, the organization started expanding its activity into other areas, including social, economic, and political affairs. In 1992, Hizbullah for the first time took part in parliamentary elections and won 12 seats. Ever since then it has gained strength within Lebanon's political system. Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 granted the organization and its leader great prestige; the last war turned him into an admired figure across the Arab world.
According to the Taif Agreement from October 22, 1989, which is based on a 1932 census, Lebanon's leading government posts are divided among the various ethnicities in accordance with a permanent arrangement: The Maronite Christian representative is always the president; the prime minister is a Sunny Muslim; the parliament speaker is a Shiite Muslim. Now, in addition to the fight against Israel, Nasrallah is eyeing a change in Lebanon's political map and is calling for toppling the government and the holding of new elections. In his view, the current representation does not accurately reflect the Shiites' power, and he also opposes the anti-Syria camp, which he views as too western. Many view Nasrallah as the most influential figure both within and outside Lebanon's political system.
Amin Gemayel: Independence intifada underway
(VIDEO) Former Lebanese president and father of slain minister says during mass funeral for his son, ‘death of Prime Minister Hariri is what triggered the current intifada, and today the second intifada was launched; it will not end until there is real and true change’
Roee Nahmias Published: 11.23.06, 16:38
VIDEO - The funeral ceremony and wake for the slain Industry Minster Pierre Gemayel were held Thursday afternoon with tens of thousand of Lebanese paying their last respects. Despite the intention to hold the funeral as an official event, the speakers turned the funeral into a political event with a clear anti-Syrian tone.
Amin Gemayel, the father of the slain minister and former president of Lebanon, addressed the crowd and said at the outset of his speech at the "Martyr's Square" near the St. Georges Church that the mass funeral was a warning for Lebanon to assert its true sovereignty over the land.
"Just like (slain former President Bashir Gemayel) is living among us, all the martyrs of this intifada of independence are living among us. The death of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is what triggered the current intifada, and today the second intifada was launched. It will not end until there is real and true change. The change will come from the top, from the election of a new president for Lebanon. Whoever agrees to that - place your hands with ours."
'Powers of hell will not win'
In his speech, Gemayel spelled out his new vision in order to not allow extremists from taking control of Lebanon: "We demand reform and a new president for Lebanon. It is impossible that Lebanon will compromise without the truth. I promise you that the countdown towards achieving the truth and the establishment of the tribunal has begun. We will not rest until we will bring to justice everyone who has committed a crime against our sons, our loved ones, and our leaders and against Lebanon. Pierre's spirit is still among us and it will strengthen our wishes until we will reach all our goals for which all our heroes have died for."
During the funeral ceremony, the supporters of the Christian faction called out against Syria and blamed it for the assassination and torched the pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud.
Israel's place in the events was also mentioned, as one of the signs read, "We are hostages of Iran, Syria, and Israel." Another sign sent the message that there is a need to implement the decisions of the United Nations: "1559, 1680, 1701 – What don't you understand?!"
Christian Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea told mourners that only the international court could stop more killings. "That is why they (Syria and its allies) want a confrontation over the international trial," he declared. "We are not afraid, and nothing will frighten us or run us down. We will not give up until the crimes in Lebanon are stopped and the criminals are arrested. This can be done only through an international tribunal," said Geagea.
Geagea also referred to the decision of Hizbullah to quit the government last week because of the UN decision to create the international tribunal to investigate the Hariri murder. "They wanted a fight over the tribunal but they didn't have the guts to say it, so they justified it with a fight over political representation, but the masks were unveiled today. This is our government – it is the government of Lebanon, and it takes its power and legitimacy from the blood of our martyrs. We will not accept its replacement with another puppet government. The powers of hell will not win."
'Only solution - national unity government'
The cheers of the crowd grew louder when Geagea aimed the following sentence at the pro-Syrian President of Lebanon: "History will judge President Lahoud and his friends for their crimes against all Lebanese. We promise you today again that we will continue the struggle until the tribunal is established; until the truth and justice will be seen; until there will be one state with one gun."
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt also spoke with enthusiasm, saying acts such as the assassination of Gemayel would not shake Lebanon's aspirations to live as a free nation. "They (Syria) will not suppress our demands for the truth, justice and the international court," he told the crowd, speaking behind a bullet-proof screen. He stressed this was no time for strife. "At this moment, and above the pain and wounds, we are for dialogue," he said.
During his speech Jumblatt added more words aimed at Damascus: "For the third time in less than two years you (the crowd) arrive here from all parts of Lebanon to this square and tell the world that the national unity which was dedicated to the blood of Rafik Hariri and Pierre Gemayel and all the martyrs of independence - is established and completed. The national unity is stronger than terror, the weapons, and their crimes."
Amar al Mussawi, a member of Hizbullah's political wing, responded to the statements in an interview with al-Jazeera and said that "they (the anti-Syrian camp) did everything accept what they had to do. They threw out slogans that have no connection to reality. Of course they are demanding the tribunal like there is any disagreement between the Lebanese, but all Lebanese agreed to it around the discussion table.
“The only way out of this crisis is with a national unity government,” he added. “We do not demand portfolios in the government, but we are interested in the general interest. We think that this government cannot manage the country and the only solution is to create a national unity government."
Robert Fisk: Gemayel's mourners know that in Lebanon nothing is what it seems
Published: 23 November 2006
In the house of mourning, an old Lebanese home of cut stone, they did not show Pierre Gemayel's body. They had sealed the lid - so terribly damaged was his face by the bullets which killed him - as if the nightmares of Lebanon might thus be kept away in the darkness of the grave. But the Maronites and Greek Orthodox, the Druze and - yes - the Muslims who came to pay their condolences to Gemayel's wife, Patricia, and his broken father, Amin, wept copiously beside the flag-draped casket. They understood the horrors that could unfold in the coming days and their dignity was a refusal to accept that possibility.
Down in Beirut, I had been watching the Lebanese detectives - they who had never solved a single one of Lebanon's multitude of political murders - photographing the bullet holes in the pale blue Kia car which Gemayel had been driving, 13 rounds through the driver's window, six of which had broken out through the passenger door after tearing through the Lebanese Minister of Industry's head and that of his bodyguard. But in the family home town of Bikfaya, mountain cold with fir trees and off-season roses and new Phalangist banners of triangular cedars, the black huddle of mourners spoke of legal punishment rather than revenge for Gemayel's murder.
It was a heartening moment. And who would have imagined the day - back in the civil war that now haunts us all again - that the Druze could enter this holiest of holies in safety and in friendship to express their sorrow at the death of a man whose Uncle Bashir was the fiercest and most brutal enemy of the Druze?
Bashir's best friend Massoud Ashkar, a militia officer in those dark and terrible days, spoke movingly of the need for Lebanese unity and for justice. "We know the Syrians killed people during the war," he said to me. "We are waiting to find out who killed Sheikh Pierre. These people wanted to restart a civil war. We must know who these people are."
Ah, but there is perdition in such hopes. With the sadness of those who still expect recovery when all such possibility has been taken away, some of the local Christians gathered in the Beirut suburb of Jdeideh where the three killers had blasted away their MP on Tuesday afternoon. His car, Lebanese registration number 201881, the hood smashed upwards where it had been rammed by the gunmen's Honda CRV at 3.35pm and its rear still embedded in the van of a waterproofing company into which it rolled when Gemayel died at the wheel, was photographed a hundred times by the cops. They were watched silently by the men and women who, less than 24 hours before, had not heard the silenced pistol which killed him, and thought at first that the minister was the victim of a road accident. No one would give their name, of course. You don't do that in Lebanon now.
"I was asleep when I heard some very mild sounds, like gunshots but not loud enough," a white-haired man told me on the balcony of the old family home where he was born. "Then I heard a crash and several real gunshots. I got up, put on my clothes but didn't see any gunmen. A neighbour went over and came back and told me it was Sheikh Pierre and then I saw him carried from his car covered in blood and put in the back of a van."
Scarcely an hour earlier, Pierre Gemayel had been up in Bikfaya, only 200 metres from where his body lay yesterday, honouring the ominous statue of his grandfather - also Pierre - who had founded the Phalangist party which his grandson represented in parliament.
No one mentioned, of course, that this same old granddad Gemayel, a humble football coach, had created the Phalangists as a paramilitary organisation after being inspired - so he told me himself before he died in 1984 - by his visit to the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Hitler's Germany. As usual, such uneasy details had long ago been wiped from the narrative of Lebanese history - and from our journalistic accounts of the grandson's death this week.
Pierre Gemayel Jnr, however, had been an earnest MP as the witness to his death made clear. "You see that house over there with the awnings?" he asked me. "Well an old lady had died there and Sheikh Pierre was coming here to express his condolences to the family." The dead woman's home was scarcely 30 metres from where Gemayel's car had come to rest. He must have been slowing down to turn into the side road. Everyone here knew he was coming to the house on Tuesday morning, so the neighbours said, which meant - although they did not say this, of course - that he had been betrayed. The murderers were waiting for the good MP to pay his condolences, knowing that the man's own family would be receiving condolences themselves a day later. They didn't even wear face masks and coldly shot a shopkeeper who saw them.
The Lebanese have been responding to the international outcry over Gemayel's murder with somewhat less rhetoric than President George Bush, whose promise "to support the Siniora government and its democracy" was greeted with the scorn it deserved. This, after all, was the same George Bush who had watched in silence this summer as the Israelis abused Siniora's democratic government and bombed Lebanon for 34 days, killing more than a thousand of its civilians. And the Lebanese knew what to make of Tony Blair's remark - he who also delayed a ceasefire that would have saved countless lives here - when he said that "we need to do everything we can to protect democracy in Lebanon". It was a long-retired Christian militiaman, a rival of the Gemayel clan, who put it succinctly. "They don't care a damn about us," he said.
That little matter of the narrative - and who writes it - remained a problem yesterday, as the Western powers pointed their fingers at Syria. Yes, all five leading Lebanese men murdered in the past 20 months were anti-Syrian. And it's a bit like saying "the butler did it". Wouldn't a vengeful Syria strike at the independence of Lebanon by killing a minister? Yes. But then, what would be the best way of undermining the new and boastful power of the pro-Syrian Hizbollah, the Shia guerrilla army which has demanded the resignation of Siniora's cabinet? By killing a government minister, knowing that many Lebanese would blame the murder on Syria's Hizbollah allies?
Living in Lebanon, you learn these semantic tricks through a kind of looking glass. Nothing here ever happens by accident. But whatever does happen is never quite like what you first think it to be. So the Lebanese at Bikfaya understood yesterday as they gathered and talked of unity. For if only the Lebanese stopped putting their faith in foreigners - the Americans, the Israelis, the British, the Iranians, the French, the United Nations - and trusted each other instead, they would banish the nightmares of civil war sealed inside Pierre Gemayel's coffin.
Assassination timeline
22 November 2006
PM Fouad Siniora asks UN to help investigate Pierre Gemayel's death.
21 November
Gemayel is shot as his convoy drives through Beirut, raising fears of civil war.
11 November
Five pro-Syrian Shia ministers resign after collapse of talks on giving their camp more say in government.
31 October
Hizbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vows peaceful protests demanding elections unless there is a national unity government.
12 July 14 August
Hizbollah captures two Israeli soldiers. At least 1,200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis are killed in conflict.
12 December 2005
Gebran Tueni, anti-Syrian MP and journalist, is killed.
12 October
Ghazi Kanaan, Syria's interior minister, "commits suicide" as UN investigates.
21 June
George Hawi, anti-Syrian ex-Communist leader, is killed.
19 June
Anti-Syrian alliance led by Hariri's son, Saad, wins poll.
June 2
Samir Kassir, anti-Syrian journalist, is killed.
26 April
Syrian troops leave Lebanon.
14 February
Rafik Hariri, former prime minister, and 22 others are killed by truck bomb.
In the house of mourning, an old Lebanese home of cut stone, they did not show Pierre Gemayel's body. They had sealed the lid - so terribly damaged was his face by the bullets which killed him - as if the nightmares of Lebanon might thus be kept away in the darkness of the grave.
But the Maronites and Greek Orthodox, the Druze and - yes - the Muslims who came to pay their condolences to Gemayel's wife, Patricia, and his broken father, Amin, wept copiously beside the flag-draped casket. They understood the horrors that could unfold in the coming days and their dignity was a refusal to accept that possibility.
Down in Beirut, I had been watching the Lebanese detectives - they who had never solved a single one of Lebanon's multitude of political murders - photographing the bullet holes in the pale blue Kia car which Gemayel had been driving, 13 rounds through the driver's window, six of which had broken out through the passenger door after tearing through the Lebanese Minister of Industry's head and that of his bodyguard. But in the family home town of Bikfaya, mountain cold with fir trees and off-season roses and new Phalangist banners of triangular cedars, the black huddle of mourners spoke of legal punishment rather than revenge for Gemayel's murder.
It was a heartening moment. And who would have imagined the day - back in the civil war that now haunts us all again - that the Druze could enter this holiest of holies in safety and in friendship to express their sorrow at the death of a man whose Uncle Bashir was the fiercest and most brutal enemy of the Druze?
Bashir's best friend Massoud Ashkar, a militia officer in those dark and terrible days, spoke movingly of the need for Lebanese unity and for justice. "We know the Syrians killed people during the war," he said to me. "We are waiting to find out who killed Sheikh Pierre. These people wanted to restart a civil war. We must know who these people are."
Ah, but there is perdition in such hopes. With the sadness of those who still expect recovery when all such possibility has been taken away, some of the local Christians gathered in the Beirut suburb of Jdeideh where the three killers had blasted away their MP on Tuesday afternoon. His car, Lebanese registration number 201881, the hood smashed upwards where it had been rammed by the gunmen's Honda CRV at 3.35pm and its rear still embedded in the van of a waterproofing company into which it rolled when Gemayel died at the wheel, was photographed a hundred times by the cops. They were watched silently by the men and women who, less than 24 hours before, had not heard the silenced pistol which killed him, and thought at first that the minister was the victim of a road accident. No one would give their name, of course. You don't do that in Lebanon now.
"I was asleep when I heard some very mild sounds, like gunshots but not loud enough," a white-haired man told me on the balcony of the old family home where he was born. "Then I heard a crash and several real gunshots. I got up, put on my clothes but didn't see any gunmen. A neighbour went over and came back and told me it was Sheikh Pierre and then I saw him carried from his car covered in blood and put in the back of a van."
Scarcely an hour earlier, Pierre Gemayel had been up in Bikfaya, only 200 metres from where his body lay yesterday, honouring the ominous statue of his grandfather - also Pierre - who had founded the Phalangist party which his grandson represented in parliament.
No one mentioned, of course, that this same old granddad Gemayel, a humble football coach, had created the Phalangists as a paramilitary organisation after being inspired - so he told me himself before he died in 1984 - by his visit to the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Hitler's Germany. As usual, such uneasy details had long ago been wiped from the narrative of Lebanese history - and from our journalistic accounts of the grandson's death this week.
Pierre Gemayel Jnr, however, had been an earnest MP as the witness to his death made clear. "You see that house over there with the awnings?" he asked me. "Well an old lady had died there and Sheikh Pierre was coming here to express his condolences to the family." The dead woman's home was scarcely 30 metres from where Gemayel's car had come to rest. He must have been slowing down to turn into the side road. Everyone here knew he was coming to the house on Tuesday morning, so the neighbours said, which meant - although they did not say this, of course - that he had been betrayed. The murderers were waiting for the good MP to pay his condolences, knowing that the man's own family would be receiving condolences themselves a day later. They didn't even wear face masks and coldly shot a shopkeeper who saw them.
The Lebanese have been responding to the international outcry over Gemayel's murder with somewhat less rhetoric than President George Bush, whose promise "to support the Siniora government and its democracy" was greeted with the scorn it deserved. This, after all, was the same George Bush who had watched in silence this summer as the Israelis abused Siniora's democratic government and bombed Lebanon for 34 days, killing more than a thousand of its civilians. And the Lebanese knew what to make of Tony Blair's remark - he who also delayed a ceasefire that would have saved countless lives here - when he said that "we need to do everything we can to protect democracy in Lebanon". It was a long-retired Christian militiaman, a rival of the Gemayel clan, who put it succinctly. "They don't care a damn about us," he said.
That little matter of the narrative - and who writes it - remained a problem yesterday, as the Western powers pointed their fingers at Syria. Yes, all five leading Lebanese men murdered in the past 20 months were anti-Syrian. And it's a bit like saying "the butler did it". Wouldn't a vengeful Syria strike at the independence of Lebanon by killing a minister? Yes. But then, what would be the best way of undermining the new and boastful power of the pro-Syrian Hizbollah, the Shia guerrilla army which has demanded the resignation of Siniora's cabinet? By killing a government minister, knowing that many Lebanese would blame the murder on Syria's Hizbollah allies?
Living in Lebanon, you learn these semantic tricks through a kind of looking glass. Nothing here ever happens by accident. But whatever does happen is never quite like what you first think it to be. So the Lebanese at Bikfaya understood yesterday as they gathered and talked of unity. For if only the Lebanese stopped putting their faith in foreigners - the Americans, the Israelis, the British, the Iranians, the French, the United Nations - and trusted each other instead, they would banish the nightmares of civil war sealed inside Pierre Gemayel's coffin.
Italy's Prodi urges talks with Syria
23 Nov 2006 08:18:19 GMT
Source: Reuters
PARIS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday it was necessary to talk to Syria to solve the problems in Lebanon.On Tuesday, Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel was shot dead in the sixth killing of an anti-Syrian figure in less than two years. Gemayel's supporters blame Syria for his death, but Syria denies any involvement.
"We need to clearly and openly make Syria face up to its responsibilities. We also need to put pressure on them," Prodi, speaking after the killing, told France's Le Figaro newspaper."Refusing to talk Syria is not a solution. The aim is to guarantee Lebanon's independence. That means Syria's independence as well."His comments come before he meets French President Jacques Chirac on Friday, who has rejected talking to Syria since the assassination of his friend, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, in 2005. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for the United States to open talks with Syria. Asked whether he was at odds with Chirac on Syria, Prodi said: "Not at all....The only difference is that I think that we must put pressure on the Syrians with a direct and concrete dialogue. Between me and Jacques Chirac there is a difference on tactics, not of substance."
But Prodi said dialogue would be harder after the assassination of Gemayel.Beirut crowds gathering
Daily Star Online edition staff
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Beirut 12h55pm - With Beirut crowds gathering; angry slogans against Syria’s Lebanese allies rang out from central Beirut Thursday as tens of thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral of the latest Damascus opponent to be murdered. Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, the sixth critic of Syria to be assassinated in the past two years.
Supporters of the beleaguered pro-Western government had called for the funeral to be turned into a huge show of national defiance and the mourners covered the heart of the capital in red-and-white Lebanese flags.
The angry crowds massed in Martyrs' Square close to the Maronite St George Cathedral voiced their rage at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and President Emile Lahoud and Hezbollah. "Get Bashar's agent out of Baabda," the crowd shouted in reference to the presidential palace.
Lahoud's opponents question his legitimacy after his term of office was extended for three years in 2004 through a controversial Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment. "We want only the army to bear weapons," the mourners chanted, referring to Hezbollah's persistent refusal to lay down its weapons in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions following the devastating summer war with Israel.
Young men stamped on portraits of Lahoud, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the principal backers of Hezbollah.
Gemayel's coffin was being brought down from his home village of Bikfaya in the mountains east of the capital in a cortege that struggled to make progress through the huge crowds.
The coffin had been taken there to lie in state Wednesday as one of Lebanon's leading Christian families received the condolences of well-wishers.
Morning prayers were held in the Gemayels' 19th century residence, before the cortege wound its way out on to the village’s main street to the traditional applause from the crowd. Shots were fired in the air as a mark of respect as the pallbearers made their way slowly through the mass of mourners.
Women threw rice and flower petals at the passing of the coffin, draped in the Lebanese national flag and the banner of Gemayel’s Christian Kataeb party. The coffin was placed in a black hearse for the road journey to the capital for the funeral, which was to be attended by foreign dignitaries including French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Arab League chief Amr Mussa.-With AgenciesAl Qaeda welcomes Democratic victory
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Walid Phares
November 22, 2006
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20061121-083639-1601r.htm
The latest audio by al Qaeda's Iraq commander -- posted 48 hours after the midterm elections -- sends a clear signal to the readers of the jihadi strategic mind: Al Qaeda and its advisers around the world want to provoke an "American Madrid." Portraying the United States as a bleeding bull in disarray, the war room projects its wish to see America's will crippled. The video attempts to do the following:
1. Convince the jihadists that the United States is now defeated in Iraq and beyond. While no reversal of the balance of power has taken place on the ground, the jihadi propaganda machine is linking the shift in domestic politics to a withdrawal from Iraq. It projects the change in Washington as a crumbling of the political process in Baghdad and America's foreign policy. Interestingly, others in the region are also "announcing" the upcoming defeat of America in the war on terror. Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah declared: "The Americans are leaving, and their allies will pay the price."
2. Spread political chaos at home. Jihadists portray the Democratic takeover of Congress and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (and maybe others) as signs of American weakening in the resolve to fight jihadism. The video had a potential to frustrate U.S. citizens if it is not accurately interpreted by experts. Americans may end up believing that the message reflects the situation in the Middle East and that it is a logical outcome of a faulty U.S. policy. If the Bush administration and the new congressional leaders do not respond adequately to the video, some "chaos" of this sort may ensue.
3. The terminology used in the videotape is a powerful indicator that al Qaeda's political network relies on Western-educated minds, familiar with political processes in the United States and serving as advisers to the jihadists. A regular al Qaeda emir does not use the term "lame duck." It is more likely that a U.S.-based cadre, who understands the impact of political jargon on domestic audiences, had suggested the use of this word. Abu Hamza al Muhajir's use of the term batta arjaaa (lame duck) is striking to any native speaker of Arabic. This term does not exist in Arab culture, let alone in jihadi rhetoric. Its use is yet another proof of the Americanization jihad has undergone. Thus, Iraq's al Qaeda is using the term as a weapon -- something most likely requested by the jihadi brains operating on the other side of the Atlantic.
So what do the speechwriters want to achieve with these kinds of tapes? They aim at sapping American public morale during a time when reorganization is taking place in the U.S. government. Reading from the jihadi wishful thinking, the audiotape of al Muhajir and the statements made by other radical Islamists send the following message: Americans are being thanked for removing Mr. Bush's party from the leadership of Congress, which the jihadists attribute to the war on terror rather than U.S. domestic problems. Al Qaeda's audio tells citizens in the United States that they were wise for having responded positively to the previous messages by Osama bin Laden. Al Masri's words aim at convincing the American public to pressure their newly elected legislators to pull U.S. forces hastily from Iraq.
In short, al Qaeda wants an American Madrid: it wishes that a change of power in January would be accompanied by a change of national determination, not just a change of course within Iraq.
In the Salafis chat rooms, the commissaries explained to their audiences, that the Democratic Party victory in Congress means that America is now divided and al Qaeda can push to create more cracks in the system -- as it has successfully done in Spain. The masters of the forum, emulating al Masri's audiotape, said not only that "we got their soldiers on the run in Iraq," but "we got their citizens on the run on their own soil" referring to the November electoral outcome. They promised that with more killings in Iraq, they will break the will of Americans at home; and that the new Congress, seeking to fulfill one of its electoral promises will force the Bush administration to pack up and leave the Middle East.
In Washington, both the administration and the new congressional leaders failed to seriously respond to the al Qaeda message. Grave mistake; for ignoring the speech would help convincing the jihadists that America is divided and crumbling and would embolden them to strike further, not only in Iraq but also inside the United States. The silent treatment works in favor of the Salafi combatants: It only leads them to believe that they are right and that their strategy is working; just as Allah had crushed the Soviets in Afghanistan, he has divided the Americans. It is, therefore, imperative that Washington strikes back in a unified manner at every opportunity that arises. It must tell the dreamers of a terror caliphate that American democracy will not serve as a weapon to defeat freedom worldwide. **Walid Phares is a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the author of "Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America."The World Council of the Cedars Revolution
The WCCR offers the Gemayel Family and the Worldwide Lebanese community our most sincere and heartfelt condolences at this occasion of the assassination of Minister Pierre Gemayel MP, one of Lebanon’s brightest, most loyal and productive political performers.
This brutal assassination at such a time has been mercilessly executed as a blatant attack against the freedom of the people of Lebanon, to deliver a message of attempting to kill off Lebanon’s sacred Independence, from the control and hegemony of terrorist militias and tyrannical regimes who hunger for the destruction of this beautiful land and converting it into a dictatorial state.
How long can loyal Lebanese families continue to supply their nation’s struggle for liberation, with the blood and ultimate sacrifice of the young politicians who dedicate themselves to building a better future for their people? These ruthless assassins believe that they are driving a nail in the coffin of the nation of Lebanon by killing off their successful young ministers and parliamentarians, thus leaving a potential political leadership vacuum for the future. The Prime Minister and his government could ask themselves the question of the importance of an effective UNSC Resolution which would have empowered the UNIFIL to disarm everyone with the exception of the Lebanese Army.
How long can the nation continue to remain calm in the face of continued assassinations and massacres, the intentions of which are the decimations of the custodians of Lebanon ’s sovereignty, independence and democratic freedoms? In the hearts and minds of all freedom loving Lebanese, this loss weighs heavy, yet, wisdom would dictate that patience and calm should be the order of the day.
How long can the United Nations Security Council, who was established to protect smaller democracies from the savages of ruthless dictators, continue to procrastinate fulfilling their responsibilities towards the people of Lebanon ? Surely, the time has come. Surely, the time is NOW to inject Chapter 7 into the UNSCR 1701 mandate and give real bite to the security and protection to the government and the democratic people of Lebanon .
When will the super powers of the world begin to realize that Lebanon is the first step in the domino principle of toppling over democracies in the grandiose plans of fundamentalist dictators who wish to rule the world by fear of the sword? The time has come for the US and Europe to take stock of these policies. The fact of the matter is that there is too much latitude being given to terrorist nations and their leadership, in negotiations, for these countries have no intention of coming to the party except on their own terms; and those terms are, complete domination of the free world.
This is not a time for soft bellies. This is a time for leaders with conviction to take action accordingly and save the world from enormous destruction and devastation; as well as protection of a cherished way of life, democracy and freedom under the rule of law.
White House ramps up diplomacy across Middle East
POSTED: 0208 GMT (1008 HKT), November 22, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush called Lebanon's leader Wednesday to express his dismay at the assassination of a Cabinet minister -- a slaying that heightened anxiety in the Mideast and complicated Bush's meeting in the region next week with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The United States denounced the assassination of Pierre Gemayel, the minister of industry and a strong opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, as an act of terrorism. Bush accused Syria and Iran of trying to undermine the young, democratically elected government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which is being challenged by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah."President Bush reiterated to Prime Minister Siniora the unwavering commitment of the United States to help build Lebanese democracy, and to support Lebanese independence from the encroachments of Iran and Syria," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House.
Syria has denied involvement in the killing. "We're not making any direct accusations, but let me say that the trends and the record seem to be very clear," C. David Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, said in an interview Wednesday with al-Arabiya Television. "The implication that Syria may be involved is, of course, a very heavy one, but the burden of responsibility that Syria bears not to interfere in the situation in Lebanon could not be more important than at this moment." As the situation in Lebanon worsened, the White House announced Bush would go to Jordan next week to talk to al-Maliki about how to speed up the transfer of security responsibilities to the Iraqis. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said the two leaders would hear from a joint commission they set up to identify ways to strengthen Iraqi security forces and to improve the Iraqi government's control over them.
Vice President Dick Cheney is also headed for the region. He is to meet on Saturday in Saudi Arabia with Saudi King Abdullah to discuss developments in the Middle East, then return to Washington with no other stops planned. Bush's visit with al-Maliki, an attempt to reassert U.S. influence in the region, could help the president show that he hasn't lost control of the situation in Iraq to neighboring Syria and Iran -- two countries the United States has accused of meddling in Baghdad's affairs. This week, Iraq and Syria restored diplomatic ties after nearly a quarter century.
Al-Maliki visited the United States in late July, a month after Bush made an unannounced trip to Baghdad. Amman, Jordan, was viewed as a less dangerous location than Baghdad for the upcoming meeting. Plans for the get-together on Wednesday and Thursday follow Iran's invitation to host the Iraqi and Syrian presidents this weekend in Tehran -- an invitation thought to be an attempt by Tehran to upstage expected U.S. moves to enlist Syria and Iran in dealing with the chaos in Iraq. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he would attend. Participation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had not been confirmed, but Talabani's aides, speaking on condition of anonymity because of sensitive negotiations surrounding the meeting, said al-Assad would be there. Damascus denies involvement in the killing of Gemayel, but U.S. officials suspect a Syrian connection. Bush expressed his condolences in phone calls to both the Lebanese prime minister and to former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, the father of the slain Cabinet minister.
The U.S. has accused Syria and Iran of plotting to topple Siniora's fragile government, which is dominated by politicians opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon. The slaying of Gemayel was the fifth murder of an anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon in two years. Meanwhile, an independent panel led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican close to the Bush family, and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, is getting ready to release recommendations on U.S. options in Iraq. The proposals are expected to include openings to Syria and Iran in a bid to internationalize efforts to control the sectarian conflict. Shibley Telhami, a Mideast scholar at the University of Maryland, said the United States and Syria are engaged in a "delicate dance." "It's going to be very complicated because you're likely to have a real crisis in Lebanon intensifying over the next few weeks, and that's going to overshadow, I think, what the president was hoping Syria would do on Iraq," Telhami said.
He said the United States does not want Iranian-Syrian-Iraqi cooperation without U.S. involvement. Jon Alterman, a Mideast expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said he thought there was an outside chance the administration would step up contact with Syria, but that in the end it would decide against it, partly because of U.S. anger about Syria's role in Lebanon. "I think the administration was going to be under some pressure to open some sort of dialogue," Alterman said. "It seems to me that the assassination makes it less likely."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Required Lebanese Victory
Mohamed Ashab Al-Hayat - 23/11/06//
One of the most serious consequences of the Israeli war on Lebanon was that the war transformed the Lebanese arena into a crossroad of all possibilities. And while it appeared that the Lebanese faced the war with a great deal of tenacity and solidarity to foil Israel's plan to use Lebanon as a trump card; they have become divided over the assessment of the short and long-term implications of the war, to the extent that Israel's pain was quickly transferred to Lebanon, which was still licking its wounds.
Since the root causes of the war and the extent to which they were tied to sovereignty triggered a wide controversy that could not have been resolved amid the thundering sound of artillery rounds; the mere notion of returning to the pre-war status and domestic situation in Lebanon entangled with regional and international complexities gave everyone enough reason to fear the dreaded consequences, namely: going back to the policy of assassinations, the return to the shuffling of cards and entanglement of calculations, and giving a bundle of excuses for those seeking internationalization of the crisis.
Therefore, what could not be achieved through war became feasible in its absence. That is, through transforming the conflict from its Israeli-Lebanese version to the domains of internal alienation that awaits the spark that ignites the firewood.
The Israelis, due to internal considerations, were eager to open the book of war to learn the lessons for which the politicians and the military pay, as in any war that fails to achieve its goals.
Raising the issue of the aspects of the military scenarios' failure was only the tip of the iceberg of the debate, which could not be resolved, even by the deployment of international observers. For the true objectives of the war were much greater than the ranting about the freeing of the two Israeli captives and the destruction of missile launch sites that marked the demise of the Israeli security myth.
Therefore, the war continues through other means and in other arenas, upon which all Israelis, regardless of their political or ideological affiliations, converge, as long as it is an issue of a deep-rooted ideology and practice.
For their part, the Lebanese were supposed to collectively head in a direction other than that led to by the developments of the course of events. More likely, their steadfastness was a Lebanese decision that surpassed political disputes. Moreover, instead of capitalizing on the outcome of the war to become a gateway to establishing the principles of coexistence, harmony and strengthening consolidation; their evaluation of the war's outcomes, and their jumping ahead of developments led to deterioration.
Hence, it was no surprise that each side started resorting to whatever trump cards available, since, effectively, the war was still continuing in other ways. Their objective this time, however, is to dismantle the unity, which was like a rock on which the Israeli illusion was shattered to pieces.
No one is debating the principle of seeking the truth about the assassination of late Rafik Hariri and putting his murderers and accomplices to trial. No one can openly announce their opposition to the international tribunal's punishment of those guilty of this crime, since regardless of the time and place, the authority of the judiciary goes in parallel with the authority of the State's sovereignty and the rule of the law.
What makes the international tribunal different from the other kinds of illegitimate tribunals that allow the killing of the innocent and their elimination by assassination is that the latter indicates a lack in the fundamentals of sovereignty.
Assassinations take place in other parts of the world for vindictive and political reasons, but remain legally and morally unacceptable as they carry the threat of becoming some sort of established policy or a means to an end, and a regression to the law of the jungle, which is unacceptable under any pretext.
In Lebanon, however, the policy of assassinations seeks to destroy the very constituents and foundations of coexistence, and is surely the workings of those standing to gain from the turning back of the clock to an era of inter-fighting, catastrophes, sectarian strife, with the aim of permanently burying harmony and unity.
In the same vein, there is a principle that when you are approaching victory on any given issue, there must be another side on its way to defeat. It is ironic that while victory requires a great deal of wisdom and preparedness, willpower, and balance; only a miscalculated adventure is required for failure.
Whether Lebanon - the State, the unity, the legitimacy, and the Constitution - is on its way to eventually overcome its challenges, or other parties that do not want this picture to be completed, loss due to such adventures will not only impact a party, a movement or a group, but will violate the foundations of the State.
Furthermore, the more Lebanon appears to be set on becoming a paragon for coexistence, fraternity and openness, the more stray bullets will vandalize the signboards giving directions to that path.
Moreover, those who fear the international tribunal seek to bypass it using the logic of the law of traditions and killing. Those who do not want the unity of Lebanon to be realized, which surprised everyone in the war that it could be achieved on the bases of peace and dialogue, will risk more assassination attempts, wearing masks of different shapes and spectrums.
The assassination of Pierre Gemayel may have deferred liabilities by those who took to the street in a test of power. But the significance of such a delay shrinks in comparison to the significance of the unjustified killing of the innocent who devoted their lives to protecting the unity and future of Lebanon.
What is more significant and serious is the fact that what Israel failed to achieve is being executed by others. The intertwinement and interplay of national and regional considerations in deciphering the Lebanese crisis has only one meaning: this small country, with its far-reaching civil and cultural extensions, has been able to defeat Israel's arrogance and, accordingly, it should prevail over the arrogance of the war merchants, regardless of their allegiances, for the sake of one real benefit: the Lebanese reality in defying death and holding on to life
ALC statement on the Assassination of Lebanese Minister Pierre Gemayel
November 21, 2006
The American Lebanese Coalition is dismayed and grieved by the vicious act of terrorism that claimed the life of the late member of the Lebanese cabinet and of the Lebanese Parliament, Pierre Gemayel. The horrible crime is the latest in a series of state-sponsored acts of terrorism, which has targeted leaders of Lebanon’s advocates of sovereignty, independence, democracy and freedom.
While we condemn the heinous crime, we are determined to continue our relentless struggle to restore Lebanon’s independence and its role as a model for moderation and for co-existence in the region. Thanks to the resolve of the vast majority of the Lebanese people and to the staunch support of the international community, with leadership from the United States, Lebanon shall overcome the obstructionist, anarchic, destabilizing schemes of the Iranian-Syrian axis and its cronies and lackeys in Lebanon.
We offer our heartfelt condolences to former President Amin Gemayyel, to the Gemayel family and to the Lebanese people and we pledge to continue our unwavering efforts to realize the goals for which the martyr lost his productive, promising and dynamic life.
May his memory be eternal.