LCCC ENGLISH NEWS BULLETIN
October 23/06
Biblical Reading For today
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10,35-45.
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?" They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Free Opinions & Studies
Symposium: Convert or Die. By Jamie Glazov-FrontPageMagazine.com. October 23 06
The Rise and Fall of Michel Aoun-By: Charles Jalkh-American Chronicle 23.10.06The Lebanese Government and UNIFIL. By: Abdullah Iskandar Al-Hayat - 23/10/06
Latest New from the Daily Star for October 23/06
Hizbullah rejects Egyptian minister's accusation as 'not worthy of a response'
Israel admits using deadly incendiary during summer war
French minister tours South, pledges help for recovery
Officials confront Lahoud over judicial appointments
UNIFIL sees imminent Israeli pullout from Ghajar
Premier 'has received' final draft on Hariri tribunal
Speaker returns to Beirut as tensions continue between Hizbullah, March 14
Israel hates Lebanon because of what it stands for: coexistenceLabor minister says war led to huge jump in number of unemployed
Israeli cluster bomb kills 12-year-old boy
Qabbani salutes war efforts of both resistance, CabinetOlmert and Abbas agree to restart negotiations on summit
Latest New from miscellaneous sources for October 23/06Syria Panics as Tribunal for Hariri's Assassins Takes Shape-Naharnet
Israeli Defense Minister Says Overflights to Persist-Naharnet
10-Year Old Boy Killed, his Brother Injured by Israeli Cluster Bomb-Naharnet
Egypt Accuses Hizbullah of Sparking War to Avoid Disarming-Naharnet
The Caliph-Strophic Debate-History News Network
Winter makes demining difficult task in south Lebanon-Monsters and Critics.com
IRAQ-SYRIA: Three million uprooted Iraqis face "bleak future" ...Reuters
Report: Syria relinquishes aspiration to sit on the Galilee-Israel Today
Syrian psychiatrist on her way to Israel-Israel Today
Egypt: Hezbollah 'provoked Lebanon war'Aljazeera.net
Israeli defense minister says flights over Lebanon will continue-International Herald Tribune
Syria Panics as Tribunal for Hariri's Assassins Takes Shape-Naharnet
Change Course in Iraq-Washington Post
Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon-Ha'aretz
Israel may discontinue air force flights over Lebanon -Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Lebanon seeks $500m loan-AME Info
Russian specialists to begin assembling fourth bridge in Lebanon-ITAR-TASS
Report: Israel had unrealistic goals in Lebanon war-Ynetnews
Syria Claims Saniora has Open Invitation to Mend Ties-Naharnet
Speaking to Syria-Los Angeles Times
Israel South Lebanon, what a pretty pass -Guysen Israel News
Lebanon's President Speaks Out, Cleric And Hezbollah Chief Meet-All Headline News
Hezbollah Items Sell Big In Syria-All Headline News
Half a million Iraqis in Syria worry about the future-Monsters and Critics.com
Five Killed, 57 Injured In Syrian Road Accidents-Playfuls.com
Israel to keep up Lebanon flights-BBC News
France Claims Israel Suspended Flights Over Lebanon-Arutz Sheva
Report: Syria relinquishes aspiration to sit on the Galilee
A senior Syrian official who is close to the upper echelons of the Syrian regime told Channel 2 News Arab analyst Ehud Yaari that Syria has agreed to give up sitting on the Galilee in any future peace agreement with Israel. The official was also involved in past negotiations between Israel and Syria.
The official said that President Bashar Assad sees a peace agreement with Israel a preferable option for a better Middle East. In exchange for a peace agreement with Israel, Assad will agree to break his alliance with Iran and Hizballah and even sever relations with them completely. Syria, on their side, are demanding to receive the entire Golan Heights but will relinquish its desire to sit on the Galilee, which means Israel will withdraw to the cliff line and Syria will have no access to the waters of the Galilee. Another change in the Syrian position is that, according to the official, Syria will allow for the evacuation of the city of Katzrin to take a long period of time because they say it’s a major Israeli city. The official did not specify a time. In the past, Israel had suggested to lease the Golan from Syria for a period of 50 years. The proposal was rejected by the Syrians.
Syria Panics as Tribunal for Hariri's Assassins Takes Shape
Naharnet: Syria has accused the United States, France and Lebanon of conspiring to frame it in Rafik Hariri's assassination, indicating increasing panic in Damascus as an international tribunal to look into the crime began to take shape. The Syrian state newspaper Tishrin said "there is a French, American and Lebanese plot aiming at intimidating Syria and framing it in the assassinating of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri," An Nahar daily reported Sunday. Hariri was killed along with 22 others in a massive explosion in downtown Beirut Feb.14, 2005. The assassinated led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country in April 2005 after 29 years of military presence. Tishrin's outburst coincided with the handing over in Beirut to Prime Minister Fouad Saniora of a draft outline for the creation of an international tribunal to try the slain ex-Prime Minister suspected assassins. The official copy is expected to be delivered by mid-week. The Syrian allegations are based on a French book recently published which pointed to a French, American and Lebanese contrive to frame Syria in Hariri's killing, intimidate it and abort the resistance methodology in the region.
The Syrian newspaper added that the French-American plot was concluded. "As a result, France has substituted the 40-year diplomacy of General Charles DeGaul with a new policy to please U.S. President George Bush, the neo-conservatives and Israel to brush aside the truth and take revenge against Syria and the resistance methodology," An Nahar quoted Tishrin as saying. The Cheap conspiracy has been weaved to be the onset of a "grand transformation" of another kind that paves the way for the return of western colonization in the region after they left in the aftermath of the second world war," An Nahar said. The Syrian daily stated that "Syria does not favor conspiracy theory but what has been going on and what is occurring is the biggest conspiracy that the Arabs are being subjected to.""Perhaps this French book confirms that all what has been occurring is larger than a multi-party multi-aim conspiracy."(Photo shows Hariri blast scene) Beirut, 22 Oct 06, 08:32
Israeli Defense Minister Says Overflights to Persist
Naharnet: Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that Israel would continue its controversial flights over Lebanon, saying they were needed to stem alleged arms smuggling to Hizbullah. "The Lebanese government is falling short of carrying out its commitment under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701," that ended the 34-day war between the Jewish state and Hizbullah, the defense ministry quoted Peretz as telling the weekly cabinet meeting.
"Increasing intelligence indicates a growing effort to pass weapons into Lebanon," he said. "As long as these attempts continue, the legitimacy of our flights over Lebanon increases," Peretz said. "As long as (U.N.) Resolution 1701 is not carried out, we have no intention of stopping the flights over Lebanon." Israel has continued to carry out flights over Lebanese territory despite a U.N.-brokered ceasefire on August 14.
The flights have been increasingly criticized by the international community, with France -- which currently heads the U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon -- warning last Friday against the violations. "These violations are extremely dangerous because they may be felt as hostile by forces of the coalition that could be brought to retaliate in case of self-defense and it would be a very serious incident," French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told reporters at United Nations headquarters. U.N. Resolution 1701 called for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the south of the country, and the deployment of a beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force.
Peretz said Sunday that the purpose of U.N. troops, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), was to act against Hizbullah and not the Jewish state. "UNIFIL is meant to act against Hizbullah and not against Israel," he said. "Israel's security is the most important objective."
Israel launched its war on Hizbullah on July 12, after the group seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in cross-border raid. The fighting ended with a U.N.-brokered truce August 14. The war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.(AFP photo shows Israeli soldiers sitting on their tank in the southern town of Marwahin) Beirut, 22 Oct 06, 15:25
Egypt Accuses Hizbullah of Sparking War to Avoid Disarming
Egypt accused Hizbullah of sparking the war with Israel in a bid to foil plans by the Lebanese government to implement an accord providing for the disarmament of the group. Israel launched a military offensive on Lebanon sparked by Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid that killed eight others. The fighting ended with a U.N.-brokered truce August 14. The month long war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers. In an interview to Egyptian public television late Saturday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit alleged Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah may have sought conflict to justify his group's continued existence. "There had been an agreement, through roundtable discussions in Lebanon to implement the 1989 Taef Accord which calls for the disarming of the militias in the country," the state news agency MENA quoted Abul Gheit as saying. Hizbullah's disarmament was one of several thorny issues conferred at the national dialogue launched March 2 among the top Lebanese rival leaders from across the political spectrum.
Hizbullah rejected U.N. Security Council demands to disarm and calls from within Lebanon to merge their fighters with the regular army.
"Perhaps through the operation Nasrallah wanted to find a way out of the situation," Abul Gheit said. "The operation launched by Nasrallah was not very calculated and it exposed Lebanon and the Lebanese people and society to great losses, even if some feel pride or victory," he said.
"Any military operation must have a political goal. This operation did not achieve anything," he said. "What was the political goal of (Hizbullah's) actions? The Shabaa farms are still under Israeli occupation," the foreign minister added. The Shabaa Farms area lies at the convergence of the Lebanese-Syrian-Israeli borders. Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and it is now claimed by Lebanon with Damascus's consent.
Israeli troops have retained control of the area since their withdrawal from south Lebanon in May 2000 after two decades of occupation and has remained the flashpoint for cross-border fighting since then.(AFP-Naharnet)(AFP photo shows Lebanese children waving Hizbullah flags as they attend a concert of Hizbullah's music group Al-Wilaya to mark "Al-Quds International Day" in Beirut) Beirut, 22 Oct 06, 13:57
Syrian psychiatrist on her way to Israel
Dr. Wafa Sultan, the Syrian-American psychiatrist who was made famous by speaking out against Islam in a television debate earlier this year, met with the Israeli Consul General to Los Angeles Ehud Danuch. During the meeting Sultan agreed to visit Israel and the two began discussing specific dates for the visit. Sultan left Syria in 1989 and arrived in the US with her husband and her three daughters. In Syria, Sultan says, the citizens of the country are brainwashed on the subject of the Jewish and Arab worlds. Sultan is convinced that the conflict between the west and Islam is a religious conflict, not a political one. “The problem is built within Islam and within the Koran itself. Solve the religious problems, and the political problems will be solved by themselves,” she said. Sultan explains that for 1,400 years, Islam has been “charging forward” without anyone doubting it. “Nobody has ever dared to challenge Islam, and because of that, two generations will have to pass in order for the message to seep in. The next generation is already saturated with hate that our generation has passed on to it.” The first crack in the wall, says Sultan, was the famous caricature of the prophet Mohammad published in the Danish newspaper earlier this year. The solution, she says, must come from international pressure exerted on the leaders of the Arab-Muslim world to change. The problem is that things are going in the opposite direction. When Sultan left Syria, there were very few private schools teaching men religious studies. Today there are more than 5,000 of them who teach the Koran to the boys of the next generation. Despite that, Sultan emphasizes that she is pessimistic as to the seriousness of the western world. ”The Arab-Muslim world must be helped by the western world through the internet, television, radio, and any other possible way, she says.” “Nobody can get out of prison by himself, Sultan concluded referring to the millions of Muslims living under oppressive regimes. “The world needs to help those who are locked away inside the Arab-Muslim world under regimes such as in Iran and Syria,” she said.
IRAQ-SYRIA: Three million uprooted Iraqis face "bleak future", Background
Iraq in turmoil
More DAMASCUS, 22 October (IRIN) - More than three million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes to other areas of Iraq and to neighbouring countries are facing what the United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) describes as a "very bleak future" after the agency's budget for offices across the region was halved for the coming year. Andrew Harper, coordinator for the Iraq unit at UNHCR in Geneva, told IRIN that funds for the agency's Iraq programme have been drastically reduced for 2007 because of donors scaling back their contributions.
As Iraq makes up a significant proportion of UNHCR's work in the Middle East, Lolles said this cut in funds for Iraq roughly halves a region-wide budget that is already "totally insufficient to provide tangible results". "Iraq has seen the largest and most recent displacement of any UNHCR project in the world, yet even as more Iraqis are displaced and as their needs increase, the funds to help them are decreasing," said Harper. "This growing humanitarian crisis has simply gone under the radar screen of most donors."
Harper added that this reduction of funds had led to the suspension of a number of priority UNHCR projects. These include work to identify and aid the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees, including single mothers, the sick and the elderly. UNHCR estimates that more than 1.5 million Iraqis are internally displaced in Iraq, including some 800,000 who fled their homes prior to 2003 and 750,000 who have fled since. A further 1.6 million Iraqis are refugees in neighbouring countries, the majority in Syria and Jordan.Donations to UNHCR's Iraq programme from the United States, European Union nations, Japan and Australia have been in free fall since the start of the US-led occupation of Iraq, despite the ever-increasing numbers of refugees fleeing the deadly violence there. From a high of US $150 million in 2003, the UNHCR budget for its Iraq programme fell to just $29 million in 2006. One quarter of that budget is allocated to meeting the needs of Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.
Syria hosts the largest Iraqi refugee community in the region. Before the fall of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the number of Iraqis living in Syria was estimated to be 100,000. Local NGOs estimate the current Iraqi community in Syria to be 800,000.
A report released in May by UNHCR, the UN's children's agency (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme concluded that an some 450,000 Iraqis in Syria "are facing aggravated difficulties" related to their "ambiguous legal status and unsustainable income". The population of Syria is nearly 19 million.
On 20 October, Ron Redmond, UNHCR chief spokesman, said some 40,000 Iraqis are now arriving in Syria each month.
Among Iraqi refugees living in the capital, Damascus, there is a sense of desperation that a vital lifeline looks set to be cut.
"We do not have jobs because there are thousands of Iraqis in Syria and without this help we are going to have to beg for money in the streets," said Haj Jamal, a 62-year-old Iraqi refugee living in Damascus.
"I urge in the name of all Iraqi refugees in Syria that the United Nations looks after this situation and remembers that without this support, thousands of newly poor people will be walking the streets of Syria next year," he added. Laurens Jolles, UNHCR acting representative in Damascus, told IRIN that his office had requested a 2006 budget of $1.3 million but received only $700,000. This means its budget for 2006 amounted to less than one dollar a year to spend on each Iraqi refugee in Syria, without taking into account the refugee agency's operating costs and its expenditure on non-Iraqi refugees.
The majority of Iraqi refugees in Syria live in the suburbs of Damascus, in deteriorating socio-economic conditions. They have access to public schools and health care but have to travel out of the country every six months to renew their visas and cannot hold work permits, resulting in high unemployment.
"When Iraqis first came here they brought resources and many were not in need of assistance. Two years on, that situation has changed and many refugees are no longer able to look after themselves," said Jolles. "The situation in Iraq is getting worse and there is no prospect of return. Without providing sufficient resources to help the host governments contain the refugee population there will be a secondary displacement of refugees to Europe. The time to do something is now."UNHCR is now calling on donor countries to extend their funding of the Iraq programme to a budget of around $25m for 2007.
"Common interest" emerging in the Middle East
By Richard North -24 August 2006
The foundations for a "new Middle East" may emerge from the ashes of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, according to senior US analyst Martin Indyk .Presenting a talk at the Conservatorium co-sponsored by the University of Sydney and the Lowy Institute, Mr Indyk said there was the possibility of a "tacit alliance" developing between Israel and the Sunni Arab leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinians and Lebanon.
"A common interest has emerged from the conflict," he said. "We are beginning to see scared leaders."
Sunni fears had been raised by the potential growth of a Shiite axis, dedicated to waging war with Israel, that included Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Hezbollah in Lebanon. "Many Sunni leaders are concerned and now seem to be emerging with an opposing view which argues that peace with Israel is the way forward for the Arab world," he said. Mr Indyk, an economics graduate from the University of Sydney, is a former adviser to the Clinton administration on the Middle East, a high-ranking official in the US Department of State, and twice served as US ambassador to Israel. He is currently director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, as well as a member of the Lowy Institute's board.
He said he based his hopes for a new Middle East on unusual and unexpected announcements from the Arab states - such as the Lebanese prime minister hinting at his willingness to return to the Israel-Lebanon armistice agreement of 1948, and the Lebanese defence minister's announcement that anyone found firing a rocket into Israel would be deemed a traitor. Mr Indyk said the new approach was vastly different from President Clinton's peace through negotiation strategy or President Bush's peace through democratisation campaign. But he added: " US credibility as an agent for change has plummeted after Iraq." After 30 years' experience in the Middle East he said he was wary of trying to predict anything accurately.
But he concluded: "We must try to strengthen those forces who believe in something different for this region because that's the only way we are going to get out of this morass."
The Lebanese Government and UNIFIL
Abdullah Iskandar Al-Hayat - 22/10/06//
As we approach the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan, which represented something of a deliberate internal truce from some and an opportunity to ponder for others in Lebanon nears its end, talk is resurfacing about the possibilities of an escalation after a period of calm, and the language of confrontation displacing the dialogue environment.
As with the situation on the southern front, which has not made the transformation from the cessation of hostilities to a permanent ceasefire, active efforts by Speaker Nabih Berry have not been fruitful beyond the toning down of the confrontational rhetoric without establishing ground rules to manage, find and resolve differences.
There also seems to be a direct relation between the domestic situation in Lebanon and the directions it is to take, which shall be decided in the coming months, and the situation in the South, which swings between peace and the return of war.
Accordingly, the days following the Eid (Lesser Bairam) holiday are expected to witness a major offensive against the Fouad Siniora government by Hezbollah and the Aoun bloc and its allies.
While the offensive is expected to take the shape of demands for a national unity government, Siniora and the majority supporting him in the March 14 Forces are both expected to realize that the target of the offensive is the clauses of the government's program, which domestically call for backing the investigation into Hariri's assassination and the formation of an international tribunal to try those implicated in the crime.
Another target is the clauses that guarantee the government's backing of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, including the revised UNIFIL mandate, toward ceasefire and peacemaking in the South.
Information spreading across Beirut points to an attempt to reach a formula for a comprehensive deal, entailing a consensus on the republic's next president in exchange for a new government, in which Hezbollah and its allies are expected to secure a third of the seats as the opposition.
The draw back of this formula is that it is a shortcut to destroy the current government's program, since the main function of this opposition third would be to impede on the main clauses of the government's program.
Therefore, all eyes are moving southward, particularly toward the fact that Israel is continuing to violate Resolution 1701, which allows Hezbollah to announce that it reserves the right to respond to these violations, even as it meticulously avoids any violations from its own side.
This is where French discussions of the UNIFIL's rules of engagement take on increased significance, since, on the one hand, the discussions are aimed at Israel, the source of repeated violations, and on the other, the source of these discussions is Maj. Gen. Pellegrini, the UNIFIL commander and an officer in the army of a country determined to conclude the international tribunal investigation into Hariri's case.
Calls for the establishment of new rules of engagement to be implemented to respond to threats, whether from the Israeli or the Hezbollah side, means that the international consensus and the broad international contribution in the UNIFIL - which brought in troops from all of Europe, with the exception of Britain - is a reflection of a desire to protect the situation in southern Lebanon from the possibility of a recreation of the July War.
However, this desire would not be achievable without the continued political backing by the Lebanese government.
Within this context, the Lebanese government's stability is not subject to the game of threats and to domestic pressures, but rather to the need to guarantee the continuation of the Lebanese government's backing for the UNIFIL's revised mandate. Therefore, demands for a government change are not only viewed as demands to broaden the participation in domestic affairs, but also as attempts to blow up the Lebanese official agreement to the UNIFIL's mandate, and a withdrawal of the backing of these troops, currently described by Hezbollah and its allies as a representation of the subjection of Lebanon's sovereignty to an international occupation.
Resistance: Only unity Cabinet can end crisis in Beirut
By Nada Bakri -Daily Star staff
Saturday, October 21, 2006
BEIRUT: Hizbullah's deputy leader said Friday that delaying the formation of a national unity government to replace Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Cabinet will only make Lebanon's internal crisis worse. During a ceremony commemorating international Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day held at UNESCO Palace in the capital, Naim Qassem said a unity government is the best way to increasing political tension.
"A national unity government is the only solution for Lebanon, and stalling its formation will prolong the crisis," Qassem told a large audience attending the ceremony. "This government will reflect an accurate representation of the Lebanese people and not an illusionary one like the current Cabinet," he added. Hizbullah's second in command said that Siniora's government has failed to implement the Taif Accord and is "violating the Lebanese Constitution, which calls for the formation of a unity Cabinet."
"I have a solution for all those who fear they will lose their positions and are desperately trying to fly east, west, north and south looking for international support to protect it ... They should just admit they are weak," he said. Addressing the parliamentary majority, Qassem said: "It is a sin to drag Lebanon behind you ... Lebanon is for all the Lebanese."
Siniora has faced pressure since the war with Israel ended on Aug. 14 to reshuffle the Cabinet to include Hizbullah's allies in the government.
Hizbullah has claimed victory in the war, which cost the lives of more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, but tensions with Siniora's government have intensified in its aftermath. The war, which broke out after Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12, increased disputes between politicians who want to avoid further military entanglements with Israel and demand that Hizbullah lay down its weapons.
Fears are also rising that sectarian divides are deepening in Lebanon, especially between Shiites, who overwhelmingly support Hizbullah, and Sunnis who helped lead the campaign for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon after last year's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Siniora, a Sunni and close aide of the late Hariri, vowed to remain in office for as long as his Cabinet enjoys the confidence of Parliament.
Qassem said that the US and Israel are trying to achieve through politics what they failed to gain during the 34-day bombardment that devastated the country, causing more than $3.6 billion in material damage.
"We have to resist the US-Israeli attempts to turn their military defeat into political gains," he said. "Those who think that the war ended with our victory should know that the challenge now is to protect this victory ... and that is why we are calling for a national unity government," he added.
An initiative started by Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, Al-Quds Day is held annually on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan and calls for Jerusalem to be returned to the Palestinians. Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam after the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.
Qassem explain that Khomeini's initiative had four dimensions: religious, political, unity and military. The religious dimension stems from the fact that it falls during the last 10 days of Ramadan, when Muslims seek and observe the Night of Power or Leylat al-Qadr. The unity dimension, he said, comes from the holding of the event on Friday, when Muslims stand side by side during Friday prayers. The political dimension, he added, is designed to attribute special importance to Jerusalem and to highlight its "glory and significance." The military dimension, he said, is because this is "a day to carry our weapons, fight and liberate with power."Among the speakers were former Premier Salim Hoss who leads the Third Force party; Osama Hamdan, Hamas representative in Lebanon; and Fathi Yakan, head of the Islamic Front.
The day was also marked by demonstrations in Nabatieh and Baalbek organized by Hizbullah and others in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria. Similar demonstrations were held in Tehran, the Gaza Strip, and Iraq. Protesters held banners saying "Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Palestine! Resistance is our slogan! No to denying the right of return!" and "We will go in our millions to Jerusalem as martyrs."
They also carried posters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad and Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Effigies of US President George W. Bush and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon were burned during the demonstration. - With agencies, additional reporting by Mohammad Zaatari