Hezbollah is defying the whole world
By: Elias Bejjani

July 26/2010

Hezbollah is the number one Jihadist and terrorist group worldwide, much more treacherous, better organized, structured and armed than Al Qaida, and on top, Iran is totally behind it. Hezbollah that fully controls the Lebanese government and has erected a ministate in Lebanon, is not just a dire threat to Lebanon and its peaceful people, but in fact is a real threat to all the Arab and Western countries, and to the essence and core of global order, freedom, peace and democracy.

There is no doubt that the hesitant, blurred, lukewarm and indecisive Western policies in the Middle East are working very well to the advantage of the rogue regimes and terrorist groups, while increasingly shaking, destabilizing and weakening the pro-democratic, pro-western and moderate countries. The West in general and the USA in particular are directly or indirectly, intentionally or naively, playing the role of a guardian angel or the savior for both the Baathist regime in Syria and the mullahs’ Islamic republic in Iran.

Meanwhile, they are cajoling and appeasing Hamas and Hezbollah while these two terrorist and fundamentalist groups are mercilessly and aggressively devouring Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. One wonders why the Bush administration did not topple the Baathist Syrian regime as it did with its Iraqi twin, and one questions why Ahmadinejad's Iran is not yet contained and its nuclear program destroyed when the whole world is definitely sure that the mullahs will use the atomic bomb once they lay their criminal hands on it.

At the same time it so confusing why Israel never finishes any of its wars and whenever it fights for the extremists to take over. In the year 2000 Israel unilaterally withdrew from south Lebanon abandoning its Lebanese allies and giving Hezbollah the full control over the entire Lebanese region adjacent to its northern borders; and in 2006 Israel engaged Hezbollah in a devastating war that she did not finish, leaving this Iranian terrorist group to allege a divine victory and giving its leadership the free hand to spread its hegemony all over Lebanon. The same unexplainable scenario unfolded in the Gaza Strip in 2008 when Hamas was allowed to take over in another unfinished that made Hamas even stronger. It’s tragic that the USA, EU, UN and mass media are blind to the real situation in the Middle East and constantly pressure Israel to stand down instead of finally defeating these treacherous terrorist proxies of Iran.

Mr. Farid Ghadry, a prominent Syrian opposition figure wrote this week in the ynetnews saying: "The region is ours to shape and it is ours to protect. As an American and a Syrian, it pains me to see all the good Israel has to offer the region go to waste with its democratic values, its scientific knowhow, and its influence on a new generation of Syrians more attuned to learning than following. But it threatens my very own existence when I see extremists represented by Hamas or Hezbollah, Syria or Iran expand their ideology to protect their narrow interests all of which keep us Arabs and Farsi people living under a candle light with swelled pupils gazing at hopelessness".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3923929,00.html

Hezbollah that was given all the leverages to fully control Lebanon after the Syrian military occupation ended 2005, is now spreading its terrorism towards the UN and all the Free World. In 10 days Hezbollah's General Secretary Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered three lengthy, fiery, detrimental, defiant, belligerent and very dangerous speeches, (July 15, 22 and 25/10) while promising a fourth  one on August 03/10.

Since the devastating war that Nasrallah instigated with Israel in year 2006 he has been living in hiding in an underground bunker alleging that Israel is after him and plotting his assassination. In fact Nasrallah has never made three media appearances in such a short time span. Meanwhile, his speeches were aired through a video link and a huge screen from his hidden bunker. He appeared very angry, sarcastic, tense, threatening, and extremely hostile while his mere focus was on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), alleging that it is a bogus and biased Israeli tool, with its verdicts preset and its main mandate to target his resistance group.

It is worth mentioning that the mandate of this tribunal is to prosecute persons responsible for the attack of 14 February 2005 resulting in the death of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and in the death or injury of other persons. The government of Lebanon requested the United Nations on 13 December 2005 to establish this international tribunal to try all those behind the attack. The tribunal was established in pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1664 (2006), and 1757 (2007) and implemented on 10 June 2007.

Nasrallah in his three media appearances made a great effort to plainly intimidate and terrorize the Lebanese people and their government, the international community, the moderate Arab countries and the UN. His bold message was if any member of Hezbollah is indicted by the STL, the consequences would definitely be catastrophic. “We have to bear in mind that as of this moment Lebanon has been pushed into a very sensitive and complicated stage from the gates of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL)", asserting that his group, "the resistance has the right to defend itself regardless of those who philosophize and claim that he who defends himself confesses his crime”.

According to Nasrallah, "the Israelis are standing by helpless before the resistance's strength and readiness and they are waiting for the STL to create an uproar in Lebanon so that they may live in a tense atmosphere that would lift the pressure off them". "The Israelis know that any internal tension is a service for them regardless of any responsibility and nowadays they’re betting on another Israeli scheme called the international tribunal to incite tensions in Lebanon."

Without any kind of substantial proof Nasrallah boldly accused the STL to be biased, its verdicts preset and tailored to target his group: "an indictment had been written, before the investigation and before Hezbollah members were interrogated as witnesses”. It was written but its issuance was delayed for political reasons. Judge Daniel Belmar’s deliberations with UNSC members and French officials had to do with the political timing, not the context. Before leaving to Washington, PM Saad Hariri visited me and told me that in month, an indictment will be issued and it will implicate undisciplined members of Hezbollah, not the whole party.

Nasrallah lashed out at all the Lebanese politicians who protested and harshly criticized his fiery, scandalous July 15 speech in which he tagged all the Lebanese who opposed his party's hegemony, ministate, full subservience to Iran and Syria, terrorism and infringements as tools of foreign powers and assumed that they don’t want Hezbollah to speak out before the issuance of the indictment. He stated:
"We firmly reject this as we firmly reject accusing any Hezbollah member. From the first minutes after PM Rafiq Hariri was assassinated, the media were ready to implicate Syria and the four Lebanese generals in the crime. The media are also ready today for any indictment. We believe that there is a major plot to target the resistance, Lebanon, and the whole region. I cannot be sure that an indictment would be issued in September or October because the date could be postponed for political reasons, however an indictment will be issued eventually in accordance with the plot that has been prepared for the region. Nasrallah reminded his audience that the target was the resistance which constitutes the main obstacle for any settlement that would establish a US and Israeli hegemony against the Palestinians".

Arrogantly he called on the March 14 leadership (Cedars Revolution) to review their positions, learn from their mistakes and be open with their supporters because the results of their stances and their policies have affected Lebanon and the region. He alleged that, "They took the country to the most difficult stage in its history in the framework of a big scheme for the region. They were the prosecutor and the punishers. They dragged the whole country based on your accusation".

Nasrallah in an arrogant tone said that Hezbollah was not afraid of anything, even the indictment. "Let them issue it now and let us finish already. Those who conspire against the resistance and Lebanon and have so far failed and ought to be concerned because more schemes will be foiled. We know the nature of the responsibility that we’re shouldering and we urge those who have so far miscalculated their moves to make the right calculations this time".

Nasrallah in a clearly intimidating rhetoric viciously implied that Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Saudi Arabia should stop and abolish the STL and that they are capable of doing so: "they can tell those who are playing the game of the nations that Lebanon cannot afford such games". "I believe that they (Hariri and S.Arabia) have the stature that enables them to say just that (i.e. to stop the STL). However, I am not asking them to do anything. It is up to them to take the decision they see fit".

Nasrallah openly defied the authority of the STL: “We have never said that we respect the tribunal’s decisions and we have never said that we do not respect them. We have doubted the tribunal from day one; this is why we requested that the issue of the tribunal be discussed by the Cabinet. Everybody knows how the previous administration passed the Tribunal bill; Hezbollah and the Amal Movement minister were given only three days and not one week to study the bill. Despite this, we backed the principle of establishing the court. Unless the court’s resolutions were based on solid and true evidence, I cannot accept its decisions, and it does not seem to me that the court is founding its decisions on solid evidence".

Nasrallah wants the STL to accuse Israel or otherwise it is considered to be prejudiced and politicized: "I would refuse the STL’s conclusions because the international investigation has skipped one hypothesis: the Israeli hypothesis. Israel had the motive, the capabilities, the control and the interest to kill Hariri, but it is forbidden to work on this hypothesis. As long as it does not take this hypothesis into consideration, the court will be prejudiced”.

Nasrallah alleged that his party has never and will never wage war, although he had instigated the 2006 war with Israel, invaded west Beirut and Mount Lebanon in 2008, conquered downtown Beirut by force for months in 2006; killed, kidnapped, hijacked, erected a ministate and hijacked  and still hijacking the whole country.  In a very sarcastic tone he said: "in 2006 we captured two Israeli soldiers; never in history has the capture of two soldiers led to war. We are a resistance movement working on liberating the rest of our occupied land our own way and we will defend our country like we have always done”.

The credibility of the Free World, Arab countries and the UN are all on the hook. They must either stand firmly against Hezbollah's criminal and terrorist maneuvers of intimidation and go on with the STL without any compromises, setbacks and cajoling, or succumb and kiss good bye to freedom and democracy all over the world.
 

*Elias Bejjani
*Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
*Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
*Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
*Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/