Hezbollah's new camouflaging tactics!!
By Elias Bejjani
June 14/2005

The Lebanese people are not so naïve as to believe Hezbollah General Secretary Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s cleverly camouflaged recent effort to adopt, the 10452 sq km slogan that was raised by Lebanon's late slain president-elect Sheik Bashir Gemayel's in the early seventies. Nasrallah has tied the slogan to "Sheba Farms" and the seven villages.

It is worth mentioning that few months ago during the pro Syrian "Riad El Solh Square" demonstration, Nasrallah confiscated the Lebanese flag and boldly refused from behind its barricade the withdrawal of the Syrian occupational forces from Lebanon in accordance with the UN Resolution 1559, while threatening and menacing all those, Lebanese and non Lebanese calling for its implementation.

With Hezbollah’s confiscation of the Lebanese flag and its leader's adoption of Sheik Bashir’s slogan after “booby-trapping” it with the seven villages, his (electoral) steamroller in partnership with Mr. Nabih Berri, Head of the other Shiites armed "Amal Movement" crushed the will of the people of South Lebanon and carried over to the parliament twenty three MP'S in a fake election against the will of many of the southern multi-ethnic and multi-cultural communities.

To continue the charade, here is Nasrallah and top Hezbollah clergy decreeing (Fatwa - Taklief Sharhi) to their Shiites religious followers in Mount Lebanon, and Bekaa districts to vote only for candidates allied with their party. They took the same religious approach in South Lebanon's elections. Isn’t proclaiming a religious decree in electoral matters a precedent in Lebanon and an act that contradicts with the principal of coexistence, Charter of Human Rights and confiscates the freedom and will of others?

The Lebanese people will not fall for this venomous tactical move and in the traps that are being set up for them in order to taint their slogans and principals. First by confiscation and suppression and then by making them meaningless. If genuinely Lebanese and loyal to Lebanon, Nasrallah and others who carried the Lebanese flag during the pro Syrian "Riad El Solh Square" demonstration in support of the Syrian occupation and against the UN Resolution 1559, should not have any other slogan for their parties and Hezbollah should not have distributed coffins to his followers at a previous massive hostile demonstration in the Beirut suburb against the USA liberation of Iraq, where the Lebanese flag was nowhere to be found.

Sheik Nasrallah, who adopted Sheik Bashir’s slogan, is the same Nasrallah who previously told the whole Lebanese nation: “In case Syria was forced to withdraw its army from Lebanon, then we the Hezbollah Party will be its army”. If actually genuine in his new stances, Sheik Narallah is expected first to believe in Lebanon as an entity, in its national identity, internationally recognized borders, history and roots, and most importantly honor the first article of its constitution, the one addressing common living and coexistence. Hezbollah’s main declared objective to erect an Islamic state in Lebanon, a replicate of the Iranian one, totally contradicts everything that is Lebanese and unveils its camouflaging tactics.

In the eyes of the UN and international law, the "seven villages" have not been a Lebanese territory since year 1918. Narallah's tying of these villages to Sheik Bashir’s slogan, is a trap intended to void the slogan from its substance since these villages are not part of the Lebanese internationally recognized borders, fall in Israel and their area sizes are not calculated in Lebanon's area, the 10452 sq Km, although they are historically Lebanese, like the Turkish Iskandaron region that was historically a Syrian region.

It should be pointed out that Nasrallah's remarks about the "seven villages" came two days after a statement by a high ranking Hezbollah official in which he declared that the party will not disarm even if Israel withdrew from the "Sheba Farms", a statement that mirrors Nasrallah’s speech before the elections in the Southern region last week where he stated that any hand trying to disarm Hezbollah is an Israeli one and it should be severed.

The notion of "a nation protecting the resistance" raised by Nasrallah with his adoption of Bashir’s slogan is a fantasy and a way to perpetuate a historically unprecedented situation for Lebanon and the Lebanese imposed by Hezbollah.
The logic behind not disarming Hezbollah because Israel occupies the "Sheba Farms" is erroneous. Characterizing Hezbollah’s arms as a “Lebanese consensus” is contrary to reality and the heresy of not sending the Lebanese army to the South in order not to guard Israel’s border, in addition to pretending that the resistance (Hezbollah's arms) imposes a balance of fear with Israel are furthest from the truth.

Everyone in Lebanon should realize that building a free, sovereign and independent state cannot be achieved with the presence of armed Lebanese and non-Lebanese Militias cutting from the country their own cantons. Everyone in Lebanon should realize that the resurrection of Lebanon from occupation, tutelage, fanaticism, terrorism and chaos requires before any thing else the disarming all militias, including Hezbollah, the Palestinians and others.

The electoral bizarre and opportunistic recent stances that were launched from the Christian Beirut suburb of "Ain El Rummaneh", by some Christian leaders who do not represent the people of the Mount Lebanon region, calling for the protection of Hezbollah's arms, have no credibility at all and contradicts the wishes of the majority of the Lebanese people and infringes on the Lebanese constitutions as on the UN Resolution 1559.

Lebanese leaders who wish to honestly protect the so called "resistance", should protect the Lebanese state resistance, and only the Lebanese state, and support its official armed forces. All stances in support of Hezbollah's arms on the account of the state's legitimacy, are unconstitutional, negate the principal of coexistence and common living, destroy Lebanon's national identity, and infringe on the freedom and dignity of the Lebanese multi-cultural and multi-ethnic communities.

Whoever is honestly trying to protect Hezbollah and the respectable Shiites community that is forced to embraces it is not the double-faced person who says one thing in the open and does the opposite behind the scenes like many Lebanese opportunist politicians seeking Hezbollah’s electoral votes here and there. Whoever is honest in protecting Hezbollah's members' fate, future and safety is the one who advises the leadership of this armed Shiites militia to join the Lebanese democratic political life and to willingly disarm and give up its non-Lebanese aspirations.

UN resolution 1559 was passed in order for it to be implemented, and in the same way that Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after refusing to voluntarily leave, the remaining clauses of 1559 will be enforced, and in particular those related to the disarmament of Hezbollah and all other armed militias. The positions of those opportunist Lebanese parties, leaders and clergy pretending to protect Hezbollah’s arms will be the same as the ones taken by Syria’s puppet allies who turned against her as soon as it lost its hegemony over the country.

The Free Patriotic Movement leader, General Michel Aoun, Who was victorious last Sunday in the third Lebanese parliamentary election round in Mount Lebanon and Bekaa regions is one of very few politicians who are approaching Hezbollah's disarmament in a very honest and straightforward openness. Aoun who recently returned to Lebanon after fifteen years in exile was the only Lebanese courageous politician who sent a envoy to Damascus advising its leadership to withdraw from Lebanon with dignity and to prepare for such a withdrawal with its Lebanese counterpart, all the while advising them of the ultimate effectiveness of  UN Resolution1559, but he was not taken seriously. Currently, General Aoun, the most popular Lebanese leader is using the same transparency with Hezbollah’s leadership. Is Hezbollah going to take what happened to Syria as an example or it is going to make the same mistake? We hope from the bottom of our heart that reason will prevail for the sake of Lebanon and the Lebanese.

The patriotic stubborn, peace loving Lebanese people, both in Lebanon and Diaspora, believers in the 10452 sq Km (Lebanon's area) doctrine are civilized, consciousness, wise, open minded, tolerant and forgiving. They are steadfast in their nationalistic positions, proud of Lebanon's distinctive identity, of its national flag and the Holy Cedar tree that adorns it. They are committed to the Human Rights Charter which is full of their painful as well as proud moments.

Elias Bejjani
*Human Rights activist, journalist & political commentator.
*Spokesman for the Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation (CLHRF)
*Media Chairman for the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council (LCCC)
E.Mail phoenicia@hotmail.com