Who the half-men?
Posted on 8/22/2006
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

IRAN and Syria claim that Hezbollah has won the war and disarming the movement is out of question and not an issue which can be negotiated. Tehran and Damascus are acting as if Hezbollah’s victory and its men, who put up a courageous fight, are theirs. The truth is neither Israel nor Hezbollah has won anything. The real victory is for death and destruction. Lebanon has been forced to suffer huge losses because of Hezbollah, which became egoistic and arrogant due to its perceived control over the legitimate authority of Lebanon. This made Hezbollah believe it had the right to take any decision on behalf of the Lebanese on sensitive issues related to war and peace.

Some Lebanese are temporarily suppressing their agony and anger to compromise with Hezbollah, which is distributing a paltry sum as compensation for their painful losses. Surprisingly Hezbollah is distributing this compensation, which it received from Iran, in dollars, the currency of the “Great Satan,” the United States. The least Hezbollah could have done is to give the compensation in Lebanese currency, which would have boosted the morale of the victims. This also would have stabilized and increased the demand for the Lebanese currency besides making it easy for banks to track the source and transactions of these amounts.

Until now no one has cared to explain why Iran chose to use dollar, the currency of its greatest enemy.
Meanwhile, the scene in Syria is no less chaotic and confusing. The Syrian regime, which has been isolated by the Arab world and the international community, has lost its integrity and is being avoided by Arabs as an incompatible organ, which cannot match their unified stand.

Arabs are unable to hide their disappointment with the silly behavior and insults they have been hearing from the Syrian regime for a long time. The Foreign Minister of Syria Waleed Al-Moalem has tried to put a spin on Syrian President Dr Bashar Al-Assad’s recent reference to “half men” saying “Al-Assad didn’t mean any offense to any Arab leader when he said they are half men. Maybe he meant persons inside or outside Syria.”

For the Syrian regime, which has adopted killing as its major policy, lying is the core of diplomacy. This was clear when Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said “Syria has promised to use its power to disarm Hezbollah” only to be rebuffed by the Syrian regime which wasted no time in saying “we didn’t make any such promise to anybody.”

Both Damascus and Tehran are sinking deeper into isolation as they imagine Hezbollah has achieved victory. Both the regimes think Lebanon hasn’t been destroyed or lost any of its innocent people. It appears the war was ended only after the whole world realized the real targets were Tehran and Damascus, and not Hezbollah. This became evident only when the international community paid close attention to the happenings in Lebanon.

e-mail: ahmedjarallah@hotmail.com