Stalemate and No Chance For Progress

Well, the Arab Summit is over, and of course there has been no change for Lebanon. Probably Lebanon was the only country to have two opposing dispatched teams to the extent not even the Palestinians were in such contradiction (Fatah-Hamas duality).

The Arab Summit itself is nothing but forums to read their opinions, while allies and foes in the Arab Region checked with each other in the “private rooms”. All Arab Leaders would simply hope and wish for a change. I am not talking about intention, I am talking about the speeches delivered. Probably the most repeated words were “we hope” or “we wish”. Of course, words on an empty paper are nothing.

As the Daily Star staff said, the term nation state in Lebanon has been replaced with the term Government. Lebanon as a whole entity does not exist, rather it is the elites of the 14th of March. They tried to take a neutral stand by insisting that resistance movements are not terrorist, but that part it is ironic. The Gulf nations looked the other way as US weaponry was flowing towards Israel via their land, specially those juicy laser guided bunker missiles, which Rice considered them as helping the Lebanese, since the Israelis would become accurate… we all remember how “accurate they were by butchering over 1200 civilians and over 3000 severely wounded.

Egypt and Jordan refuted to kick out the Israeli ambassadors from their nations, and to cover up for mass anger, they decided to donate money to the Lebanese, in amidst of a corruption crisis which struck the High Relief Commission: their stocks were empty because they never expected a war with Israel to ignite, somebody tell them that Lebanon is considered on high tectonic/earthquake region. The Qatari authority most supported Lebanon during the July War, only to invite the Israelis to participate in their Democracy Conference (which Levni apologized because there was the legitimate elected government then Hamas). Saudi Arabia and Egypt suppressed demonstrations in solidarity for Lebanon, and now they say viva Lebanese Government, rather Lebanon.

Syria does not escape the accusations as well. Assad has toyed for a long time with Lebanon, and still never recovered from the fact that he and his machinery (probably exactly the opposite, the current Baathi machinery and Assad) lost their iron grip over Lebanon. If Assad accuses the rest of the Arab Leaders as “traitors” and “half-men”, he should not forget to include himself in that category. Ever since his father, along with Kissinger, the Israelis, and the Christian Lebanese Leaders cooked the entrance of Syria to Lebanon for the sole purpose of “disarming the PLO” and “Ending the War”, Assad Sr. simply balanced the parties the way he wanted to keep the war going in Lebanon, and attain a practical deal to form a hegemony over Lebanon. His breakthrough of course was 1989, whereby the US sold Lebanon to Syria in return for Damascus supports the US in their Desert Rose operation.

Lebanon was forced to sign a separate deal as well: the Brotherhood Treaty (hopefully when I have time I will write a post about it). Part of this treaty included a mutual defense agreement between Syria and Lebanon, which stresses when one nation is under attack, the other upon request comes and assists the other. When the July War broke, Assad Jr. never bothered to lift a finger for Lebanon’s sake, rather the Lebanese refugees were ripped off on Syrian borders, and prices tripled on them. Moreover, Assad argued that Lebanon never asked for his help, while the government (then with Hezbollah) also didn’t ask for his help for not having the Syrian soldiers officially entering Lebanon. In any case, Assad never wanted a confrontation with Israel, and the proof is that every time an Israeli missile was hit near the borders, Assad jumped high and low that it was on Lebanese borders, and they “never dared” to hit Syrian borders. With the war over, suddenly Assad, took credit that he won the war over Lebanese souls while certain pro-8th of March in Syria thanked him for his “heroics”.

Of course, the Brotherhood Treaty can be argued that it does not hold. This is not true. Walid Junblatt never requested to have two separate embassies between Damascus and Beirut, because he himself signed on the Brotherhood Treaty which stated that no embassies are needed between both countries. Assad asked for Walid Junblatt and Marwan Hmaidy to be present for trial in Damascus for imposing national security threats, which ironically again Junblatt is one of those who signed the treaty. Junblatt’s diplomatic immunity saved him. Yet, Lebanon according to the treaty can request Syrian journalists to be present in Lebanese soils, but never did.

“According to Daily Star: “The final statement conveyed the "strict refusal" of Arab leaders of any formula aiming at having Palestinian refugees settled in Lebanon, "because this will lead to drastic repercussions on both the Lebanese and the Palestinians." The Irony is: it was the same nations that empowered the Palestinians to compensate for their humiliating defeat back in 1967. Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Egypt, and others financed the newly risen PLO in Beirut, while blocked PLO operations from their grounds. All Arab nations forced Lebanon to agree towards the Cairo agreement, and Syria became an in-land route for weaponry, and worse, the Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA: Palestinian resistance groups/militias created by Syria such as the Sa’iqa) entered Lebanon, and eventually Assad Sr. decided to bomb them when they entered as a “deterrent force” which of course had the “sole purpose of ending the Lebanese civil war”, but by the time the Syrians entered, the Lebanese National Movement (the Left) has already dominated 82% of Lebanon, with the assistance of the PLO, spearheaded by the Gemayels and Chamouns’ arch-enemy: Kamal Junblatt. The funniest part was al-Assad Sr. then kept preaching about the Palestinian Cause as he bombed in 1976, with Israeli blessings (according to Shai Feldman’s Israeli Motives in Lebanon), the PLO. This does not make the PLO innocent of course, and they are disastrous as they were the first who proposed the idea, in the early seventies, to give up the whole of Palestine, and settle for the West Bank. The Arab Leaders should have considered the bloodshed of the Lebanese Civil War, because they had a direct hand in igniting it. At least the Arabs recognized the Palestinians’ right of return, and in case any stupid Zionist want to argue about that, allow me to remind them that they demanded the right of return of “Jewish Diaspora” which started over 23 centuries ago, so spare me the “we are victims” attitude.

The person to lose most was of course, our clown president Emil Lahoud (some of the comrades tend to replace he D with the S in his name). His speeches were falling on deaf ears as he for the past years had nothing to do but increase corruption. Two days ago, al-Diyyar’s editor in chief expressed disappointment in him and how his era will always be remembered as the era of corruption (and afterwards he attacks the Syrian 2nd bureau and hails Assad Jr., go figure that out). Seniora came out with the recognition of the Arab states, while Lahoud is not aware that once his presidency is over, he will be facing all sorts of lawsuits from 14th of March elites (he is expected to live outside Lebanon, but where to? France will not welcome him, to Cuba?). Yet, despite Seniora’s victory over Lahoud, nothing changed in Lebanon, all results were known, and nothing changed inside the Lebanese arena. Seniora had all the private meetings with the Saudis, Qataris (Hamad Bin Khalifa himself), and even with the Russians (Sultanove).

The saddest part of the story, that the Saudis themselves admit that currently there is no solution for Lebanon.

Yes, keep clapping for 14th of March or the Opposition, till they bury you down to starve to death or with a bullet in your head. We wonder how much secret meetings are taking place between the Syrians and the Israelis in Washington, and we wonder how much money all the leaders are making off our back.

It is funny though, the Archbishop Mar Nasrallah Sfair just blew up lately another chance to allow Lebanon to progress by refuting the Relative / Percentage Electoral Law (what is his business anyways, he is supposed to pray and conduct religious masses). What is funnier, last week Northern Ireland just did a historic breakthrough whereby the bourgeoisie leaders of the Catholics and the Protestants signed a deal. Interesting...

The funniest of all is the arrival of General Secretary Ban (new clown in the block) said two contradictory statements: that Siniora had "displayed impressive leadership under difficult circumstances, and I urge you to support his democratically elected government," which triggered a grimace from President Emile Lahoud, according to media reports. The second, a UN statement issued on wednesday saying: ""Much will depend on the outcome of the Arab League summit and on whether any of the current diplomatic initiatives will be successful in brokering a political agreement between the government and the opposition [in Lebanon]," it said." (source from here) Wow, we should be relaxed for such statements.

MFL