:25: MP Ali Hassan Khalil (AMAL Movement footsoldier): preaches how AMAL defended for Beirut (excluding he forgot how they opened three fronts at the same time with everyone), and blames Prime Minister for everything. He seems to misunderstood that what he did with this offensive does not include all citizens, while his movement's men didnt terrorize the region. His speech is that Seniora's Government staying all this time without the Opposition Ministers was the real revolution (not attacking the whole of West Beirut, and NOT TO FORGET IF THIS GOVERNMENT IS NOT LEGITIMATE, WHY HE WAS NEGOTIATING WITH THEM AS THE GOVERNMENT SINCE DECEMBER 2006). He is using the Resistance logo as God Given to do what he wants. He thinks that giving the situation to the army is a trick. He attacks the Government that the two decisions from the government have been taken. He thinks the problem is one sided from the Government. He accuses Seniora not answering the problems of Elections and National Unity Government. He attacks Seniora that the Government wants the Electoral Law of 2000. I dont get it their offensive is not a revolution? THE OPPOSITION WILL CONTINUE WITH THEIR DEMONSTRATION BUT THE MILITANTS WILL BE GONE TO THE ARMY. He didnt answer that parts of the civil disobedience part.
6:00: Reuters & LBCI: 12- 14 deaths after a huge clash in Halba (Akkar) between the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Future Movement after the latter saught revenge on what happened in Beirut from 10:00 - 5:00. Sadly, those killed are neighbors belonging to two different camps. It started when the Future Movement decided to stage a demonstration, and a clash took place between them, and escalated to gunfire after Future Movement tried to enter.
5:57: The Opposition accepted to withdraw their Militants from the Streets and give it to the Lebanese Army, but they will remain in a civil disobediance mode (without explaining if the streets remain blocked or not). We dont know what they mean by that? Down Town Tents (or Camping?), The Airport Highway?, the Cut Roads? ...
5:48: Minister of Communication (and member of the PSP) officially announced that the government officially agrees on the Statement and added that everyone is losing under this situation. He applauded the Army's timing to announce its Statement after directly of Seniora's speech.
5:42: Junblatt's Progressive Socialist Party (that is not so Socialist) welcomed the Statement by the Lebanese Army
5:31: LBCI, Minister (and Future member)Fatfat argues that the government adopts the Statement, however, LBCI reported that rumours seems to think that the Opposition might reject this Statement. Fatfat repeated what Prime Minister Seniora said, that the government didn't yet take an initiative. The decision is based on Iran's embassador choice and Hezbollah.
5:24: The Army Leadership Sent a Memo to the Government requesting from them to backout from Monday's decisions ... we will find out soon, now it is up to the Opposition.
(MFL Analysis: Seems now head of the Army became the perfect President candidate ever since the Opposition reclaimed him as them, and the government seems attached to their decisions.)
5:21: Harriri, most damaged of the the chaos and his movement disarmed mostly in Beirut, welcomed in less than 5 minutes the Statement of the Army. , theoratically since MP Harriri accepted, now the Government should follow.
5:15 :Since neither the Government nor the Opposition succeeded in stepping down, amidst riots breaking in Tripoli, a massacre in a funeral (six shot by a lunatatic), and the death of 7 Hezbbolah members & 2 PSP, the army leadership took the initiative as delegated by the Prime Minister's speech:
1) General Shokair will remain in his position at the Airport till further investigation
2) The Army will handle the Communication Network of "the resistance", in a way the general public and Hezbollah's securities are not harmed
3) All militants are requested to bring back the situation as it was, leave the streets, and open all roads. Failure to comply, all security and army units have the authority to arrest them as these units bring back the security of the nation state.
This way neither the Opposition nor the Government's political powers were threatened. Today's death toll alone over 11 with over 20 wounded. At least the army is seeking to end the immediate militia canton crisis peaceful. I think that initiative should have taken place much earlier instead of transforming the crisis with a long run concrete hatred between the Sunnis and the Shiites, and of course before the death of all innocent civilians as well as to prove to us that the militias can come and control the capital anytime they want.This is a short run solution but better than nothing, if it ends the reign of the militias throughout Lebanon. This brings a facesave for both coalitions' leaders (hopefully for now). MP
The People have suffered while their leaders were unharmed…
MFL
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18 comments:
So, does this mean that things have calmed down at least temporarily? oh, I hope so. That way I can take you up on being my personal guide :)
At Six , MP Khalil will speak from 3ain el Teeni, (well Berri's parrot) , so we will know if this crisis gets desolved... my friends and comrades are preparing the alcohol to get drunk if it will be the case
As usual, imminent catastrophe has been averted without any of the real issues being even remotely resolved.
I guess it is no wonder when you have idiots like this in the mix!
Should not the left stand with Hizbullah. Going back Amal and Junblatt's Progressive Socialist Party have a history of changing sides. Whereas Hizbullah has always stood firm.
Why the left should support any of the reactionary forces? Because they oppose US Imperialism? It is not enough for the Left to support that....
AMAL been standing firm on their views since 1985 , Hezbollah who changed across with time...
MFL
It seems to me, the spark wasn't there. Most people in Lebanon, are like MFL, with no stake in getting into a gunfight for either side. It's a proxy war to the masses. It's not Russia 1917 there.
Mick Hall: The real left is at this blog.
I hope this is over.
Hello comrade. I'm a member of LIT-CI (www.litci.org) I'm interested on your articles. Do you know us? I would like to exchange link with you
Regards
renegade eye
It seems to me the US and Israel are the only ones in Lebanon wishing to fight a proxy war, what I understand is the Government threatened Hizbullah's communication centre, which was used to such good effect in the recent war with the IDF.
If this is true, they had little choice but to stamp their feet, especially in todays world in which low intensity war is fought with a mixture of high tech and boots on the ground.
I have long given up on an all knowing left, I prefer to support all those who are engaged in struggle against Capital, or are attempting to build a better life for the masses.
Comradely regards to you and the comrade in Lebanon
My tip is that all the sides are taking a deep breath, gathering their forces, and preparing for the coming war.
I think in situations like this we need to support resistance to American neo-liberalism, and that resistance is currently being done by Hezballah. Joumblatt and Hariri are members of the Lebanese ruling class whose primary interest is the stabilising of lebanon so they can resume trade, and I think we need to opppose this 1000%.
At the same time, I don't think I would be on the streets alongside Hezballah if I was in Lebanon... The left is basically non-existent, and I think the first task for any
Trotskyist is to start trying to build a decent sized revolutionary organisation.
All else is secondary because nothing else can lead to lasting peace and equitable development.
All power to you rafiq
Having said what I just said, the leaders of Hezb and co. are no better than Joumblatt and Hariri.
Fuck them all.
I hope you guys and women focus on trying to build an organisation and avoid being killed in the crossfire. Realistically, that's all you can do with your current 'forces'.
Hezbollah in the end is a religious party, and not a progressive party, I dont support them. Personally I prefer to build a workers' movement rather than do just that. Lenin did a similar thing in 1915...
More to the point , review hezbollah's history during the civil war, it was no different than the others.
If you oppose US Imperialism, it doesnt mean you side with the other side. They are not the Zapatistas...
"Hezbollah in the end is a religious party"
Wrong. The religion is just the ideology that provides a prism through which wide-spread anti-imperialist feelings can be reflected. In the past it was arab nationalism (Nasser et al.), Secular 'Socialism' (Hussein et al.) and so on.
I think you need to see Hezballah's religion as a surface phenomenon... The deeper reality is that they are a group of oppressed peoples fighting for their freedom against US backed neo-liberal scumbags. (I think Lenin would agree... he supported violent/terrorist separatists in many provinces of Russia)
So whenever Hezballah does something, remember the disgusting privatisations of the Future Millionaires, the low wages, the neo-liberal reforms. These acts will kill far more lebanese in the long run, and destroy workers' movements. This is the broader political context.
We could look at the actions of the Bolsheviks in the revolutionary period and pick out examples of violence I'm sure!
Hizbollocks are a sectarian and religious party. Their whole fight is based on pure isolationist Shia supremacism that has surpassed any form of justified attempts of social progress. They, like many fanatics in the middle east and 'muslim' world, have used the Palestinian cause as demagogique justification for the crimes they have commited and continue to commit. I'm not going to pretend to be above the current situation here as many people on this blog seem to portray themselves as being. If you are Lebanese then you ARE the situation. The person who said that Hizbollocks should be supported because they are fighting against US imperialism is wrong. Hizbollah is the Iranian imperialist expansion. Here it is. As much as you may hate the Zionist establishment, when Israeli politicians fear Iran on their border, they are correct in seeing Iran on their border. I'm not going to pretend to be neutral. Hizbollocks telecoms network should be burnt to the ground, just as all the counter- revolutionary royalists that are killing for the ancien regime should be crushed.
I've said this too many times now. This talk of a workers revolution is all childish dreams at this stage. Very few people think in this way in Lebanon, and it is for this reason that it is not going to happen. MFL already knows my alternative views. I won't repeat them here again. All i will say to MFL here is a reply to his/her incorrect accusation that i blindly attack Hizbo and blindly support 14th March. No, I never do anything blindly. I have come to this position out of logical reasoning, and out of REALISM, unlike your romanticized intellectual masterbation.
Just for the record, the SSNP are, and have always been a NAZI party. They should be called the SNSP.
Let us overwhelm the fanatics and the knaves, destroy the insipid declamations, the miserable sophistries, the lying history, the absurdities without number. Do not let those who have sense be subjected to those who have none.
voltaire
Oh dear you seem to have gone in for a bit of supremacistism in your comment, and lost just a tad of perspective. Of course it is for the Lebanese people to decide their nations future, but those who support Hezbullah make up a large segment of them and deserve respect.
What your post amounted to was a pro US/israel rant, were the Iranians to be sitting on Israels border, which they are not, the Israeli people should not be surprised. For their government has a giant mushroom cloud perched above the Republic of Iran. As I wrote above, do try and get things into perspective.
omar
You are right in that many support Hezbullah because they are at the forefront of opposition to US imperialism, or what ever liberals like to call it these days. However even if they were simply a religious party it would not matter as far as being anti imperialist, as religious party's are able to oppose imperialism. [history is littered with them]
The best example of Lenin supporting a nationalist, non socialist resisting was Dublin, 1916, when the old boy came down firmly on the side of Irish republicans.
Myself I do not see a rerun of 1917 happening any day soon, so I am not convinced socialists and revolutionaries should spend their time building a vanguard party, but hey, we all make our own choices.
comradely regards
Mick,
Unfortunately, without an improved repeat of 1917 and a subsequent (successful this time!) international revolution, countries like lebanon are doomed to remain chessboards for imperial strategists and hives of capitalist exploitation.
There is no other solution...
Just out of interest, what do you spend your time doing?
YFTR
Voltaire you are just an Islamophob, as much as I oppose Hezbollah, I oppose equally the others because they too are insanely religious. If you understand arabic, focus on how every leader speaks, "my sunnis, my druz, we liberated the druz, the sunnis attacked us, the shiites now love the sunnis, "we are the real christians", bla bla bla... and all claim they love Lebanon.
Face it, 14th of March is as bankrupt as the Opposition.
I can assure you i'm no islamophobe. You could say i've got an allergy to those who sneekily try to down play the colonial Syrian politics by never mentioning it...ever. Most of what is going on today is the fault of that regime. You know that Damascus are laughing right now. It's interesting that most of those in Lebanon who claim to be from secular progressive sections often side with Islamo-fascists, or SSNP, or Baathists. Strange.
Mick Hall's comments, although not necessarily incorrect, are typical of the one-sidedness that plagues the Old left. If an Israeli mushroom cloud looms over Iran, it's not surprising coming from Israel, as Ahmadinejad had promised his own mushroom cloud over Israel much earlier on did he not?
you are not objective,
how can you just target one side in such a naive way, and disregard the other?
for your info, the Phalange got their name from General Franco...
What Omar said last...
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