Not having a government is not noticed in Lebanon... some joke about it, and they are correct to joke about it; sadly, I notice that having a government eases down the tension between the bougeoisie of Lebanon.
Commenting briefly on the elections before proceeding to the incidents: Was anyone surprised of the results? Everyone claimed they are won, the 14th of March gathered the highest number of seats, and the Opposition gathered the highest number of votes; last but not least, Junblatt opened a minimarket for himself and became the actual veto vote on the government. Meanwhile, it was impressive that not much riots broke up on election days, nevertheless, while waiting for the government to form, we open the TV over here, we see bulletins telling us a grenade was thrown by a "mysterious" evil hand, and everyone denounces it. Tripoli became the source of clashes again, whereby "mysterious rpj" missiles fly, and then "mysterious" gunners reply back. Now wait, isn't that everyday news, I mean why I got bored from blogging on Lebanon? It is the same news, and everyone expects the results. Finally, a person died, stabbed brutally three times, who was supposed to hold a riot between two young groups. Hence, he became the latest in the line of martyrs for the "Lebanese cause", whatever the cause these days it is.
Are we surprised? Hell no, are we sad? Hell yes, I mean doesn't it bother you to hear a riot then you have to call your direct relatives first to check on them, and then call your friends who live there to double check, and finally call friends who actually might be in the region? Will we ever be used to that? Definietly not!
The reason for all of this is simple. All parties still preserve their militia weaponry. Access to arms is still cheap, and none of the political leaders are doing anything to stop it. This of course excludes the arms of Hezbollah which lost some credibility after last year's events of shoot-outs, at least in my own perspective, and also the Palestinian Refugee camps were at least three major factions have large stock of arms: Fatah, Osbat el Ansar, and PFLP-General Command (Gibreel's faction). In all of this chaos, we also had two coalitions going head to head in a militarily sense last year, one group overwhelmed the other, and the winner in these street to street shootouts had disarmed the loser and gave the light and middle ranged weapons to the Lebanese Army. The Lebanese army in such situations, where political parties clearly go and shoot at each other (ie the downfall of the government into militias) can do nothing but sit and watch. Last time the Lebanese army was ordered to bomb an armed political party, it was Hezbollah back in 1989. The result was Nabih Berri (then fresh of clashes with Hezbollah) told the Shiites to leave the army; guess what, they did! The army lost 60% of its units, and the army was threatened then (but yet again) to crumble down. The army these days are called to detect Israeli hidden cells (and may others be captured for the security of the citizens) but to be a riot intercepter: shoot out takes place, army comes, and case closed. Some are captured, but then we lack the follow-up on what happened. Hence, the army is really crippled to disarm anyone, probably not even We'am Wahhab's militants as well.
The reason these ugly incidents take place, like the Cola "mysterious" grenade (and whose echo rang in my ear the other day), is simple! The top leaders are soothing things down, but we see their second in command escalating (well except for Aoun and Jaajaa both competing to prove who is the real Lebanese Christian while Sami Gemayel and Suleiman Franjieh are just trying put their own political space in the mainstream. Walid Junblatt returned to be the pendulum of agreeing one day with this faction or that one, or even both at the same time. Bottom line is, each political party is driving a hard bargain on the government level, mainly Mr. Aoun wants his beloved adorable nephew, Jubran Bathil, to be a minister of interior, then a minister of something else (el-mohem: a minister), and Harriri. Harriri and everyone else would tell us on TV, "we are all happy about the atmosphere", but then their MPs and figureheads lash out on each other. This double tongue doesn't work out at all. Already people are overcharged, and the party militants won't hesitate to blow off some steam. The reason they would blow steam is for the fact simply they are fully convinced the leaders are representing their own sectarian interests (I would exclude the SSNP and the Democratic Left for two reasons):
1) The SSNP had been gaining a lot of grounds politically in Syria, and after last year's militant performance in Beirut, they are being rewarded; also for the fact they are the only official group in the Opposition that is secular (after all Aoun gave up years ago on secularism and preached Christianity). This allows Hassan Nasrallah to argue that whenever Sunni and Shiite militants collide (Future and AMAL to be exact), it is strictly political and not sectarian (same as Harriri) Of course, on TV, we see the MPs joking around, and the sort, hugging each other, laughing, and go back home to their fancy houses. I might exclude Ali Ammar (the MP that was actually a football player who takes in charge of agressively "purifying the chins" of those who mention Hezbollah badly. This guy is a walking time bomb to explode in the parliament. The fact that the Lebanese Communist Party walked out from the Opposition, means the SSNP are the only secular party within the Opposition, within the Lebanese borders.
2) The Democratic Left: Yes, you read that right. They are, much of my hate to them, back to the Parliament, even though with one MP. Why we may ask that question? Well they are the only group that is secular within the 14th of March, but also they carry the maryrdom of Samir Qassir in their files. For such a reason, again to preserve the monopoly of the 2005 - 2007 martyrs of figureheads, a DLM had to be elected. The other reason is the fact that the DLM figureheads, specially Elias Atallah, was the cofounder of the Resistance Front, which fought Israel skin to the teeth; hence 14th of March can use the fascinating relic of Elias Atallah to preach that they have militants that fought Israel in the past. We both remember how Prime Minister Seniora and Hassan Nasrallah competed about whose block was the resistance.
Main issue is: citizens are dying. The man who got stabbled, he may be a part of the Free Patriotic Movement, but he was a citizen, and not an armed militant. It gets worse, by-standers are getting wounded or killed (remember when AMAL's Berri spoke and couple recieved raining bullets? That case was closed swiftly). If we don't have Israel bombing over our heads, we have the political parties shooting at each other, with the occassion of someone mysterious releasing a missile from South Lebanon on Israel's Northern Frontier, and Israel replies with a massive bombardment on nearby villages as if these civilians shot the rockets. Security wise? Fantastic, what more can we ask?
The double tongue of the politicians of escalations and "love affairs of each other" caused this. The economic situation makes it worse, for people's lives are horrible in the country with minimum wages, and frustration goes on the "enemy". The "enemy" is not Israel, it is not the Qa'eda based Fatah Islam (whom we are still debating if it was Syria sending them through the borders or the US sent them), but each other. These riots just escalate more problems, for riots and hate bring more riots and fear, and eventually one day we will have those sporadic violence spreading across sensitive regions in less than 20 minutes. Of course, everyone will yell to their supporters: "go home" or "these parties are armed". I got news for you, a very nice juicy secret news for you: EVERYONE IS ARMED! What happened with the arms that the SSNP or AMAL carried with them? Still there under the banner of Resistance Arms! What happened with the weapons of 14th of March, apparently new ones can be bought easily, and with the latest military blunder of last year, they can learn from their mistakes (super yay for 14th of March, boohoo for the citizens). Having said all these, what about the Labenese in general?
This is why I watch few channels in Lebanon that go on Middle Grounds: LBC and NTV. The problem with NTV though, like Junblatt, they got a moodswing of their own as well: they swing between 14th of March, middle grounds, and the Opposition. By Middle Grounds, I sure do not mean "All the President's men", these people, like Ziad Baroud, will never be elected in a sectarian based state.
Anyways, the reason why I watch the LBC roundabout (yes, sure they put Jaajaa couple of minutes more than the rest) is the fact they ask everyone what happened and what they think. Well, what do they think?! Anyone noticed how the citizens of both sides of a conflicting regions go down screaming and yelling: "we have no problems with our neighbors", "we are all Lebanese", "Don't involve us with party politics", "Leave us alone". Anyone noticed as we sit on our chair (with a nice juicy glass of white wine in my hand) and notice how our proletariat hate what is going on? Notice that there are always a mini-angry crowd blaming the other party while the majority just expressing regrets? (glass finished in one sip after watching the old lady, heartbroken, saying to the politicians: leave us alone). The reason is that these political riots, including the mysterious Inerga (whatever spelled) missiles, and the hand grenades are just the beginning. They suit the politicians to divide the Proletariat according to their sects, and furthermore, and worse, they impose the political divisions on the Lebanese people. Thus, if affiliates of Sect A, but not party affiliates (perhaps some sympathy) has no issues with Sect B, on the contrary relations are fantastic, and these riots take place. Sect A, if losing casualties in this or that region, or even experiencing fear, doubts Sect B. What if some hot head militant that belongs to sect A, pays retaliates and hurts Sect B, the domino effect rolls. All politicians (including Hezbollah, our "defenders" and the "secular" Lebanese Forces) get what they want: isolated sects that clutch to the secatarian parties. Why? Simple... if Sect A for example supports Harriri, but its people are in good relations with Sect B (say supporters of Hezbollah), how to get neighbors to shoot at each other? Simple: bring the hooligans to do some riots, then viola! Fear of the other!
Who benefits: the politicians; who mourns: the proletariat
Who gets richer: the politicians; who mourns: the proletariat
Who goes to their rich houses, the politicians, who is getting poorer: the Proletariat.
The media of the parties are still charging the situation, depends on whenever Minister Baroud yells at them to cool it down aggressively or not!
Lately, these incidents (after the riots of three years, and of course 17 years of civil wars) seem normal to a lot of us. It is as if a Pavlov effect whereby we got accustomed to it!
As my beloved friend Darko said in two posts earlier, we are losing hope, I lost it ages ago, I mean I am still a Marxist, and not any Marxist, the one who still dreams to unite the world into a single classless society where everyone are equal (reminds us of John Lennon's Imagine; good song) I say, we have no choice, as activists to carry on with our belief and quest we can change Lebanon and the whole world (no, I am not doing an Obama ad. of Yes We Can), more like Connelly's logo of: Our demands most humble, we want the world. Neverthelesss, if we do not have the vision, what do we have on the ground? Sad pictures of Iraqis dying by the 100s every day while enjoying what Bush Jr. said: "Giving Freedom and Democracy?" (Side note: Bush Jr. I am still waiting for those damn Weapons of Mass Destructions, you did promise us they will pop up eventually).
It is now 6:51 in Beirut, I bid thee all good night/morning (yes, I am a night crawler, and had a whole rakwi of caffeine for myself in the afternoon)
PS: Doesn't my post on Iran, Hezbollah, and Wilayat el Faqih click on what happened on the elections over there? I love it when my analysis hits the right bullseye
MFL
Showing posts with label Ironies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ironies. Show all posts
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Not the Final Chapter of the July War
I have not been blogging due to personal obligations but intended to return blogging in two months. Now, that a lot of events took place, I have no choice but to write...
Introduction and Cont'd of an Earlier Article
Last year, I wrote extensive analysis in "Lessons from the July War". Now, the main logo of Hezbollah for launching their July War "Operation Honest Promise" was achieved. Israel gave Hezbollah Samir Quntar in return for their two soldiers, who so far, we didn't know what happened to them till the last moment.
In Israel, the primary question was bombarded on Olmert and his allies as follows: "Why did we enter a war if there was going to be a swipe?" Hence, what started Israel's humiliation in 2000, aggravated in 2006, and climaxed in the liberation of Lebanon's national hero, Samir Quntar, a man who symbolized resistance to the Zionists, and resilience to the Zionists' attempts to crush the soul of resistance.
Samir Quntar argued in TV that his 1978 operation, the hostages were shot by Israeli soldiers. While the Israeli media hovered around how their government released him, the whole media of the world forgot how many Lebanese children the Israelis have cold-bloodedly butchered. Of course, whenever the pictures of our massacred children pop up the news, the Israelis rudely accuse the Lebanese as "faking" the picture.
The Israeli media also accused Nasrallah as shrewd, since he considered the liberation of Samir Quntar as a national victory. This was not the first time, when the Lebanese ousted the Israeli Defense Forces and their puppies, the Southern Lebanese Army, from Lebanese soil, Nasrallah argued it was a victory for the resistance, Lebanon, the Muslims, and the entire Arab World. The fact all the Lebanese politicians were there to welcome Quntar and the last Hezbollah soldiers, reflected the dimension of the long awaited victory of Samir Quntar, whom we were raised to hear his name: the man whose will never shook down.
Brief Bolshevik Point
Now for me, as a revolutionary Marxist, we oppose individual acts of operations from the view point that such operations aggravate the unity of the Proletariat across borders, hence our unity as Lebanese Proletariat, with the residents of Occupied Palestine and Israel minus the Arab reactionary leaders and the Zionists. We believe in longer run emancipation tactics which requires more patience while focusing on welfare policies and women empowerment in the short-run. What I would respect about Samir Quntar is what he did inside the Israeli prisons. The man was named "Dean of the Prisoners" not because he is the oldest of prisoners, rather, his activism inside the Israeli prisons. He was the one who organized informal networks inside Israeli prisons across nationalities whereby the prisoners self-educated themselves, resisted Israeli pressure to break the will of the prisoners, and always held their heads high in the face of Zionist brutalities.
Impact of Samir Quntar's release
The release of Samir Quntar was greeted by over a million Lebanese (mainly) citizens, among a small minority of others. Quntar's freedom brought Lebanon to the 1970s nostalgia where dreamers hoped for the crush of Israel and liberation of Palestine whereby the Palestinians can finally and peacefully return to their homes. This nostalgia which witnessed the PLO and other radical factions waging operations against Israel also included the factions of the Lebanese National Front, and the Lebanese Resistance Front (whose three pillars were the SSNP – LCP – Order for Communist Action). Now my personal opinion is known, I oppose the ideological demands of the Lebanese National Movement, while I oppose their tactics, specially going blindly behind the PLO. The higher euphoria, in the words of Jubran Arayji, an SSNP top official to NBN," was the belief in your own platform to be actualized".
While Israel wept, Lebanon celebrated. The Israelis in a pathetic manner tried to show that the Lebanese are barbaric while they are a civilized nation surviving this barbaric world is the fact that the Lebanese danced, celebrated, while Hassan Nasrallah did a sudden appearance in the festivalities to greet his own soldiers and Samir Quntar. Quntar, for a man living 30 years in prisons, always kept his head up and till now he doesn't show his real age, 47. The insistence of Quntar to remain wearing his military suit showed to what extent his will remained unbroken.
Dancing Coffins
The Israelis also were baffled on how the Lebanese and Palestinians welcomed the martyrs' bodies with rice, dancing, and flowers. To this Perez called our traditions as "shameful". The Lebanese and the Palestinians, from years of agony, learnt to welcome their beloved in a "marriage" ceremonial manner. Several Muslim and Christian traditions of funerals included whistling, dancing, clapping, throwing rice, and "dancing the coffin" whereby the people carrying the coffin get the coffin to move up and down which appears dancing. The purpose of such a process is to pay tribute to the deceased. When Samir Qassir was buried, his coffin was dancing amidst flying flowers, wedding singing called "Zalghota" in Arabic, amongst others. When George Hawwi, the ex-stalinist Communist Party leader was assassinated, everyone clapped and danced as the men "danced the coffins". Such traditions are a tribute to the deceased and paying respect. The second significance is to show for the deceased and whoever wanted him/her dead that the people are not weeping, rather they do a wedding instead of a funeral to pay respect because one popular culture includes the belief that the deceased do not want their beloved to cry for them, rather they should celebrate and rejoice. The final reason for such festivities is to prove to the deceased and to recharge amongst them that they are celebrating instead of mourning because the person involved is not dead, rather still alive in their hearts. And that is how the Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians welcomed the deceased martyrs' bodies.
Israel yet again Humiliated
Now for the celebrations of what that ugly Levni proclaimed as shameful welcome of a criminal, the Lebanese are over-joyous in welcoming a hero who made the enemy cry on their knees after killing over 60,000 Lebanese, across the years, displacing over a quarter of citizens (in 2006), and eventually proving how stupid she and her country is. They waged a war on the Lebanese, called it "War on Hezbollah" which included the killing of everyone except Hezbollah in general, such as the red cross, the foreign journalists, the Lebanese Army, and the Police, and even three members of Hezbollah's archenemies: the Lebanese Forces. Hence, that war was everything but a war on Hezbollah. The other dimension is that almost the entire Lebanese citizens across political and sectarian lines in one way or another cooperated to contain the Southern exodus. Even Palestinian camps such as Ain el Hilwi welcomed Lebanese fleeing under bombardment their homes for safety. After all, Israel used the refugee buses as target practice. Shameful and uncivilized. Hence, how can Lebanon not welcome Samir Quntar as a hero, or even as a liberator, who proved to the Lebanese and Palestinians that the Israelis are ineffective to do anything right? He even inspired to others that Israel's days are countable, so many believed that thought, happily to see their Southern racist neighbor drowning in tears, same people whose media forgot to announce how many they killed of children in Palestine and Lebanon, forgot to compare Israel's operation to Palestine in 1948 to Milosevic's ethnic cleansing in 1999 to Kosovo. In one of those few occasions Lebanon celebrated in joy and happiness while Tel Aviv drowned in tears.
Israeli reactions to the Lebanese victory were different in several manners. For starters, the Israeli intelligence added Samir Quntar's name to be assassinated next to Nasrallah. After all, Lebanon shouldn't go against the flow of Arab regimes trying to convince that Israel is here to stay. Reactions from normal Israeli citizens within Israeli media demanded that the next war with Lebanon have Beirut leveled down. I have news to them, in the last war, half of it was already leveled down. Finally, to the families of the deceased soldiers, they should expect such operations when they are wearing the military suit.
Israel since the year 2000 has had their victories cut short. All of Israel is in a way trained soldiers because all its citizens should serve the Israeli Defense Forces. Hence such an operation impacted them in 2006 because each citizen thought to himself/herself "It could have been me or my relatives". Well, to them, start changing your racist policies if you want legitimacy within your neighborhoods.
Impacts of Hezbollah and Lebanese Victory
While the entire cabinet of different political parties gathered in the airport , Israel tried to downsize Lebanon's happiness as "Nasrallah has the entire Lebanese as hostages". If that is true, I love Israel's way of dealing with a hostage crisis, burn the entire country to kingdom come (2006).
Hezbollah have been in a winning since 2000. They ousted the Israelis outside Lebanon in 2000 and proclaimed themselves as the descendants of the Resistance front forged by the Lebanese Communist Party and Order for Communist Action, and followed by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. However, the latter three's leaders were marginalized and persecuted by Syria. In the words of one Iranian Diplomat during the July war to Ahmad Fatat, "we the Iranians learnt how to resist from the Christians, such as George Habbash and George Hawwi." Hezbollah by 2004 proved their complete dominance over the Bekaa and South in municipalities elections whereby AMAL movement's influence was downsized. In the end, Syria had to intervene to face-save their allies AMAL. Hence, Hezbollah officially dominated the Shiite sect while AMAL became a relative minority. The defeat of 2006 of Israel on the infantry level reflected how the underdogs caught up with the giants. Israel's army is not indestructible. The assassination of Imad Moghnieh was again a defeat to Israel even if it is not 100% confirmed that they assassinated him. Hezbollah's alliance to the Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement, moved them away from isolation as well as a Shiite sect. Their military power also remained undisputed in Lebanon when they swept Beirut against 14th of March in one evening, while Mt. Lebanon collapsed in two hours. Hence, they got the demands they have been requesting: Red lines on Hezbollah's arms, no Western power can oust Hezbollah out, got the national unity government they needed to veto any governmental decisions that might touch their arms. Finally, to complete Hezbollah's euphoria, they did the impossible and liberated Samir Quntar and left the Israelis feeling canned inside their borders. The timing of Samir Quntar was marked with the 2nd memory of the July war.
The liberation of Samir Quntar was highly valuable for Israel. Their 2006 across borders operation was called "The Honest Promise", which means the promise to liberate Samir Quntar. Olmert and his goons crumbled down at timing more perfect for Hezbollah. For starters, they pulled Lebanon in a euphoria outside the last civil war we had couple of months ago and diverted attention to this blunder operation they did whereby retribution will take a long run form between the Sunnis and Druze and the Shiites. Their and their allies' vulgar behavior "as peaceful" diverted to the liberation of Samir Quntar. Trying to erase the breach in their promise "no weapon shall be turned to the inside of Lebanon", they proved that they are the only force to inflict defeat on Israel and their arms are still needed.
As a matter of fact, the pro-14th of March are trying to pull a symbolic victory by getting Shebaa farms diplomatically. Second, Samir Quntar's allegiance to Hezbollah was also what they needed. After all, Quntar spent his time reading Israeli media, whereas the most hated to them were Hezbollah, hence, they became his favorites, specially they were the ones who liberated him. So, whereas March 14th accused Hezbollah to ignite the July war in 2006 to protect their allies Syria from the International Tribunal, now got their promise actualized and diverted attention that the war was not about Syria's attention. Although, Bashar Assad's hypocritical attitude celebrating the July war as the real victor on the ashes of Lebanon is quiet lame. Sadly, Quntar supported Syria blindly without investigating what has happened during their era. Hopefully he will have much more time to do so to fill the gap.
Now the term resistance became over-charged, Ali Kanso was bragging that the SSNP will not surrender their weapons because it is "Arms for Resistance" although we didn't see a single shot directed on Israel all this time except on other Lebanese. The election of Assad Herdan as SSNP president shows the partial return of the Syrians, and the military urgency that the SSNP are currently living in especially several Ras Beirut zones are still within the newly resurrected SSNP cantons. Hence, Hezbollah's allies are now justified to preserve their weapons while leaving the 14th of Marchers in another security dilemma to rebuild their forces, hence a new showdown coming soon within the next decade.
Now, Hezbollah can behave the Judge and Executioner if things don't go the way they don't like. Simply unleash the AMAL movement goons on those supporters.
More to the point, Hezbollah's victories have an impact on the Arab region and the World as a whole. Most of the Arab regime, dictators like Egypt's Moubarak, Jordan's King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's al-Saud, Qatar's Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, and most recently Iraq's Maliki, among others, are having aftermaths of Hezbollah and Lebanon's victories. While al-Assad, along with Libya and few other Arab nations support War with Israel, the majority don't The mentioned states are satellite regimes for the USA, who established peace with Israel on the account that "Israel is here to stay" and "let us do the best out of it". Hence, they oppressed their people under that logo plus receiving US funds as support. Egypt and Jordan are the second and third most funded governments by the US for signing peace treaties. Such victories, destabilize Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt whereby the oppressed majorities can dream of ousting their tyrants and boycott Israel.
The questions goes: how long Israel plans to distort history, for 1948 has its impact on all Arab worlds, specially Lebanon. How long they plan to remain racists and Zionists, after all Racism and Zionism go hand in hand with each other. The underdogs in a military sense are catching up, once the underdogs know how to shoot down Israeli planes, Israel's very existence is threatened with extermination and the Jewish Proletariat are threatened with another ethnic cleansing as a payback for what their Zionist leaders pushed to do throughout the British mandate. The on-going atrocities do not help on the Palestinians. Furthermore, how long can those US satellite regimes hold on, and haven't they realized the more the Israelis are brutal, the more secular and progressive forces are purged or shoved into Islamic movements, like Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Muslim Brotherhoods. Finally, Hezbollah's victories sustained the Assad regime to rule for the next decade or two with maximum peace inside his lands and oppress his own people; specially the British themselves declared that Assad is different than Saddam. The reason for this is the fact that the alternative to Assad's regime in Syria would be the three more oppressive, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Last, I hope Nasrallah would live as long as possible, because the scariest of all is the relations of Hezbollah to Ali Khamanei through the Iranian funds and Wilayat el Faqih. If Nasrallah passes away, the option is not a moderate tolerant leader like Hassan Nasrallah, rather the extremist Na'im Qassem who, all Hezbollah's allies on grassroots level from pro-Hezbollah Palestinians, Syrians, Aounis, and even the SSNP, expressed that "all hell would break loose if he takes control."
Unwanted Palestinians
What were most disgusting about 14th of March, the Opposition, Hezbollah, the Lebanese President, and others is their behavior: "Palestinians are not welcomed to stay here" hence the "Liberation".
Finally
With Nasrallah declaring that the war with Israel is an open war, following Moghnieh's assassination, and promising us future wars, paralleled with Israel's nutcases such as Olmert and Perez that new wars are coming up as retributions, a doomed nation like Lebanon has no choice but to wait for the next disaster.
MFL
Introduction and Cont'd of an Earlier Article
Last year, I wrote extensive analysis in "Lessons from the July War". Now, the main logo of Hezbollah for launching their July War "Operation Honest Promise" was achieved. Israel gave Hezbollah Samir Quntar in return for their two soldiers, who so far, we didn't know what happened to them till the last moment.
In Israel, the primary question was bombarded on Olmert and his allies as follows: "Why did we enter a war if there was going to be a swipe?" Hence, what started Israel's humiliation in 2000, aggravated in 2006, and climaxed in the liberation of Lebanon's national hero, Samir Quntar, a man who symbolized resistance to the Zionists, and resilience to the Zionists' attempts to crush the soul of resistance.
Samir Quntar argued in TV that his 1978 operation, the hostages were shot by Israeli soldiers. While the Israeli media hovered around how their government released him, the whole media of the world forgot how many Lebanese children the Israelis have cold-bloodedly butchered. Of course, whenever the pictures of our massacred children pop up the news, the Israelis rudely accuse the Lebanese as "faking" the picture.
The Israeli media also accused Nasrallah as shrewd, since he considered the liberation of Samir Quntar as a national victory. This was not the first time, when the Lebanese ousted the Israeli Defense Forces and their puppies, the Southern Lebanese Army, from Lebanese soil, Nasrallah argued it was a victory for the resistance, Lebanon, the Muslims, and the entire Arab World. The fact all the Lebanese politicians were there to welcome Quntar and the last Hezbollah soldiers, reflected the dimension of the long awaited victory of Samir Quntar, whom we were raised to hear his name: the man whose will never shook down.
Brief Bolshevik Point
Now for me, as a revolutionary Marxist, we oppose individual acts of operations from the view point that such operations aggravate the unity of the Proletariat across borders, hence our unity as Lebanese Proletariat, with the residents of Occupied Palestine and Israel minus the Arab reactionary leaders and the Zionists. We believe in longer run emancipation tactics which requires more patience while focusing on welfare policies and women empowerment in the short-run. What I would respect about Samir Quntar is what he did inside the Israeli prisons. The man was named "Dean of the Prisoners" not because he is the oldest of prisoners, rather, his activism inside the Israeli prisons. He was the one who organized informal networks inside Israeli prisons across nationalities whereby the prisoners self-educated themselves, resisted Israeli pressure to break the will of the prisoners, and always held their heads high in the face of Zionist brutalities.
Impact of Samir Quntar's release
The release of Samir Quntar was greeted by over a million Lebanese (mainly) citizens, among a small minority of others. Quntar's freedom brought Lebanon to the 1970s nostalgia where dreamers hoped for the crush of Israel and liberation of Palestine whereby the Palestinians can finally and peacefully return to their homes. This nostalgia which witnessed the PLO and other radical factions waging operations against Israel also included the factions of the Lebanese National Front, and the Lebanese Resistance Front (whose three pillars were the SSNP – LCP – Order for Communist Action). Now my personal opinion is known, I oppose the ideological demands of the Lebanese National Movement, while I oppose their tactics, specially going blindly behind the PLO. The higher euphoria, in the words of Jubran Arayji, an SSNP top official to NBN," was the belief in your own platform to be actualized".
While Israel wept, Lebanon celebrated. The Israelis in a pathetic manner tried to show that the Lebanese are barbaric while they are a civilized nation surviving this barbaric world is the fact that the Lebanese danced, celebrated, while Hassan Nasrallah did a sudden appearance in the festivalities to greet his own soldiers and Samir Quntar. Quntar, for a man living 30 years in prisons, always kept his head up and till now he doesn't show his real age, 47. The insistence of Quntar to remain wearing his military suit showed to what extent his will remained unbroken.
Dancing Coffins
The Israelis also were baffled on how the Lebanese and Palestinians welcomed the martyrs' bodies with rice, dancing, and flowers. To this Perez called our traditions as "shameful". The Lebanese and the Palestinians, from years of agony, learnt to welcome their beloved in a "marriage" ceremonial manner. Several Muslim and Christian traditions of funerals included whistling, dancing, clapping, throwing rice, and "dancing the coffin" whereby the people carrying the coffin get the coffin to move up and down which appears dancing. The purpose of such a process is to pay tribute to the deceased. When Samir Qassir was buried, his coffin was dancing amidst flying flowers, wedding singing called "Zalghota" in Arabic, amongst others. When George Hawwi, the ex-stalinist Communist Party leader was assassinated, everyone clapped and danced as the men "danced the coffins". Such traditions are a tribute to the deceased and paying respect. The second significance is to show for the deceased and whoever wanted him/her dead that the people are not weeping, rather they do a wedding instead of a funeral to pay respect because one popular culture includes the belief that the deceased do not want their beloved to cry for them, rather they should celebrate and rejoice. The final reason for such festivities is to prove to the deceased and to recharge amongst them that they are celebrating instead of mourning because the person involved is not dead, rather still alive in their hearts. And that is how the Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians welcomed the deceased martyrs' bodies.
Israel yet again Humiliated
Now for the celebrations of what that ugly Levni proclaimed as shameful welcome of a criminal, the Lebanese are over-joyous in welcoming a hero who made the enemy cry on their knees after killing over 60,000 Lebanese, across the years, displacing over a quarter of citizens (in 2006), and eventually proving how stupid she and her country is. They waged a war on the Lebanese, called it "War on Hezbollah" which included the killing of everyone except Hezbollah in general, such as the red cross, the foreign journalists, the Lebanese Army, and the Police, and even three members of Hezbollah's archenemies: the Lebanese Forces. Hence, that war was everything but a war on Hezbollah. The other dimension is that almost the entire Lebanese citizens across political and sectarian lines in one way or another cooperated to contain the Southern exodus. Even Palestinian camps such as Ain el Hilwi welcomed Lebanese fleeing under bombardment their homes for safety. After all, Israel used the refugee buses as target practice. Shameful and uncivilized. Hence, how can Lebanon not welcome Samir Quntar as a hero, or even as a liberator, who proved to the Lebanese and Palestinians that the Israelis are ineffective to do anything right? He even inspired to others that Israel's days are countable, so many believed that thought, happily to see their Southern racist neighbor drowning in tears, same people whose media forgot to announce how many they killed of children in Palestine and Lebanon, forgot to compare Israel's operation to Palestine in 1948 to Milosevic's ethnic cleansing in 1999 to Kosovo. In one of those few occasions Lebanon celebrated in joy and happiness while Tel Aviv drowned in tears.
Israeli reactions to the Lebanese victory were different in several manners. For starters, the Israeli intelligence added Samir Quntar's name to be assassinated next to Nasrallah. After all, Lebanon shouldn't go against the flow of Arab regimes trying to convince that Israel is here to stay. Reactions from normal Israeli citizens within Israeli media demanded that the next war with Lebanon have Beirut leveled down. I have news to them, in the last war, half of it was already leveled down. Finally, to the families of the deceased soldiers, they should expect such operations when they are wearing the military suit.
Israel since the year 2000 has had their victories cut short. All of Israel is in a way trained soldiers because all its citizens should serve the Israeli Defense Forces. Hence such an operation impacted them in 2006 because each citizen thought to himself/herself "It could have been me or my relatives". Well, to them, start changing your racist policies if you want legitimacy within your neighborhoods.
Impacts of Hezbollah and Lebanese Victory
While the entire cabinet of different political parties gathered in the airport , Israel tried to downsize Lebanon's happiness as "Nasrallah has the entire Lebanese as hostages". If that is true, I love Israel's way of dealing with a hostage crisis, burn the entire country to kingdom come (2006).
Hezbollah have been in a winning since 2000. They ousted the Israelis outside Lebanon in 2000 and proclaimed themselves as the descendants of the Resistance front forged by the Lebanese Communist Party and Order for Communist Action, and followed by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. However, the latter three's leaders were marginalized and persecuted by Syria. In the words of one Iranian Diplomat during the July war to Ahmad Fatat, "we the Iranians learnt how to resist from the Christians, such as George Habbash and George Hawwi." Hezbollah by 2004 proved their complete dominance over the Bekaa and South in municipalities elections whereby AMAL movement's influence was downsized. In the end, Syria had to intervene to face-save their allies AMAL. Hence, Hezbollah officially dominated the Shiite sect while AMAL became a relative minority. The defeat of 2006 of Israel on the infantry level reflected how the underdogs caught up with the giants. Israel's army is not indestructible. The assassination of Imad Moghnieh was again a defeat to Israel even if it is not 100% confirmed that they assassinated him. Hezbollah's alliance to the Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement, moved them away from isolation as well as a Shiite sect. Their military power also remained undisputed in Lebanon when they swept Beirut against 14th of March in one evening, while Mt. Lebanon collapsed in two hours. Hence, they got the demands they have been requesting: Red lines on Hezbollah's arms, no Western power can oust Hezbollah out, got the national unity government they needed to veto any governmental decisions that might touch their arms. Finally, to complete Hezbollah's euphoria, they did the impossible and liberated Samir Quntar and left the Israelis feeling canned inside their borders. The timing of Samir Quntar was marked with the 2nd memory of the July war.
The liberation of Samir Quntar was highly valuable for Israel. Their 2006 across borders operation was called "The Honest Promise", which means the promise to liberate Samir Quntar. Olmert and his goons crumbled down at timing more perfect for Hezbollah. For starters, they pulled Lebanon in a euphoria outside the last civil war we had couple of months ago and diverted attention to this blunder operation they did whereby retribution will take a long run form between the Sunnis and Druze and the Shiites. Their and their allies' vulgar behavior "as peaceful" diverted to the liberation of Samir Quntar. Trying to erase the breach in their promise "no weapon shall be turned to the inside of Lebanon", they proved that they are the only force to inflict defeat on Israel and their arms are still needed.
As a matter of fact, the pro-14th of March are trying to pull a symbolic victory by getting Shebaa farms diplomatically. Second, Samir Quntar's allegiance to Hezbollah was also what they needed. After all, Quntar spent his time reading Israeli media, whereas the most hated to them were Hezbollah, hence, they became his favorites, specially they were the ones who liberated him. So, whereas March 14th accused Hezbollah to ignite the July war in 2006 to protect their allies Syria from the International Tribunal, now got their promise actualized and diverted attention that the war was not about Syria's attention. Although, Bashar Assad's hypocritical attitude celebrating the July war as the real victor on the ashes of Lebanon is quiet lame. Sadly, Quntar supported Syria blindly without investigating what has happened during their era. Hopefully he will have much more time to do so to fill the gap.
Now the term resistance became over-charged, Ali Kanso was bragging that the SSNP will not surrender their weapons because it is "Arms for Resistance" although we didn't see a single shot directed on Israel all this time except on other Lebanese. The election of Assad Herdan as SSNP president shows the partial return of the Syrians, and the military urgency that the SSNP are currently living in especially several Ras Beirut zones are still within the newly resurrected SSNP cantons. Hence, Hezbollah's allies are now justified to preserve their weapons while leaving the 14th of Marchers in another security dilemma to rebuild their forces, hence a new showdown coming soon within the next decade.
Now, Hezbollah can behave the Judge and Executioner if things don't go the way they don't like. Simply unleash the AMAL movement goons on those supporters.
More to the point, Hezbollah's victories have an impact on the Arab region and the World as a whole. Most of the Arab regime, dictators like Egypt's Moubarak, Jordan's King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's al-Saud, Qatar's Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, and most recently Iraq's Maliki, among others, are having aftermaths of Hezbollah and Lebanon's victories. While al-Assad, along with Libya and few other Arab nations support War with Israel, the majority don't The mentioned states are satellite regimes for the USA, who established peace with Israel on the account that "Israel is here to stay" and "let us do the best out of it". Hence, they oppressed their people under that logo plus receiving US funds as support. Egypt and Jordan are the second and third most funded governments by the US for signing peace treaties. Such victories, destabilize Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt whereby the oppressed majorities can dream of ousting their tyrants and boycott Israel.
The questions goes: how long Israel plans to distort history, for 1948 has its impact on all Arab worlds, specially Lebanon. How long they plan to remain racists and Zionists, after all Racism and Zionism go hand in hand with each other. The underdogs in a military sense are catching up, once the underdogs know how to shoot down Israeli planes, Israel's very existence is threatened with extermination and the Jewish Proletariat are threatened with another ethnic cleansing as a payback for what their Zionist leaders pushed to do throughout the British mandate. The on-going atrocities do not help on the Palestinians. Furthermore, how long can those US satellite regimes hold on, and haven't they realized the more the Israelis are brutal, the more secular and progressive forces are purged or shoved into Islamic movements, like Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Muslim Brotherhoods. Finally, Hezbollah's victories sustained the Assad regime to rule for the next decade or two with maximum peace inside his lands and oppress his own people; specially the British themselves declared that Assad is different than Saddam. The reason for this is the fact that the alternative to Assad's regime in Syria would be the three more oppressive, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Last, I hope Nasrallah would live as long as possible, because the scariest of all is the relations of Hezbollah to Ali Khamanei through the Iranian funds and Wilayat el Faqih. If Nasrallah passes away, the option is not a moderate tolerant leader like Hassan Nasrallah, rather the extremist Na'im Qassem who, all Hezbollah's allies on grassroots level from pro-Hezbollah Palestinians, Syrians, Aounis, and even the SSNP, expressed that "all hell would break loose if he takes control."
Unwanted Palestinians
What were most disgusting about 14th of March, the Opposition, Hezbollah, the Lebanese President, and others is their behavior: "Palestinians are not welcomed to stay here" hence the "Liberation".
Finally
With Nasrallah declaring that the war with Israel is an open war, following Moghnieh's assassination, and promising us future wars, paralleled with Israel's nutcases such as Olmert and Perez that new wars are coming up as retributions, a doomed nation like Lebanon has no choice but to wait for the next disaster.
MFL
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Axis of Evil spreads humor throughout region
Local comedians benefit from buzz generated by American stand-up trio's recent tour of Middle East
By Hassan Abdo and Christian Porth
Special to The Daily Star
Saturday, February 02, 2008
taken from here
JOUNIEH: "It's so nice to be in Beirut, because we've been censored in all other countries," said Ahmed Ahmed in his opening gambit at the Casino du Liban in December. After that first remark, Ahmed let loose a string of expletives, his curses as humorous to the audience as they were cathartic to the performer.
Ahmed represents one-third of the popular comedy troupe Axis of Evil, which wrapped up the last leg of its regional tour with a five-night stint at the venue north of Beirut following performances in Amman, Cairo, Dubai and Kuwait. In the months since, the Axis of Evil gigs have had a notable knock-on effect for Lebanon's local stand-up comedy scene.
The term "axis of evil" was first coined back in 2002. In his annual "State of the Union" address, US President George W. Bush asserted to Congress and the American people that Iran, Iraq and North Korea represented an "axis of evil" that was threatening to undermine world peace.
"It's taking a term we felt was silly and we're twisting it on its head," said another member of the comedy troupe, Maz Jobrani, who is of Iranian ancestry.
Axis of Evil is composed of Ahmed, Jobrani and Aron Kader - all Americans of Middle Eastern decent. For their five-night engagement at Casino du Liban, they were joined onstage by Won Ho Chung, who is of South Korean and Filipino ancestry and speaks fluent Arabic, and by Lebanon's own Nimr Abu Nassar.
It is said that laughter is the best medicine, and in times of political crisis, when the situation in the country leaves people with little to laugh about, a good dose of stand-up comedy may be just what the doctor ordered. The Axis of Evil comedy tour that swept through Lebanon in December drew in crowds by the thousands. The trio of stand-up comedians performed before a sold-out crowd each and every night.
According to Tarek Sikias of the Lebanese production company 2U2C, which produced the Axis of Evil appearance, the show was a huge success and sold over 5,000 tickets for five nights. The comedy routine had originally been scheduled for three nights only, but the organizers added two additional performances to meet the demand for tickets.
The Egyptian-born Ahmed, who also served as the show's host, said that in addition to the comedy tour, the group was also shooting a documentary designed for Western - specifically American - audiences. The aim of the documentary was to highlight the tour's message: "The rest of the world can laugh with us."
Although stand-up comedy existed in Lebanon before Axis of Evil took to the stage, it has benefited handsomely from the success and buzz of the December tour. Now local comedians such as Nimr Abu Nassar have no problem packing the house at local venues such as Gemmayzeh's Bar Louie to lay down jokes about everything from politics to sex.
In fact, Lebanon is arguably the only country in the Middle East that has a robust stand-up-comedy scene. According to Abu Nassar, the king of Lebanese stand-up comedy, the Axis of Evil show "gave us a lot of credibility."
"Their showing of support only helped to legitimize the demand for stand-up comedy in Lebanon," he said.
For Abu Nassar, the comedy tour gave him a personal boost. After his appearance at Casino du Liban, he sold out two shows at B018 Classique, near Sodeco Square, in an hour and followed up with a New Year's Eve performance at the Hard Rock Cafe. Now he said he had "a plethora of shows" lined up in the coming months.
The roots of what is known today as stand-up comedy stem primarily from the 1970s, when acts such as Steve Martin, George Carlin and Bill Cosby wowed audiences with their jokes and antics about every possible issue under the sun. New York City proved to be center stage for the comedy scene, where tiny venues like the Comedy Cellar gave local amateurs a chance to test their talent. It was in such places that Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock found their fame.
Today, Lebanon seems to be going through the same transition as local bars and pubs provide platforms for acts such as Abu Nassar's.
Regionally sponsored by the cable television network Showtime Arabia, the Axis of Evil tour also provided the pretext for a talent search across the Middle East. To this end, Showtime held open mic casting sessions throughout the tour.
Two students from the American University of Beirut (AUB), who earlier auditioned on campus for the New York-based comedy troupe, were selected by the Axis of Evil and Showtime to open one of the nights at Casino du Liban.
More than 40 students, mostly from AUB but also from other universities in Lebanon, signed up for the audition. About 20 actually turned up to perform. The two selected students, Arifi Waked, a graduate student in English literature, and Amir Haidar, a rising senior in mathematics, now have the opportunity to work with Showtime Arabia on producing original comedy routines.
Waked, who wears the hijab, said that she started doing stand-up comedy in order "to put a human face to the hijab, and invite people to lighten up the many issues that plague the Middle East."
"Showtime is very excited to be bringing the innovative Axis of Evil comedians to the Middle East for the first time," said Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, Showtime's president and CEO, at a news conference in December.
"This comedy tour, apart from entertaining," he added, "also educates its audiences by breaking down stereotypes and helping change minds."
By satirizing and critiquing all manner of stereotypes and misconceptions that dominate the discourse about the Middle East, the comedians hoped to prove that not only is there a viable market for comedy in the Middle East but also that the comprehension gap between the region and the West is bridgeable.
"It's really sad," said Jobrani. "American comedians never come to this part of the world to perform for the people of the region. They come to entertain American troops."
Although all three members of the comedic trio have roots in the Middle East, their humor is typically American, an offensive, no-holds-barred approach that is unafraid to tackle even the touchiest of subjects.
In fact, all three comedians expressed a degree of apprehension as to whether or not their style of humor would translate locally into laughs. But their worries proved unfounded as audiences roiled with laughter throughout the entire show.
Speaking about the perceived Israeli bias of the mainstream Western media, Kader, the product of a Palestinian father and a Mormon, said: "I'm tired of reading stories in the papers that say something like 'an Israeli tank was scratched by a rock.' Or 'Palestinian attacks Israeli bullets with body.'"
The performance, at least in Lebanon where greater freedoms of expression prevail, was both beautifully and poetically vulgar. "This is not church, we're not at mosque," Ahmed repeatedly reminded the crowd when some of the material touched on sensitive subjects, like religion and politics.
Admittedly, however, it does take an enlightened mind to understand the subtle argumentation in mocking ethnicity and the glorious, equalizing effect that it can provide.
Abu Nassar said unequivocally that they broke down stereotypes and did not reinforce them. "We're making fun of stereotypes we've all come to hate, but they are not true. We all know that," he added.
"To be reinforced they would also have to be justified. No one is justifying them. We are removing the mystery around these beliefs.
"Arabs know a lot about America and Americans. We see American movies, news, we read American books. We understand Americans very well. But Americans have little understanding of Arabs," Abu Nasser said.
"A few Indians got killed in the US after 9/11 because they were wearing turbans. The goal is to address American fears and show them to be unnecessary," he added.
In his final set, Jobrani concluded by issuing a stern, multi-dimensional warning: "Don't always blame Middle Easterners first," he said, "because it's not always us. I mean most of the time it is, but you know what I mean."
By Hassan Abdo and Christian Porth
Special to The Daily Star
Saturday, February 02, 2008
taken from here
JOUNIEH: "It's so nice to be in Beirut, because we've been censored in all other countries," said Ahmed Ahmed in his opening gambit at the Casino du Liban in December. After that first remark, Ahmed let loose a string of expletives, his curses as humorous to the audience as they were cathartic to the performer.
Ahmed represents one-third of the popular comedy troupe Axis of Evil, which wrapped up the last leg of its regional tour with a five-night stint at the venue north of Beirut following performances in Amman, Cairo, Dubai and Kuwait. In the months since, the Axis of Evil gigs have had a notable knock-on effect for Lebanon's local stand-up comedy scene.
The term "axis of evil" was first coined back in 2002. In his annual "State of the Union" address, US President George W. Bush asserted to Congress and the American people that Iran, Iraq and North Korea represented an "axis of evil" that was threatening to undermine world peace.
"It's taking a term we felt was silly and we're twisting it on its head," said another member of the comedy troupe, Maz Jobrani, who is of Iranian ancestry.
Axis of Evil is composed of Ahmed, Jobrani and Aron Kader - all Americans of Middle Eastern decent. For their five-night engagement at Casino du Liban, they were joined onstage by Won Ho Chung, who is of South Korean and Filipino ancestry and speaks fluent Arabic, and by Lebanon's own Nimr Abu Nassar.
It is said that laughter is the best medicine, and in times of political crisis, when the situation in the country leaves people with little to laugh about, a good dose of stand-up comedy may be just what the doctor ordered. The Axis of Evil comedy tour that swept through Lebanon in December drew in crowds by the thousands. The trio of stand-up comedians performed before a sold-out crowd each and every night.
According to Tarek Sikias of the Lebanese production company 2U2C, which produced the Axis of Evil appearance, the show was a huge success and sold over 5,000 tickets for five nights. The comedy routine had originally been scheduled for three nights only, but the organizers added two additional performances to meet the demand for tickets.
The Egyptian-born Ahmed, who also served as the show's host, said that in addition to the comedy tour, the group was also shooting a documentary designed for Western - specifically American - audiences. The aim of the documentary was to highlight the tour's message: "The rest of the world can laugh with us."
Although stand-up comedy existed in Lebanon before Axis of Evil took to the stage, it has benefited handsomely from the success and buzz of the December tour. Now local comedians such as Nimr Abu Nassar have no problem packing the house at local venues such as Gemmayzeh's Bar Louie to lay down jokes about everything from politics to sex.
In fact, Lebanon is arguably the only country in the Middle East that has a robust stand-up-comedy scene. According to Abu Nassar, the king of Lebanese stand-up comedy, the Axis of Evil show "gave us a lot of credibility."
"Their showing of support only helped to legitimize the demand for stand-up comedy in Lebanon," he said.
For Abu Nassar, the comedy tour gave him a personal boost. After his appearance at Casino du Liban, he sold out two shows at B018 Classique, near Sodeco Square, in an hour and followed up with a New Year's Eve performance at the Hard Rock Cafe. Now he said he had "a plethora of shows" lined up in the coming months.
The roots of what is known today as stand-up comedy stem primarily from the 1970s, when acts such as Steve Martin, George Carlin and Bill Cosby wowed audiences with their jokes and antics about every possible issue under the sun. New York City proved to be center stage for the comedy scene, where tiny venues like the Comedy Cellar gave local amateurs a chance to test their talent. It was in such places that Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock found their fame.
Today, Lebanon seems to be going through the same transition as local bars and pubs provide platforms for acts such as Abu Nassar's.
Regionally sponsored by the cable television network Showtime Arabia, the Axis of Evil tour also provided the pretext for a talent search across the Middle East. To this end, Showtime held open mic casting sessions throughout the tour.
Two students from the American University of Beirut (AUB), who earlier auditioned on campus for the New York-based comedy troupe, were selected by the Axis of Evil and Showtime to open one of the nights at Casino du Liban.
More than 40 students, mostly from AUB but also from other universities in Lebanon, signed up for the audition. About 20 actually turned up to perform. The two selected students, Arifi Waked, a graduate student in English literature, and Amir Haidar, a rising senior in mathematics, now have the opportunity to work with Showtime Arabia on producing original comedy routines.
Waked, who wears the hijab, said that she started doing stand-up comedy in order "to put a human face to the hijab, and invite people to lighten up the many issues that plague the Middle East."
"Showtime is very excited to be bringing the innovative Axis of Evil comedians to the Middle East for the first time," said Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, Showtime's president and CEO, at a news conference in December.
"This comedy tour, apart from entertaining," he added, "also educates its audiences by breaking down stereotypes and helping change minds."
By satirizing and critiquing all manner of stereotypes and misconceptions that dominate the discourse about the Middle East, the comedians hoped to prove that not only is there a viable market for comedy in the Middle East but also that the comprehension gap between the region and the West is bridgeable.
"It's really sad," said Jobrani. "American comedians never come to this part of the world to perform for the people of the region. They come to entertain American troops."
Although all three members of the comedic trio have roots in the Middle East, their humor is typically American, an offensive, no-holds-barred approach that is unafraid to tackle even the touchiest of subjects.
In fact, all three comedians expressed a degree of apprehension as to whether or not their style of humor would translate locally into laughs. But their worries proved unfounded as audiences roiled with laughter throughout the entire show.
Speaking about the perceived Israeli bias of the mainstream Western media, Kader, the product of a Palestinian father and a Mormon, said: "I'm tired of reading stories in the papers that say something like 'an Israeli tank was scratched by a rock.' Or 'Palestinian attacks Israeli bullets with body.'"
The performance, at least in Lebanon where greater freedoms of expression prevail, was both beautifully and poetically vulgar. "This is not church, we're not at mosque," Ahmed repeatedly reminded the crowd when some of the material touched on sensitive subjects, like religion and politics.
Admittedly, however, it does take an enlightened mind to understand the subtle argumentation in mocking ethnicity and the glorious, equalizing effect that it can provide.
Abu Nassar said unequivocally that they broke down stereotypes and did not reinforce them. "We're making fun of stereotypes we've all come to hate, but they are not true. We all know that," he added.
"To be reinforced they would also have to be justified. No one is justifying them. We are removing the mystery around these beliefs.
"Arabs know a lot about America and Americans. We see American movies, news, we read American books. We understand Americans very well. But Americans have little understanding of Arabs," Abu Nasser said.
"A few Indians got killed in the US after 9/11 because they were wearing turbans. The goal is to address American fears and show them to be unnecessary," he added.
In his final set, Jobrani concluded by issuing a stern, multi-dimensional warning: "Don't always blame Middle Easterners first," he said, "because it's not always us. I mean most of the time it is, but you know what I mean."
Monday, December 24, 2007
Hell No to Holland to host the International Tribunal
The Dutch should be the last to allowed to host the International Tribunal as they proved unqualified during their stay during the Yugoslav wars as part of UNPROFOR.
The Dutch's mediocre performance to protect a safe haven called Srebrenica in Bosnia led for a Bosnian Serb general (also supported by Belgrade) General Mladic to enter the enclave and butcher civilians with such brutality to the extent it was last witnessed in Europe during World War II. 7000 civilians were killed, women were raped, and Holland was not held accountable. The Bosniac faction raised lawsuits on Holland for not protecting the civilians (link). Mr. Ban should no better than to allow the Netherlands to host the Harriri International Tribunal which might trigger a new civil war in Lebanon.
How can the Lebanese government approve of this hilarious scenario?
MFL
The Dutch's mediocre performance to protect a safe haven called Srebrenica in Bosnia led for a Bosnian Serb general (also supported by Belgrade) General Mladic to enter the enclave and butcher civilians with such brutality to the extent it was last witnessed in Europe during World War II. 7000 civilians were killed, women were raped, and Holland was not held accountable. The Bosniac faction raised lawsuits on Holland for not protecting the civilians (link). Mr. Ban should no better than to allow the Netherlands to host the Harriri International Tribunal which might trigger a new civil war in Lebanon.
How can the Lebanese government approve of this hilarious scenario?
MFL
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend? Part II
While tackling the issue on certain situations, I would like to apply the concept Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend on the Lebanese level.
Lebanon by now has two dictated lines of “friends.” The first is embodied with 14th of March considering the following scenario: The Trio alliance of Future – Lebanese Forces/Phalange – the Progressive Socialist Party (feudal to my new readers). In any occasion the latter two parties were major antagonistic factors in opposing each other during the war, and spearheaded the Lebanese Front and the Lebanese National Movement during the civil war. Of course the coalition also has several minor actors as well which makes it even stronger. Hence three rivals shook hands together in an attempt to repel the returning ‘Syrian-Iranian’ axis. Afterwards, the PSP shook hands with a new friend, which is the United States, which previously also was an arch-enemy for the PSP during most of the years of the civil war. We should not forget the powerful non-party figures with 14th of March, such as Neyla Mou’awad and Ghassan Tuieni.
Hence the current final equation of the 14th of March would be: their own coalition, in addition Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, other gulf countries, United States, France, and others. This also include on the Palestinian level the support for Fatah, which enjoys currently US support and Israeli sympathy (proved again this week by releasing over 160 Fatah prisoners, and to be released, in an attempt to balance against Hamas).
Now we have the Opposition. The Opposition is composed mainly of 8th of March and the Free Patriotic Movement. The 8th of March is made of Hezbollah, powerful political figures (such as Michel el Murr, Sulieman Frangieh, yes I know he has a party but primarily it is a one man show figure, and Elias Skaiff), the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, AMAL, Tashnag, and others. The addition of the Free Patriotic Movement broke the trademark of 8th of March being tagged “Shiite” by the government, specially at the FPM’s earlier stages it dominated the majority of the Christian Street. The FPM has a lot of figureheads, but sadly everyone simply remains quoting Aoun. Aoun also dubbed Hezbollah as “terrorists” when he was in exile only to find himself in alliance with him for political interests. Hezbollah and AMAL intervened a lot on the SSNP and Lebanese Communist Party only to end up as allies. Several members of the SSNP used to accuse Aoun on public TV as a “traitor”, now they call him “the Perfect Presidential Candidate”.
With the Opposition come their alliances: Iran and Syria. With those alliances of course comes the support for George Galloway and Hugo Chavez, as opponents to US Imperialism. Third, they support Hamas, as a Hezbollah replica for resistance and political survivors. Fourth, support to (and vice versa) from anti-US imperialism. This increased in dimension when the July war broke out and Hezbollah were tagged as “National Liberation Army”, “New Zapatistas” (although that surprises me drastically as they differ in their platforms), “anti-US Imperialism”, and last “Anecdote to Zionist Aggression.” Fifth, they enjoy support (again via Hassan Nasrallah) the support of a lot of masses subject under Arab dictatorships such as Egypt. The Palestinian Jordanians in specific had a controversy among each other after Saddam was “executed”, they wept because Saddam always expressed solidarity to the Palestinians, but Hezbollah were celebrating in Dahhieh when Saddam died. Solidarity to Hezbollah dispersed. In most cases, the driving force is Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement.
So, as we notice, a lot of enemies are friends. Jaajaa and Junblatt shaking hands, SSNP becoming the breaking factor of hording votes to let Aoun’s candidate win against Gemayel, and so on. All of these are considered as short term alliances. They love each other for short run goals. A member of the Democratic Left would tell you: “Do you think I love Jaajaa, but hey I don’t want to be living in an Islamist Princedom.” Or a Aouni fan would say: “What do you think? You think we forgot how AMAL used to deliver us to Syrian Second Bureau? But we are fed up of Harriri stealing our food and money.” A trillion example can be found, but yes, as one fellow Palestinian activist in Lebanon told me: “I personally don’t care if Galloway is screwing up currently Marxism, but we have no choice in the matter, we have to think on how to oppose the United States, then after we win, we face them.” This is the same, another Democratic Leftist told me: “Once we are victorious against the Iranian Hezbollah, then puppet Syrian AMAL, then we will go and question Seniora’s policy, for now he is doing perfectly great.”
In any case, the last two cited quotes are excessively repeated on every situation. A member of the Lebanese Communist Party will find any chance to go and celebrate victory with Hezbollah because their rigid dogma would tell them: “Resistance to Israel comes first and above everything else.” Hence the Lebanese Communist Party argues he is with no one, but rushes down at every chance to support Hezbollah “in the name of resistance.” During the July war, actually I saw it one step further: Hezbollah assisting Helem in the relief work (via Samidoun) with maximum support. For those who do not know what Helem is, it is a movement composed of gay, lesbian, bisexuals, and even straights to defend homosexual rights in Lebanon (personally that movement is on my respect list). May be the July war was a survival critical moment, but that shows how the political arena is a survival moment.
The politicians impose historical amnesia on their supporters. Not one supporter encouraged the writing of a single unified history of Lebanon, because all of them have their hands dirty. And “Enemy of my Enemy is My Friend” is justified for survival moments. We have seen it in the past as well. In the 1950s, the Phalange and the SSNP were comrades in arms to defend the reign of Chamoun in the face of Nasser’s growing influence while the LCP was on the other side. Just a word not related to the entire topic, it never seizes to amaze me how politicians constantly downsize the historical role played by the LCP and the SSNP. Then we saw in 2005 George Hawwi (before getting assassinated) happy to see his step-son Rafi Madayan getting votes from the Phalange and doing vice versa. Actually the only illogical alliance, to top Aoun-Nasrallah lullaby would be Nasrallah ordering his supporters to support the Lebanese Forces in 2005 elections. More than once Nasrallah and Walid Junblatt supported each other as well. The greatest shock would be all key players agreeing on Suleiman Franjieh Sr. as President to get rid of the “Third Force”. This means Kamal Junblatt and Pierre Gemayel agreed with each other briefly. Even more ironic is the present, indirectly Samir Jaajaa and Amin Gemayel currently support via 14th of March their arch-enemies during the Lebanese Civil War, Fatah.
Once you support any of the two lines, you are stuck with the two earlier formulas or equations I said earlier. None of them would really care about real issues. 14th of March would say: “Oppose Syria/Iran”; the Opposition would say “Oppose Israel/United States” (except for the Aouni fans, they get lost sometimes between support for Aoun and that issue). Each neglects his own foreign sponsors and attacks the other’s.
In relation to Marxism and the situation, there can never be a “An Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend”. Marxism knows no such details, nothing at all except the emancipation of the Proletariat. Henceforth, we may support middle run goals which I would define gradual progress (such as better welfare system, civil marriage, transparency) but the bulk would remain: “Revolution of the Proletariat”. Someone told me that because we think that way the Lebanese Communist Party became that rigid, while Order for Communist Action disbanded. I say it is quiet the opposite. What made us go down is the quite the opposite. It is thinking of Short Run goals that got us to the situation. To bandwagon with the right-wing, declining on our goals, worse, drifting gradually away from the essence of our ideas that got us here because we lost the way to mingle with the masses, and lost them to Sectarian parties. While the Communists of the 1920s were doing a great job in building trade unions, now the trade unions became institutions under capitalist dictatorships that oppress their own syndicate members rather protect them from Capitalism. The most famous example in this regard would be the Syndicate of Engineers. No fresh engineer can find work in Lebanon unless he pays heavy material expenses to the Union and acquire membership. The Lebanese Communist Party still lacks the incentive to investigate whether Stalin is a real Marxist or not. It is irrelevant for them after all. It is also irrelevant for them to see the resurrection waves of Islamist and Patriarchal oppression to women. For once I would like to see the LCP proving me wrong about something, and it is easy to do so: let a female comrade for once lead the Lebanese Communist Party!
No War but Class War!
MFL
Lebanon by now has two dictated lines of “friends.” The first is embodied with 14th of March considering the following scenario: The Trio alliance of Future – Lebanese Forces/Phalange – the Progressive Socialist Party (feudal to my new readers). In any occasion the latter two parties were major antagonistic factors in opposing each other during the war, and spearheaded the Lebanese Front and the Lebanese National Movement during the civil war. Of course the coalition also has several minor actors as well which makes it even stronger. Hence three rivals shook hands together in an attempt to repel the returning ‘Syrian-Iranian’ axis. Afterwards, the PSP shook hands with a new friend, which is the United States, which previously also was an arch-enemy for the PSP during most of the years of the civil war. We should not forget the powerful non-party figures with 14th of March, such as Neyla Mou’awad and Ghassan Tuieni.
Hence the current final equation of the 14th of March would be: their own coalition, in addition Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, other gulf countries, United States, France, and others. This also include on the Palestinian level the support for Fatah, which enjoys currently US support and Israeli sympathy (proved again this week by releasing over 160 Fatah prisoners, and to be released, in an attempt to balance against Hamas).
Now we have the Opposition. The Opposition is composed mainly of 8th of March and the Free Patriotic Movement. The 8th of March is made of Hezbollah, powerful political figures (such as Michel el Murr, Sulieman Frangieh, yes I know he has a party but primarily it is a one man show figure, and Elias Skaiff), the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, AMAL, Tashnag, and others. The addition of the Free Patriotic Movement broke the trademark of 8th of March being tagged “Shiite” by the government, specially at the FPM’s earlier stages it dominated the majority of the Christian Street. The FPM has a lot of figureheads, but sadly everyone simply remains quoting Aoun. Aoun also dubbed Hezbollah as “terrorists” when he was in exile only to find himself in alliance with him for political interests. Hezbollah and AMAL intervened a lot on the SSNP and Lebanese Communist Party only to end up as allies. Several members of the SSNP used to accuse Aoun on public TV as a “traitor”, now they call him “the Perfect Presidential Candidate”.
With the Opposition come their alliances: Iran and Syria. With those alliances of course comes the support for George Galloway and Hugo Chavez, as opponents to US Imperialism. Third, they support Hamas, as a Hezbollah replica for resistance and political survivors. Fourth, support to (and vice versa) from anti-US imperialism. This increased in dimension when the July war broke out and Hezbollah were tagged as “National Liberation Army”, “New Zapatistas” (although that surprises me drastically as they differ in their platforms), “anti-US Imperialism”, and last “Anecdote to Zionist Aggression.” Fifth, they enjoy support (again via Hassan Nasrallah) the support of a lot of masses subject under Arab dictatorships such as Egypt. The Palestinian Jordanians in specific had a controversy among each other after Saddam was “executed”, they wept because Saddam always expressed solidarity to the Palestinians, but Hezbollah were celebrating in Dahhieh when Saddam died. Solidarity to Hezbollah dispersed. In most cases, the driving force is Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement.
So, as we notice, a lot of enemies are friends. Jaajaa and Junblatt shaking hands, SSNP becoming the breaking factor of hording votes to let Aoun’s candidate win against Gemayel, and so on. All of these are considered as short term alliances. They love each other for short run goals. A member of the Democratic Left would tell you: “Do you think I love Jaajaa, but hey I don’t want to be living in an Islamist Princedom.” Or a Aouni fan would say: “What do you think? You think we forgot how AMAL used to deliver us to Syrian Second Bureau? But we are fed up of Harriri stealing our food and money.” A trillion example can be found, but yes, as one fellow Palestinian activist in Lebanon told me: “I personally don’t care if Galloway is screwing up currently Marxism, but we have no choice in the matter, we have to think on how to oppose the United States, then after we win, we face them.” This is the same, another Democratic Leftist told me: “Once we are victorious against the Iranian Hezbollah, then puppet Syrian AMAL, then we will go and question Seniora’s policy, for now he is doing perfectly great.”
In any case, the last two cited quotes are excessively repeated on every situation. A member of the Lebanese Communist Party will find any chance to go and celebrate victory with Hezbollah because their rigid dogma would tell them: “Resistance to Israel comes first and above everything else.” Hence the Lebanese Communist Party argues he is with no one, but rushes down at every chance to support Hezbollah “in the name of resistance.” During the July war, actually I saw it one step further: Hezbollah assisting Helem in the relief work (via Samidoun) with maximum support. For those who do not know what Helem is, it is a movement composed of gay, lesbian, bisexuals, and even straights to defend homosexual rights in Lebanon (personally that movement is on my respect list). May be the July war was a survival critical moment, but that shows how the political arena is a survival moment.
The politicians impose historical amnesia on their supporters. Not one supporter encouraged the writing of a single unified history of Lebanon, because all of them have their hands dirty. And “Enemy of my Enemy is My Friend” is justified for survival moments. We have seen it in the past as well. In the 1950s, the Phalange and the SSNP were comrades in arms to defend the reign of Chamoun in the face of Nasser’s growing influence while the LCP was on the other side. Just a word not related to the entire topic, it never seizes to amaze me how politicians constantly downsize the historical role played by the LCP and the SSNP. Then we saw in 2005 George Hawwi (before getting assassinated) happy to see his step-son Rafi Madayan getting votes from the Phalange and doing vice versa. Actually the only illogical alliance, to top Aoun-Nasrallah lullaby would be Nasrallah ordering his supporters to support the Lebanese Forces in 2005 elections. More than once Nasrallah and Walid Junblatt supported each other as well. The greatest shock would be all key players agreeing on Suleiman Franjieh Sr. as President to get rid of the “Third Force”. This means Kamal Junblatt and Pierre Gemayel agreed with each other briefly. Even more ironic is the present, indirectly Samir Jaajaa and Amin Gemayel currently support via 14th of March their arch-enemies during the Lebanese Civil War, Fatah.
Once you support any of the two lines, you are stuck with the two earlier formulas or equations I said earlier. None of them would really care about real issues. 14th of March would say: “Oppose Syria/Iran”; the Opposition would say “Oppose Israel/United States” (except for the Aouni fans, they get lost sometimes between support for Aoun and that issue). Each neglects his own foreign sponsors and attacks the other’s.
In relation to Marxism and the situation, there can never be a “An Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend”. Marxism knows no such details, nothing at all except the emancipation of the Proletariat. Henceforth, we may support middle run goals which I would define gradual progress (such as better welfare system, civil marriage, transparency) but the bulk would remain: “Revolution of the Proletariat”. Someone told me that because we think that way the Lebanese Communist Party became that rigid, while Order for Communist Action disbanded. I say it is quiet the opposite. What made us go down is the quite the opposite. It is thinking of Short Run goals that got us to the situation. To bandwagon with the right-wing, declining on our goals, worse, drifting gradually away from the essence of our ideas that got us here because we lost the way to mingle with the masses, and lost them to Sectarian parties. While the Communists of the 1920s were doing a great job in building trade unions, now the trade unions became institutions under capitalist dictatorships that oppress their own syndicate members rather protect them from Capitalism. The most famous example in this regard would be the Syndicate of Engineers. No fresh engineer can find work in Lebanon unless he pays heavy material expenses to the Union and acquire membership. The Lebanese Communist Party still lacks the incentive to investigate whether Stalin is a real Marxist or not. It is irrelevant for them after all. It is also irrelevant for them to see the resurrection waves of Islamist and Patriarchal oppression to women. For once I would like to see the LCP proving me wrong about something, and it is easy to do so: let a female comrade for once lead the Lebanese Communist Party!
No War but Class War!
MFL
Monday, June 04, 2007
Bush and the Lebanese Army
Bush lately mentions how the Lebanese Army is "bravely" fighting terrorism, and denounced any attack on the Army. Question, how come Bush never denounced Israeli attacks and bombardment of the Lebanese Army last July when Israel bombed the hell out of the Lebanese Army, and told the world: "They are Hezbollah targets"
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Regarding Assad's Victory
Assad's "surprise" victory in the referendum (specially he was the only one nominee for the Syrian presidency) got people to wonder what were the options written on the voting card:
Option 1: Yes
Option 2: Of course
Option 1: Yes
Option 2: Of course
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Funny Incident in Jemayzi
Well, nightlife usually focuses on three hubs in Beirut: Hamra - Jemayzi - and Monot St...tonight I was in Jemayzi
As I was walking from one pub to another, the road was jammed ahead because there was a fight between two cars... a lot of people rushing outside the pub to see what is going on, and of course, ladies screaming: "wooooohoooooo".
Well, I crashed into one of the pubs (Jemayzi is made up from over 30-40 pubs in the same area, and guess what, another fight broke inside it. Usually the pubs are loaded with foreigners and Lebanese, but the fight broke out (well definitely alcohol speaking between both) between the Lebanese, but they were cursing at each other in English. That has been the case a lot of times elsewhere. Usually a fight takes place between two people, they start yelling at each other (in the hope someone notices them yelling and jumps in between to stop them), and dear "God" how much they swore at each other, then they pushed (a Push is a second invitation for friends to intervene and hold the fight from becoming physical, or the two do not want to indulge into a fight but displaying their "masculanity" ). This time people intervened, held the "glorious fight", and each gang sat alone, while the two "epical warriors" were yelling at each other. The funny part, swearing in Arabic is much more practical than in English, as trillions of vocabulary can be used to swear at the "evil other". The girls were laughing and saying: "this is cool, yay", the couples remained making out (here I refer to "Straights" and "Homosexuals" usually Lesbians) as if nothing took place.
Nevertheless, after 15 minutes, the two combatants sat next to each other, shook hands, and then started talking, eventually the two groups directly socialized and cracked jokes with each other. Eventually shots were flying around between them, and everyone was happy. Eventually, turns out one of the two combatants was a Lebanese who lived half his life in Texas, while my friend goes: "Screw Texas and Bush" (another Lebanese who lived in the States). He didn't notice her, and the group went out. As I walk, an Irish was explaining to his German friend, 95% of the fights take place are like that.
Well, eventually I saw bumch of Foreigners, (and we inter-mingled), and one of them was bragging how brave he is, to whom I remembered the image of the first person FLEEing during the evacuation, last July War, while the others I know were part of the Civilian Resistence to the Israeli Aggression through the websites and relief work.
Technically, I noticed a quadro racial treatment.
First, you got the Foreigners from all over the world, who brag, look at us, we are between you, Lebanese.
Second, you got the Lebanese who pretend they are foreigners, despite the fact they never left Lebanon at all, and try to emulate them.
Third, you got the internationalists, who think people are people wherever you go (my favourite)
Fourth, you got the Lebanese who think these foreigners are dumb and crack sarcastic joke (such as Khales La Allah: which means, no longer IQ and he is out of this planet with God).
For me, I am lucky. I am a Marxist, ie an Internationalist, people are people wherever you go, as simple as that. I felt like sharing this piece of experience at tonight's mini adventure.
As I was walking from one pub to another, the road was jammed ahead because there was a fight between two cars... a lot of people rushing outside the pub to see what is going on, and of course, ladies screaming: "wooooohoooooo".
Well, I crashed into one of the pubs (Jemayzi is made up from over 30-40 pubs in the same area, and guess what, another fight broke inside it. Usually the pubs are loaded with foreigners and Lebanese, but the fight broke out (well definitely alcohol speaking between both) between the Lebanese, but they were cursing at each other in English. That has been the case a lot of times elsewhere. Usually a fight takes place between two people, they start yelling at each other (in the hope someone notices them yelling and jumps in between to stop them), and dear "God" how much they swore at each other, then they pushed (a Push is a second invitation for friends to intervene and hold the fight from becoming physical, or the two do not want to indulge into a fight but displaying their "masculanity" ). This time people intervened, held the "glorious fight", and each gang sat alone, while the two "epical warriors" were yelling at each other. The funny part, swearing in Arabic is much more practical than in English, as trillions of vocabulary can be used to swear at the "evil other". The girls were laughing and saying: "this is cool, yay", the couples remained making out (here I refer to "Straights" and "Homosexuals" usually Lesbians) as if nothing took place.
Nevertheless, after 15 minutes, the two combatants sat next to each other, shook hands, and then started talking, eventually the two groups directly socialized and cracked jokes with each other. Eventually shots were flying around between them, and everyone was happy. Eventually, turns out one of the two combatants was a Lebanese who lived half his life in Texas, while my friend goes: "Screw Texas and Bush" (another Lebanese who lived in the States). He didn't notice her, and the group went out. As I walk, an Irish was explaining to his German friend, 95% of the fights take place are like that.
Well, eventually I saw bumch of Foreigners, (and we inter-mingled), and one of them was bragging how brave he is, to whom I remembered the image of the first person FLEEing during the evacuation, last July War, while the others I know were part of the Civilian Resistence to the Israeli Aggression through the websites and relief work.
Technically, I noticed a quadro racial treatment.
First, you got the Foreigners from all over the world, who brag, look at us, we are between you, Lebanese.
Second, you got the Lebanese who pretend they are foreigners, despite the fact they never left Lebanon at all, and try to emulate them.
Third, you got the internationalists, who think people are people wherever you go (my favourite)
Fourth, you got the Lebanese who think these foreigners are dumb and crack sarcastic joke (such as Khales La Allah: which means, no longer IQ and he is out of this planet with God).
For me, I am lucky. I am a Marxist, ie an Internationalist, people are people wherever you go, as simple as that. I felt like sharing this piece of experience at tonight's mini adventure.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Elias Attallah TV
I met with two friends linked with Junblatt's PSP, they were mocking Elias Attallah as more PSP than "Walid Baik" himself when he appeared last week on Future TV. What he is trying to do, topple We'am Wahhab on my hate list?
Friday, May 04, 2007
Olmert and Peretz: Two Clowns to go home
Well, seems the new road map of what Condi Rice spoke off while we were hearing Israeli airplanes above our heads received a new slap in the face. It has cost the US administration their allies, well at least Olmert’s cabinet. We all know that cabinet can be easily replaced with another. The Winograd commission literally proved what the non-Zionists been speaking about, Israel was too hasty to declare war on Lebanon (yes it is Lebanon and not Hezbollah when they threaten to throw Lebanon 20 years back!).
The BBC gathering thoughts and opinions reported a certain fellow, Orem Coen, saying: “Olmert is not qualified to be our prime minister, but who else is there?
Ariel Sharon was the last of the giants and now we're left with small businessman.
I don't want Benyamin Netanyahu, as that would be like replacing a donkey for a mule.”
This tells us that the only “giant” is Sharon, a man who Phil Habib and Morris Draper described as a “butcher”, a “bully”, and sometimes “insane”. That is the problem the Israelis do not understand, their Zionist ideology, this racism, this hatred, started the whole chain reaction when they (a minority) set out to displace a whole nation in a most terror-like manner (similar to al-Qa’eda brutality) and expected the neighbors would be understanding. Some of the stupid Zionists would reply, “but look they are Arabs, and there are plenty of Arab Land”, well that is as if saying: “Look, the people of Belgium are Europeans, and there is plenty of European Land”. That is it, Zionism is probably one of the remainders of colonial movements that survived the 19th Century, as Edward Said dissected perfectly well, and the 1948 crisis was the peak of all the disasters we are facing around here in the Middle East. The Lebanese instability of 1958, and civil war in 1975 broke out because of the domino effect triggered in 1948. You sure can’t expect to expel a whole race, then treat those who remained in a miraculous way as 3rd class citizens, without triggering reactions to what started as reactionary in the first place.
The Winograd Commission displayed errors, and more errors in entering automatically the war with Lebanon over an operation on an Israeli unit. The problem with the Olmert Cabinet, they needed an excuse to attack, that was the excuse. Ze’ev Schiff already spoke of certain Hezbollah operations intercepted prior to July 12, and the Israeli “Defense” Forces on purpose never increased their defense.
More interestingly, stupid Zionists would go and promote the idea that Hezbollah brought this on Lebanon. As far as I know, Israel did unaccountable operations over their borders on Lebanese soil without being held accountable. Fishermen shot, cluster bombs till this day explode on civilians, shattered Lebanese economy, and the most ironic part: Hezbollah emerged stronger than ever. Olmert tried to claim victory that the UNIFIL exist in South Lebanon, but that was not sufficient to save his PM throne. All UNIFIL will run away at the first site of a bullet. We have seen the UN “Peace” Keepers and “Enforcers”, they just run. Only the NATO forces can be considered a true force with real fire power. We have seen how NATO imposed peace during the disintegration of former Yugoslavia.
But this situation is different, it took a Zionist commission to convince the Israelis they were wrong to attack Lebanon, not for “virtuous reasons” rather to avoid more military disasters. Israel, that claims Hezbollah caused the destruction of Lebanon, was in fact their troops shooting and bombing almost the whole of Lebanon. Israel could have resorted to diplomacy, and political pressures. Instead, they slaughtered 1300 Lebanese, and more are getting killed by the remaining horrific cluster bombs. Worse, the Red Cross confirmed that Israel was using banned weaponry, also to be denounced by Anan himself, but the US argued that Israel has the right to defend itself. This reminds us of Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All people are equal, but some people are more equal”. Finally, it never occurred to the Israelis that Hezbollah exists in this strength with such popularity not due to Iran solely, we have already seen militant groups in Lebanon crumbling down despite nice finances, rather because of Israeli brutality on the people. At a one point, the South of Lebanon were facing both the Israelis and the Palestinians, something the Israelis always fail to mention it to their people. (Zionists forcing their people to live in a certain framework?). In the end, once the Israelis fail to counter every argument, specially they did the slaughters, they would accuse you of “Anti-Semitism” for criticizing the Israeli cabinet’s decision (which I keep failing to see how does a war decision got to do with racism, and more interestingly how can the Lebanese be Anti-Semites or the Palestinians, since they all originate from the Kena’ans).
Then, we got Levni. Levni’s story is interesting. Like most of the Israeli cabinet, and definitely Sharon’s lousy party, she is an ex-military. She was part of the Mossad, she became Sharon’s right-hand, a co-founder of the Kadima Party (which without Sharon wouldn’t have had any real value), and last but not least, she was minister foreigner, highest position taken since Golda Meir. Whatever Peretz and committed blunders during the July War, we saw Levni pleading to the media Israel was simply “DEFENDING” itself, rather bombing the whole of Lebanon. It should be noted, the more Israel intensified its attacks, the more Hezbollah retaliated. After doing face safe for Israel, specially amidst the media blackout we were living in, during the July War, suddenly key cabinet members tried to scapegoat her for the war to cover her own blunders. As Olmert was saying the party emerged unified, Levni bombs Olmert with the statement to resign as a Prime Minister, while announcing herself indirectly as the Candidate. Seems the tables have turned on “Hitler” Olmert (as a lot call him in Lebanon), now Levni is scapegoating Olmert.
What the July War left impact on the Israelis, it also left a psychological fear. First, their military defenses crumbled down. Second, their pride, the “indestructible” tank Mirkava turned out to be a sitting duck. Third, they launched a war on an entire nation and kept it a hostage for an additional month under the banner of retrieving the soldiers (although at the rate they bombed Lebanon, I wouldn’t be surprised that they could have killed the two soldiers), and never got them back. Fourth, they decided to destroy Hezbollah, Hezbollah emerged stronger and even a stronger balancer of power against the 14th of March coalition. Fifth, their army suffered military defeat, whether sending their elite forces or their regular infantry or the reserves, they got slapped in the face. The only thing that keeps Israel still confident about its “existence” is their plane superiority and naval power (although even that was heavily scratched). Little do they know, that technology generates economies of scale, with that the “underdogs” started to catch up to them on the military aspect. All they hope is to still bargain on the holocaust committed between 1939-1944 to cover up for their own holocaust committed on the behalf of the Lebanese and the Palestinians. I mean what type of stupid Defense Minister would open a second front while he got one open amidst the occupied lands of Palestine?
Last but not least, the July war empowered Nasrallah. Now Hezbollah grew even stronger ever since they accomplished their military victory over the Israeli army. For starters, 95% of the Israelis killed were non-civilians, unlike what the Israelis did, and henceforth won the hearts of the Anti-US imperialist movements blindly, forgetting that Hezbollah is a reactionary party by itself. This again, we got to thank the Israelis, they gave Hezbollah since the 1982 invasion a chance to exist, and through their brutality, they gave (along with other factors) Hezbollah to grow such a popular base, not only among the Shiites, but also the Christians. Hezbollah's flags were raised through out the Arab Nations (and Muslim nations) as well as a lot of anti-US imperialism rallies (which I find illogical). Israel's neighbors are getting weaker, such as Egypt and Jordan, and despite their oppressive superiority over their people, one day they will crumble down, and the Israelis can thank their Zionist leaders for that happening.
It is time for the Israelis themselves to start considering a secular government that is not Zionist, and definitely not brutal and racist like the ones before. At least, this is the first step to establish real peace if they want with their neighbors, and I am not talking fake peace with the Jordanians or Egypt, whose base masses more and more across the years hate their leaderships. The Israelis already feel they are canned in their borders, and their Zionist leaders are bringing racism towards them due to their own brutality. Some Israelis never learn from this mistake, that it was their butchery that triggered all this Fiasco since the Zionist project was on a most devastating manner was applied. Someone will reply: “Oh yeah, but this is my land”, the problem is, prior of the Zionist project taking place effectively, there were only 7% of the population of Palestine in 1915 that could argue they lived in this land for more than a century. Most of the people of Israel can’t go beyond a century that they lived in it, that should give them a clue or two. More importantly, if Israel means peace, the only solution to prove itself is by seizing to be racist towards the others. We already know and read a lot of references how the European Jews are racists towards the Arab Jews. Even the Cartoonist Joe Sacco gathered statements that the Palestinians and the Arab Jews got no problem with each other, and a lot regard each other as “Kins”, yet the European Jews got the issues, because they brought with them the logic of “Zionism” and its racism. Natanyaho is not an option, and arms will not preserve safety for Israel, the July War proved that the underdogs caught up with the “giants”, now it is time the people abandoned Zionism, and embraced Internationalism. The Israelis forgot about the Anti-War demonstrations in Israel in 1982, which had at a one point over 200,000 Jewish demonstrators, and eventually shot down the war pig Sharon out as a defense minister.
No War But Class War
Down with all Forms of Nationalism
MFL
PS: I know one thing for sure, I will really party and celebrate once these two bastards Peretz and Olmert resign, I reserved a nice bottle of Red Wine to drink of a certain special brand, for butchering 1300 Lebanese, wounding 5000, and let us not forget their daily on-going massacres in Palestine.
The BBC gathering thoughts and opinions reported a certain fellow, Orem Coen, saying: “Olmert is not qualified to be our prime minister, but who else is there?
Ariel Sharon was the last of the giants and now we're left with small businessman.
I don't want Benyamin Netanyahu, as that would be like replacing a donkey for a mule.”
This tells us that the only “giant” is Sharon, a man who Phil Habib and Morris Draper described as a “butcher”, a “bully”, and sometimes “insane”. That is the problem the Israelis do not understand, their Zionist ideology, this racism, this hatred, started the whole chain reaction when they (a minority) set out to displace a whole nation in a most terror-like manner (similar to al-Qa’eda brutality) and expected the neighbors would be understanding. Some of the stupid Zionists would reply, “but look they are Arabs, and there are plenty of Arab Land”, well that is as if saying: “Look, the people of Belgium are Europeans, and there is plenty of European Land”. That is it, Zionism is probably one of the remainders of colonial movements that survived the 19th Century, as Edward Said dissected perfectly well, and the 1948 crisis was the peak of all the disasters we are facing around here in the Middle East. The Lebanese instability of 1958, and civil war in 1975 broke out because of the domino effect triggered in 1948. You sure can’t expect to expel a whole race, then treat those who remained in a miraculous way as 3rd class citizens, without triggering reactions to what started as reactionary in the first place.
The Winograd Commission displayed errors, and more errors in entering automatically the war with Lebanon over an operation on an Israeli unit. The problem with the Olmert Cabinet, they needed an excuse to attack, that was the excuse. Ze’ev Schiff already spoke of certain Hezbollah operations intercepted prior to July 12, and the Israeli “Defense” Forces on purpose never increased their defense.
More interestingly, stupid Zionists would go and promote the idea that Hezbollah brought this on Lebanon. As far as I know, Israel did unaccountable operations over their borders on Lebanese soil without being held accountable. Fishermen shot, cluster bombs till this day explode on civilians, shattered Lebanese economy, and the most ironic part: Hezbollah emerged stronger than ever. Olmert tried to claim victory that the UNIFIL exist in South Lebanon, but that was not sufficient to save his PM throne. All UNIFIL will run away at the first site of a bullet. We have seen the UN “Peace” Keepers and “Enforcers”, they just run. Only the NATO forces can be considered a true force with real fire power. We have seen how NATO imposed peace during the disintegration of former Yugoslavia.
But this situation is different, it took a Zionist commission to convince the Israelis they were wrong to attack Lebanon, not for “virtuous reasons” rather to avoid more military disasters. Israel, that claims Hezbollah caused the destruction of Lebanon, was in fact their troops shooting and bombing almost the whole of Lebanon. Israel could have resorted to diplomacy, and political pressures. Instead, they slaughtered 1300 Lebanese, and more are getting killed by the remaining horrific cluster bombs. Worse, the Red Cross confirmed that Israel was using banned weaponry, also to be denounced by Anan himself, but the US argued that Israel has the right to defend itself. This reminds us of Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All people are equal, but some people are more equal”. Finally, it never occurred to the Israelis that Hezbollah exists in this strength with such popularity not due to Iran solely, we have already seen militant groups in Lebanon crumbling down despite nice finances, rather because of Israeli brutality on the people. At a one point, the South of Lebanon were facing both the Israelis and the Palestinians, something the Israelis always fail to mention it to their people. (Zionists forcing their people to live in a certain framework?). In the end, once the Israelis fail to counter every argument, specially they did the slaughters, they would accuse you of “Anti-Semitism” for criticizing the Israeli cabinet’s decision (which I keep failing to see how does a war decision got to do with racism, and more interestingly how can the Lebanese be Anti-Semites or the Palestinians, since they all originate from the Kena’ans).
Then, we got Levni. Levni’s story is interesting. Like most of the Israeli cabinet, and definitely Sharon’s lousy party, she is an ex-military. She was part of the Mossad, she became Sharon’s right-hand, a co-founder of the Kadima Party (which without Sharon wouldn’t have had any real value), and last but not least, she was minister foreigner, highest position taken since Golda Meir. Whatever Peretz and committed blunders during the July War, we saw Levni pleading to the media Israel was simply “DEFENDING” itself, rather bombing the whole of Lebanon. It should be noted, the more Israel intensified its attacks, the more Hezbollah retaliated. After doing face safe for Israel, specially amidst the media blackout we were living in, during the July War, suddenly key cabinet members tried to scapegoat her for the war to cover her own blunders. As Olmert was saying the party emerged unified, Levni bombs Olmert with the statement to resign as a Prime Minister, while announcing herself indirectly as the Candidate. Seems the tables have turned on “Hitler” Olmert (as a lot call him in Lebanon), now Levni is scapegoating Olmert.
What the July War left impact on the Israelis, it also left a psychological fear. First, their military defenses crumbled down. Second, their pride, the “indestructible” tank Mirkava turned out to be a sitting duck. Third, they launched a war on an entire nation and kept it a hostage for an additional month under the banner of retrieving the soldiers (although at the rate they bombed Lebanon, I wouldn’t be surprised that they could have killed the two soldiers), and never got them back. Fourth, they decided to destroy Hezbollah, Hezbollah emerged stronger and even a stronger balancer of power against the 14th of March coalition. Fifth, their army suffered military defeat, whether sending their elite forces or their regular infantry or the reserves, they got slapped in the face. The only thing that keeps Israel still confident about its “existence” is their plane superiority and naval power (although even that was heavily scratched). Little do they know, that technology generates economies of scale, with that the “underdogs” started to catch up to them on the military aspect. All they hope is to still bargain on the holocaust committed between 1939-1944 to cover up for their own holocaust committed on the behalf of the Lebanese and the Palestinians. I mean what type of stupid Defense Minister would open a second front while he got one open amidst the occupied lands of Palestine?
Last but not least, the July war empowered Nasrallah. Now Hezbollah grew even stronger ever since they accomplished their military victory over the Israeli army. For starters, 95% of the Israelis killed were non-civilians, unlike what the Israelis did, and henceforth won the hearts of the Anti-US imperialist movements blindly, forgetting that Hezbollah is a reactionary party by itself. This again, we got to thank the Israelis, they gave Hezbollah since the 1982 invasion a chance to exist, and through their brutality, they gave (along with other factors) Hezbollah to grow such a popular base, not only among the Shiites, but also the Christians. Hezbollah's flags were raised through out the Arab Nations (and Muslim nations) as well as a lot of anti-US imperialism rallies (which I find illogical). Israel's neighbors are getting weaker, such as Egypt and Jordan, and despite their oppressive superiority over their people, one day they will crumble down, and the Israelis can thank their Zionist leaders for that happening.
It is time for the Israelis themselves to start considering a secular government that is not Zionist, and definitely not brutal and racist like the ones before. At least, this is the first step to establish real peace if they want with their neighbors, and I am not talking fake peace with the Jordanians or Egypt, whose base masses more and more across the years hate their leaderships. The Israelis already feel they are canned in their borders, and their Zionist leaders are bringing racism towards them due to their own brutality. Some Israelis never learn from this mistake, that it was their butchery that triggered all this Fiasco since the Zionist project was on a most devastating manner was applied. Someone will reply: “Oh yeah, but this is my land”, the problem is, prior of the Zionist project taking place effectively, there were only 7% of the population of Palestine in 1915 that could argue they lived in this land for more than a century. Most of the people of Israel can’t go beyond a century that they lived in it, that should give them a clue or two. More importantly, if Israel means peace, the only solution to prove itself is by seizing to be racist towards the others. We already know and read a lot of references how the European Jews are racists towards the Arab Jews. Even the Cartoonist Joe Sacco gathered statements that the Palestinians and the Arab Jews got no problem with each other, and a lot regard each other as “Kins”, yet the European Jews got the issues, because they brought with them the logic of “Zionism” and its racism. Natanyaho is not an option, and arms will not preserve safety for Israel, the July War proved that the underdogs caught up with the “giants”, now it is time the people abandoned Zionism, and embraced Internationalism. The Israelis forgot about the Anti-War demonstrations in Israel in 1982, which had at a one point over 200,000 Jewish demonstrators, and eventually shot down the war pig Sharon out as a defense minister.
No War But Class War
Down with all Forms of Nationalism
MFL
PS: I know one thing for sure, I will really party and celebrate once these two bastards Peretz and Olmert resign, I reserved a nice bottle of Red Wine to drink of a certain special brand, for butchering 1300 Lebanese, wounding 5000, and let us not forget their daily on-going massacres in Palestine.
Friday, March 30, 2007
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
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
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Aoun's Big Mouth
As I sit and watch Aoun on Manar TV attacking the others and accusing them of fabricating lies, then how come he forgot that he placed a picture on Manar TV which was fabricated of an alleged Lebanese Forces carrying a light weapon aimed at demonstrators? He must have a short term memory. Oh yeah, I noticed he still got the habit of telling people to shut up when he wants to speak.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Everything in Reverse in Lebanon
Usually, the leaders usually need the people to support and not vice versa, as this is the case of Lebanon where a member of the Sect supports the sect-leader to be protected or have a better business or etc etc etc
Second, we study in economics that when prices go up, the demand for the commodity goes down. Is it true? Well in Lebanon it is different, the more expensive the product is, the more there is demand on the product.
Third, if you are a minority in a region, you lack protection, which means shut up or be beaten by the opposing camp.
Fourth, the media should reflect the truth of the situation, it is inventing a situation.
Fifth, every single civil war ends, (at least in Eastern Europe), the war criminals were put on trial (as much as they could) as a means of true reconciliation, in Lebanon they were all walking free, with few exiled for temprary reasons and one imprisoned, because they were temprary not part of the game.
Sixth, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer under the open 100% Capitalist system, but instead the Sect Leaders get more support while usually people (specially been witnessed lately in Latin America) the people trash the leaders. Funny no?
Seventh, in time of crisis, things reach a climax and then everything calms down as one capitalist layer of greedy pigs replaces another, while over here the show goes on without any settlement.
Eight, opposition should occur on platforms and not ideas.
Nineth, Rock Metal albums have been banned in Lebanon since 1995 (well officially at least) while Dubai is hosting Iron Maidon which is considered number 1 black listed in Lebanon and primary encourager of teens to commit suicide.
Tenth, everyone claims independence but in reality all, like cowards, refute to say the truth, and publicly say that the solution is coming from outside.
A nation full of contradictions
A nation full of errors
A nation that was invented by mistake
And people blindy say: Long Live Lebanon, forever and ever (yeah right)
Second, we study in economics that when prices go up, the demand for the commodity goes down. Is it true? Well in Lebanon it is different, the more expensive the product is, the more there is demand on the product.
Third, if you are a minority in a region, you lack protection, which means shut up or be beaten by the opposing camp.
Fourth, the media should reflect the truth of the situation, it is inventing a situation.
Fifth, every single civil war ends, (at least in Eastern Europe), the war criminals were put on trial (as much as they could) as a means of true reconciliation, in Lebanon they were all walking free, with few exiled for temprary reasons and one imprisoned, because they were temprary not part of the game.
Sixth, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer under the open 100% Capitalist system, but instead the Sect Leaders get more support while usually people (specially been witnessed lately in Latin America) the people trash the leaders. Funny no?
Seventh, in time of crisis, things reach a climax and then everything calms down as one capitalist layer of greedy pigs replaces another, while over here the show goes on without any settlement.
Eight, opposition should occur on platforms and not ideas.
Nineth, Rock Metal albums have been banned in Lebanon since 1995 (well officially at least) while Dubai is hosting Iron Maidon which is considered number 1 black listed in Lebanon and primary encourager of teens to commit suicide.
Tenth, everyone claims independence but in reality all, like cowards, refute to say the truth, and publicly say that the solution is coming from outside.
A nation full of contradictions
A nation full of errors
A nation that was invented by mistake
And people blindy say: Long Live Lebanon, forever and ever (yeah right)
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