The General Of The Dead Army

Hezbollah says they have in their possession body parts of Israeli soldiers dead during the July 2006 agression on Lebanon and abandoned on the battlefield by the Israeli army. (Reuters 19.01.08. 22h30 by Yara Bayoumy,)

I read this yesterday and asked myself what is the point of Israeli soldiers' body parts thrown in the middle of a speech on 'Achoura day ? 'Achoura for the Shias designates the tenth day of the first month of the Muslim year during which the community commemorates the killing on year 680, at the orders of the Umayyad Caliph, of Imam Husayn, son of Imam Ali, and grand'son of the prophet. It is a day of atonement, remembrance and mourning.

"O zionists, your army has been lying to you. Parts of your dead soldiers' bodies were left behind in our fields and in our orchards", Nasrallah declared to a crowd of hundred thousands gathered for the commemoration of 'Achoura.
"Our moudjahidins are used to fight these zionists, to kill them and to keep whatever left of their bodies (...) I am telling Israelis, We have your soldiers heads, we have their hands, we have their legs", added Nasrallah, who was speaking on a rare appearance. He has not been seen in a public appearance since months.

The 34 days of the Israeli agression on Lebanon left Israel with 157 deaths, most of them soldiers, while there were more than 1200 victims on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians.
"We even possess an entire body, we also have half bodies or more, from the head to the chest", insisited the head of Hezbollah.

Israel condemned the speech as a disregard for elementary humanitarian principles and even the religious principles of Islam. Some in Israel were of the opinion to ignore the speech as not to give importance to Nasrallah. Some analysts believe that Nasrallah's speech is meant to pressure Israel into releasing Lebanese prisoners in exchange of the two Israeli soldiers detained by Hezbollah and whose kidnapping officially started the 34 days Israeli agression on Lebanon. Twice this month, Israel detained temporarily for interrogation, from Lebanese territory, two Lebanese shepherds. Israel continues also to violate Lebanon's airspace almost daily.

"We believe that Israeli attacks against civilians on the border are humiliations for the lebanese nation and its people. We cannot stay silent in the face of these attacks and we must confront them one day, if God's willing." Threatened Nasrallah.

The head of Hezbollah doubted the capacity of the political and military leadership of Israel to launch another war on Lebanon. But he added that if this were to happen, "We promise them a war that will change the destiny of the region."

Despite the fact that it was delivered to a civil audience, and on a religious occasion, Nasrallah's speech is 100% military speech, destined in the first place to Israel's implicit Lebanese allies, Sanyura, Hariri, and March 14th. Everybody knows that an army that respects itself doesn't leave bodies of soldiers behind or, if it leaves them, it tries to have them back by time of peace either through negotiations or through war. Israel has been ignoring this fact and doing neither, probably becuse it neither wants negotiations nor another defeat.

The theme of dead soldiers' bodies and armies' honor has inspired poets and novelists. One of the most interesting novels on the subject was written by Albanian author Ismail Kadare, "The General Of The Dead Army".

Twenty years after World War II, an Italian general, armed with maps, measurements, and dental records, and accompanied by a priest, is sent to Albania to recover the remains of his country’s fallen soldiers. In addition to the brutal weather, they have to be wary of the hostility of the Albanians working for them. This may be an errand of mercy for the general, but the chance to humiliate their one-time conquerors offers the Albanians a welcome vengeance. But there is an escalation, at a wedding, the Italian general must answer for the crimes of his country and all countries that have invaded this 'land of eagles', seeking to destroy its people.

Beside the fact that Nasrallah is emulating Imam Ali's speeches, this speech is clearly a challenge for Israel to revisit the battlefield where it was defeated because an army that leaves its soldiers behind is an army without honor. Some may think that Nasrallah has gone mad. Why provoke Israel ? To receive the same reply as in July 2006? But we are now in 2008, and, through Israel and its defeat in 2006, Nasrallah is sending a signal to his opponents in Lebanon who are refusing any compromise. We know that Sanyura and March 14th were hoping for a swift Israeli victory over Hezbollah in 2006. Nasrallah is now taunting them. He is showing them how not even Israel wants to visit its battlefield with Hezbollah once again.

Lebanon is going through its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, and negotiations between the Hezbollah led oppostion and the government on a consensus presidential candidate are stalling to the point many are evoking the risk of a new civil war. Nasrallah has stated on many occasions that Hezbollah will never use its military power against other Lebanese, as he has never done so in the past, an act from which Hezbollah takes pride and popularity. Nasrallah was conciliatory to a maximum with the government and March 14th who are showing no will to talk to his powerful alliance, betting on the inability of Hezbollah to engage in internal warfare and risk losing its popularity. And so Nasrallah is sending a signal to the Sanyura government telling them that Hezbollah can engage at any time in hostilities against Israel, recreating the kind of consensus around him that emerged spontaneously during the Israeli agression on Lebanon. This might be Sanyura's and March 14th's worst nightmare. They would rather prefer a civil war in which they receive US and Israeli support to terminate Hezbollah. But Nasrallah is fully aware of this and aware that this is exactly what is behind the stalling of the negotiations on the future president while the country is without a president since the end of August. So if one party is determined not to engage in a civil war when it had many chances to do so during the last two years, there won't be a civil war, despite the many efforts made by Saudi paid Sunni extremists, renegades from the Iraqi insurgency, to throw chaos in Lebanon leading to a new civil war.

Then the only way this is going to end is, most probably, and if Hezbollah has the means, by a new war with Israel. And don't expect Israel to listen to Sanyura or any other anti-Hezbollah politician in Lebanon, but it will do so only when feels the time is right. Now, fresh from ist defeat, the time isn't right for Israel to launch another war on Lebanon. Hence, Nasrallah,s taunting of Israel about its dead soldiers left behind. Recently, the web has been buzzing with reports from military strategists reflecting on the Israeli debacle against Hezbollah in July 2006 and on future prospects.

And so it seems that Nasrallah's mention of Israel's dead soldiers held by Hezbollah is just a reminder to the lousy politicians in Lebanon that an agreement is unescapable.

UPDATE ON february 16th: Sanyura warns Hezbollah that an open war against israel is bad for Arabs and Muslims.
Le Hezbollah affirme détenir des "restes" de soldats israéliens.

The US, Israel, and the rise of Extremisms in the ME

Une alliance contre nature entre Israel et le front Populaire de Libération de la Palestine ayant pour but de torpiller le rapprochement entre l'OLP d'un côté et les Américains et les Français de l'autre serait à l'origine du raid.
An alliance between Israel and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was at the origin of the Entebbé plane hijacking. The operation had as a goal to stop a growing rapprochement between the PLO, France and the US. Israel knew the configuration of the airport because it was built by israel during the years of mutual collaboration with Idi Amin Dada.

The lesson is one should be suspicious of extremisms of all sorts. Israel always encouraged extremist Palestinian factions by weakening the moderates. Also, Israel excels, not in the art of war, as we have seen in its last agression on Lebanon, but in the art of spying and infiltration attested by high profile operations outside its territory against its opponents, and the many suspicions surrounding its role in others.

Israel is pursuing the same method in the cyberspace and many propalestinian bloggers are clearly infiltrated. I have personally followed some cases.

Read here my other article on the Entebbé raid.

I am now in Athens and my travel through airports got me to watch TV news from Lebanon. Usually I don't watch news on TV. What the Sanyura government is doing is very ugly. It is copying the methods of the Israeli government. What is it pursuing ? I don't know. All I know is that all this fighting has two immediate consequences, distracting from real issues in Lebanon, the corruption and the weakness and illegitimacy of the Sanyura government, as well as more chaos nearing a low intensity civil war. A woman behind me at Heathrow was in tears watching Kim Ghattas reporting for the BBC from North Lebanon.

Looking also at Athens and the fortress that is the US embassy here, surrounded by iron walls, and the history of the country within its relations with the US, one can fairly say that the more the US empire tries to subjugate people, the more they oppose it. The US helped install a military dictatorship here in Greece. This dictatorship took power and legitimacy, with the help of the US, through a coup which threw the centrist democratically elected government of Constatntin Karamanlis, only because the US and the army feared that the centrist government of a conservative may be open to the communist party. Later the US dropped its support for the Greek military regime when it became evident that this regime was going to collapse after its failed invasion of Cyprus and the crisis that followed, to rally another ally military regime in Turkey.

Sanyura is nothing but another US and Israel puppet in the region. He will be dismissed one day by his masters. The sooner, the better. This only thought consoles me when watching the mess in Lebanon.

Read this post by Angry Arab on the demisse of Nasser, Secularism, and the concomittant rise of Muslim extremism and US influence in the Arab world.

More from Angry Arab on the links between the pro US Sanyura government and Sunni Muslim extremism in Lebanon:
Bahiyyah Hariri, aunt of Saad, the present political leader of the Sanyura government coalition in lebanon who is battling Fatah El-Islam, admits she financed Fatah el-Islam members.
Also, Sanyura distinguishes between good FEI members nad bad ones.

Unpopular and failed governments in Israel and Lebanon and the sacrifice of Palestinian civilians

The last Israeli agression on Lebanon that was supposed to crush Hezbollah was a disaster to both countries, a disaster to peace in the region, and a bigger disaster for Palestinians. Palestinians are so let down by the Arab and international community that killing them isn't a big deal anymore. And that is exactly what is happening in Lebanon under the cover of fighting Muslim extremists.

The defeat of Israel in its last agression on Lebanon has produced, on top of the civilian casualties, and the cluster bombs that continue to kill in Lebanon, and the 800000 refugees, and the destruction of the country and the land and the harvest for a long time to come, two unpopular and rotten governments hanging on power against the odds and against democratic common sense. Olmert for example enjoys a popularity rate under the margin of error. As for Lebanon's PM Sanyura (Siniora in the western press), there was no investigation committee on his role during the war and no opinion polls to test his popularity. But you know that things have gone wrong when this PM, who is hanging on an amputated government contested since November by more than half the population, orders his army, who never lifted a finger against any agression on Lebanon, not even during the Israeli agression, to attack Palestinian refugee camps inside Lebanon.

The Muslim extremists whom Sanyura is fighting were able to infiltrate the camps thanks to Sanyura's all time ally Hariri and his Saudi mentors. One can recognize here the neocon doctrine at work; maintaining muslim extremists at hand in order to justify wars and civilian casualties. These confrontations, which Sanyura and his allies seem to attribute to Syrian interference in Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon, are tailored to pressure an increasingly hesitant national security council towards establishing a special tribunal for Lebanon, officializing the vassalization of Lebanon to US and French interests and consequently tipping the balance of power toward an increasingly unpopular US sponsored Sanyura government and its March 14th ally, against the will of more than half the population, the Shias led by Amal and Hezbollah, and half the Christians led by general Michel Aoun, in addition to support form a sizeable part of other communities (sunnis and druzes).

But thanks to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the Lebanese government move should not be considered otherwise than a survival manoeuvre. Like Olmert, whose army is continuing to kill palestinians in order to distract his political detractors inside Israel, the political survival manoeuvres launched by the Sanyura government in northern Lebanon are made on the dead bodies of civilians to distract from his government unpopularity and lack of support. More than cluster bombs and more than nuclear weapons, failed politicians in the ME are the most dangerous weapons againt civilian populations and against regional and international peace. Failed Politicians in the ME are Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yet, the US foreign policy has been doing just that, implementing Weapons of Mass destruction in the ME by supporting failed politicians (and sometimes removing them when they become disobediant and replacing them by other failed ones more obediant), feeding wars and conflicts, in total disregard for human life.

Here are some excerpts from Hersh's article 'The redirection' shwowing clearly the link between the US supported Sanyura and Hariri government and the sunni extremists they are pretending to fight now in norhtern Lebanon. I let you draw the conclusions...

''In 2005, according to a report by the U.S.-based International Crisis Group, Saad Hariri, the Sunni majority leader of the Lebanese parliament and the son of the slain former Prime Minister—Saad inherited more than four billion dollars after his father’s assassination—paid forty-eight thousand dollars in bail for four members of an Islamic militant group from Dinniyeh. The men had been arrested while trying to establish an Islamic mini-state in northern Lebanon. The Crisis Group noted that many of the militants “had trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan''.''
''In an interview in Beirut, a senior official in the Siniora government acknowledged that there were Sunni jihadists operating inside Lebanon. “We have a liberal attitude that allows Al Qaeda types to have a presence here,” he said. He related this to concerns that Iran or Syria might decide to turn Lebanon into a “theatre of conflict.”''
''Martin Indyk, of the Saban Center, said, however, that the United States “does not have enough pull to stop the moderates* in Lebanon from dealing with the extremists.” He added, “The President sees the region as divided between moderates and extremists, but our regional friends see it as divided between Sunnis and Shia. The Sunnis that we view as extremists are regarded by our Sunni allies simply as Sunnis.”''
''Alastair Crooke, who spent nearly thirty years in MI6, the British intelligence service, and now works for Conflicts Forum, a think tank in Beirut, told me, “The Lebanese government is opening space for these people to come in. It could be very dangerous.” Crooke said that one Sunni extremist group, Fatah al-Islam, had splintered from its pro-Syrian parent group, Fatah al-Intifada, in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, in northern Lebanon. Its membership at the time was less than two hundred. “I was told that within twenty-four hours they were being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as representatives of the Lebanese government’s interests—presumably to take on Hezbollah,” Crooke said.''

*Please note that what the US (and neocon Indyk) call 'moderates' in Lebanon refers only to US allies without regard to their local political or religious allegiances.

Lebanon: Sectarian Tensions are being exacerbated to hide an Ailing Economy and a Failed Governance

I read an interesting analysis posted at Loubnan Ya Loubnan on the state of the lebanese debt and economy and it gave me some ammunitions because I have been arguing, since the beginning of the recent escalation, that although Lebanese society is sectarian and sectarian tensions seem to be behind most of the invectives between supporters and opponents to the Sanyura government, the real tension stems from the new economic deal that was designed for lebanon by Hariri. The New Lebanese economy built after the Taif accords sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which ended the civil war in lebanon and litterally officialised the Syrian grip on the country, was not meant to profit all Lebanese but only a clique, those who were in power ever since Taif, Hariri, The Lebanese Forces, and Co. Thus, the present political confrontation will not die because there is wealth and there are privileges at stake if the present political clique were to be replaced, or at least immobilised by the opposition.

The article referenced above highlights, on the basis of figures, academic work and expert opinions (among them, Charbel Nahhas, Georges Corm and Alain Gresh), the source of the economic debt, and traces it back to Hariri days in office as well as his finance minister and present PM Sanyura. Although the civil war left lebanon in a dire economic situation, the article argues that the debt increased rapidly with the reconstruction projects that were to profit the new political elite, or former fighting militia, pacified from civil war by the promises of fresh money and a large scale theft of Lebanon's financial resources. It is this theft that is responsible for Lebanon's debt, a debt that is the burden of the Lebanese people now. In other terms, the present political elite, headed by Hariri, heavily borrowed, heavily stole money that was destined for reconstruction, and is now, not only asking Lebanese to make sacrifices to reduce the debt, but also asking them to shut up because if they protest there will be no more money and no more borrowing. This is a vicious cycle which makes me think that Lebanon is the new Banana republic on the world stage heading to a total collapse of an economy, otherwise traditionally healthy, thanks to the dishonesty and the greed of its western backed rulers.

I am not surprised to realise that the theft of government resources was in fact brought to us by the Saudi mentored government of Hariri. This practice is routine in Saudi Arabia, a country with so much wealth, concentrated within the few who are related to the ruling family, and so little development for its own people, a country where the ruling family taxes the country's revenues at the level of 40%, money that goes in the pockets of the royal family members and not in the coffers of the state. The practice of stealing the revenues of the country was not installed on a tabula rasa in matters of corruption. Lebanon was known, even before the war, for the corruption of its state apparatus but the new economic and political landscape created by Hariri, in the middle of the Syrian occupation years, were to bring theft and corruption to new highs, never reached before. I will not be surprised to see, if there will be a conclusion to the UN report on the death of Hariri, a 'business' motive for his murder which prompted a chain reaction of other assassinations, every one of them destined to cloud further the investigation into the motives of the former and to discard any possible suspicion for motives other than the one who were invented as a storyline and distributed to the press by the March 14th movement, the movement of Sanyura, Hariri, Jumblatt, and the Lebanese Forces.

In the present regional situation, armed confrontation in Lebanon is not suitable. Lebanese should then seize this opportunity to start looking at themselves and at what divides them critically and not fall into the sectarian trap. They have fallen in it in the past and it brought them 15 years of civil war, misery and hell. But resisting a civil war does not mean that we should accept the present state of things as imposed on us by the Sanyura government, we should not accept to be ruled by a dishonest minority, we should not accpet to look at war criminals mutated into statesmen dictate what we should do and think, we should not accept foreign interference, not only Syria and Iran, which are minor when compared to the interference of Sanyura's buddies, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the US in order to change things in Lebanon to their liking.

I am a Christian maronite and I grew up in a multireligious community made of Sunnis and Greek Orthodox. As during the height of the civil war, I still believe that sectarianism is never the cause of what is happening in Lebanon, in Iraq, and even in Gaza. It is only a mean to achieve something else, it is a mean to terrorise people in their own communities by silencing the voices of moderation and reason so the incompetence, corruption and the theft of our rulers go unnoticed. Every time an extremist slogan is shouted, there are ten moderate voices unheard. Extremism eventually creates a state of fear inside a community because not adhering to the rules of the community is to become unprotected, not recognised by the other community, and rejected by his own. What is happening in Lebanon, as in other corrupted governments in the ME, is that the political elite refuses to serve the country, no matter its religion or political affiliation, uses sectarianism to create a state of fear helping to rally people around them and to divert their attention from the real problems of the country and from their bad governance. The political elite in many countries in the ME, and Lebanon is no exception, sees power as a way to enrich itself at the expense of the country and its people. Lebanese illness is not sectarianism, it is feodalism, or the contempt of the ruling elite for its people. I have seen young, smart and educated people in Lebanon desperate because the country is unable to offer them jobs, let alone qualified jobs. Lebanese 'economy' after the civil war was built to suit the rich and powerful, to make of Lebanon, the whole country, a source of income for its political elite, and Lebanon became, under the Hariri rule, a whore country that offered itself to anybody (Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and is now sleeping with the neocons doctrine) who is willing to help maintain the political elite in place and keep the cash flowing into its pockets while the country 's economy was left rotting and dying...This is the kind of governance the US has been praising and encouraging for years and now implementing under the Bush doctrine and at the expense of US national security and the well being of US's inhabitants drafted to wage colonial wars disguised under th banner of 'democracy and freedom'...

Can anybody show me an ounce of patriotism and good governance among the members of the Sanyura government ? These people are only good at political and sectarian agitation and rethoric destined to feed the neocon hubris. But this will not last and the neocons will be history in 2008 and Lebanon will be forgotten again...having to offer itself to a less glamorous master...

Some facts about Lebanon published the day Rafiq Hariri died:
Population: 3.7 million
Life expectancy: 72 years
GDP: $17.8bn (£9.4bn) in 2003
GDP per head: $4,800 a year
28% of Lebanese below the poverty line
Source for the above: CIA World Factbook
There are now 65 Billion dollars in Lebanese banks in private accounts and the central bank has 10 billions. 72% of private accounts reflect only 4,3% of the total volume of money deposits while 9,2% of private accounts possess 82,7% of total money deposits. In other words, there is money in Lebanon but it is not for everyone and certainly not for the state, it is only for the privileged few.

Opposition Protests In Lebanon and the Paris III Conference: When the Global Economy Comes to the Rescue of the Bush Doctrine

Look at this picture, taken from Le Monde, showing the political forces in presence in Lebanon as well as the communities they represent. It si clear that Sanyura's government is not representative of the Lebanese people. But will western governments understand this fact ?

The street protests of yesterday, accompanied by a general strike and lead by the opposition forces to Sanyura's government (A majority of the shias and a sizeable part of the Christians, as well as part of the Sunni and the Druze communities), have paralysed the country and resulted in the killing of five people and the wounding of more than hundred others. Although they may appear as having abruptly ended, they were meant to give a clear signal to western governments that their puppet government, the government of Fouad Sanyura and of the March 14th movement, does not control the country. But I am afraid western governments will not understand the signal.

What should western governments do if they were really commited to democracy in the middle east (commitment termed usually as the 'Bush Doctrine'*) ? They should call for early elections in Lebanon, with or without a newly crafted electoral law. The present electoral law was designed by the Syrians to give electoral majority to their old allies in Lebanon, Jumblatt, Hariri, and the Lebanese forces, those who are sitting in the Sanyura government now and call themselves anti-Syrian forces. Everybody recognises - including Sanyura himself who promised the opposition to change the electoral law, and later retracted - that the elections that gave way to the present government were made hastily after the Syrian withdrawal. The 2005 parliamentary elections were held less than two months after the Syrian withdrawal and were the first legislative elections to take place in 30 years in the absence of the Syrian military presence - given also the fact that during the 15 year civil war (1975-1990) there were no elections. But western governments are not committed to democracy in the Middle East. They are committed to maintaining submissive regimes and puppet head of governments and states. So the Paris conference, falsely called the Aid conference for Lebanon, while it is really made to impose on the puppet Lebanese government IMF's unsuccessful old practices in Latin American economies like in Argentina, will give money to a minority government, assorted with conditions that the present Lebanese economy will not be able to meet. The reason this government will not be able to meet the conditions for the economic reforms required by the 'aid' are obvious; absence of legitimacy to implement reforms, corruption of the political elite who is in the government, political instability, and extreme damage of infrastructure made during the last July agression on Lebanon.

The 'aid', if given in these circumstances, will harden the authoritarian stance of the Sanyura government because, having international creditors, he will feel protected by these creditors who trusted him with the task to implement the economic reforms and the return of investment on the money. Moreover, in this country riddled by corruption, it will concentrate the money in the hands of the few who are in the government and their protégés. This will not be money for the lebanese economy, neither for the Lebanese as a people, this will be the money of a clique who is more a militia than a government and who will rule Lebanon with the brutal authority given to it by international creditors, ignoring the legitimate demands of the opposition forces - as it is doing now - and the aspirations of the Lebanese people.

It is plainly obvious that lending to the Sanyura government is foreign political interference disguised under the banner of economic reforms and aid. Because, in the present climate of political instability in Lebanon, no reasonable investor would lend money to such an embattled government if it wasn't for political gain. The end result will be to take the country and its inhabitants as hostages to foreign investors, later justifying a more active military foreign interference to support the already embattled government.

Link to the document on economic reforms prepared by the Sanyura government for the paris III conference and rejected by the opposition. Taken from French Eagle.

* What lies at the heart of the Bush Doctrine is military intervention in foreign countries in order to install puppet governments, whenever the interests of the US and Israel are at stake. Look at Arab government and rulers who have the blessings of the Bush Doctrine: The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Sanyura's government, and so on...These are called 'moderates' by Bush and Rice. Extremism is not what Bush pretends 'They hate our freedoms' but rather 'They want their freedom from US' (to quote Robert Fisk) and from Israel.

Political Assassinations in Lebanon: Truth And Consequences

The UN Inquiry on the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri and other political assassinations in Lebanon is stumbling on the unwillingness of ten countries to collaborate. Collaboration with the inquiry was a number one requirement in all UN resolutions concerning the inquiry. The head commissioner, Serge Brammertz, did not publish the names of the countries who won't collaborate, but speculations are running high since the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Tchourkine, asked for the divulgation of the names.

Rafiq Hariri was killed on a Valentine day, February 14th, in Beyrouth, after 'supposedly' a car exploded near his convoy. There is no final official report about the assassination since Brammertz's predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, was discharged after his line of inquiry collapsed in a serie of false and fabricated testimonies which were the only 'proofs' he had produced accusing Syria of the assassination. Syria's army left Lebanon after a public and international outrage at the assassination designated the Syrians as prime suspects. The follow-up to this event was an election victory of the March 14th movement led by Hariri son and Walid Jumblatt as well as other pro-US political movements in Lebanon. However, the March 14th movement is, since then, unable to overcome the dwindling of its political support inside Lebanon resulting from its inability to build consensus and from the fact that most Lebanese see the movement as accomplice of the latest July Israeli agression which was overtly supported by March 14th's western political mentors, the US and the UK.

While not mentioning the names of the countries not collaborating with the inquiry, Brammertz declared being totally satisfied with the Syrian collaboration. On his blog, Alain Gresh, a 'Le Monde Diplomatique' correspondant and specialist of the Middle East, reveals the names of some of these uncooperative countries as published on January 12th by the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, a daily seen as close to the Lebanese opposition. They are:
The US who have satellite pictures of the assassination;
Israel who has pictures taken before and after the assassination by its spy planes continously flying over Lebanon;
France who detains a suspect, Mohammed Said Saddik, who made a false testimony to the first UN inquiry headed by Mehlis;
Among other countries mentioned by the Lebanese daily are Germany, Saudi Arabia, Koweit, Australia, UAE, and Brazil.

It is known to these countries that:
The site of the assassination had undergone a 'cleanup' before any evidence gathering;
The first UN inquiry was marred by the lack of professionalism and lack of neutrality on Mehlis's part;
Precious time was lost for collecting and analysing the evidence;
Other politicians and prominent figures died since Hariri was killed, they all are related to the March 14th movement, and their assassinations prompted, eache time, accusations against Syria;
These political assassinations were included by the UN in the mandate of the commission at the demand of the Lebanese state;

Given that Brammertz was making progress and briefing the UN along the way to the point some assume that the change of method in the latest assassination in Lebanon (that of Pierre Gemayyel) was propably prompted by informations on Brammertz's progress and a will to derail the inquiry, one may wonder why these countries, who are all supporting the corrupt pro-US Lebanese government of Fouad Sanyura, won't help a honest inquiry into a series of assassinations that destabilised Lebanon and brought it to the edge of a new civil war ?

Ironically, the March 14th movement and its accolytes had the word 'Truth' as a main slogan on their protest banners (Haqiqa, in Arabic).

Living Together: Nasrallah's Speech to the December 1st protest

This is a translation of the account given in French of Nasrallah's speech to the December 1st protest, on Thursday December 7th, by Libnanews.

Supressing any sign in the protest that can be interpreted as violence.
He started his speech by asking his supporters not to resort to an old Lebanese and middle eastern tradition; firing shots of celebration at the end of the speech.

Greetings.
He greeted the protesters then evoked the spirit of the young protester, Ahmed Mahmoud, who was shot last sunday probably as a result of an attack on a group of protesters joining the protest site by militiamen from the Future movement led by Saad Hariri.

Critique of the present government, March 14th and foreign and Arab leaders in light of the latest israeli agression on lebanon.
He declared being proud of the protesters who are defying the ennemies of Lebanon, those who led a savage war on lebanon last July. He called upon them to resist any attempt to weaken the protest by those who supported the July Israeli agression on Lebanon ad who support the present government. He called on Arab leaders not to favour one party in Lebanon over another but to assist all Lebanese in order to help them not to yield under the pressure of the terrorist Bush. He invited all Arabs to open their eyes on the reality of the failing US foreign policy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
He found offensive the open support israel is granting to the Sanyura government targeting the magnanimous in Lebanon in order to curb their support for the December 1st protest.

A unity government with a blocking power for the opposition, no matter who is in the opposition, that's all what the December protest is about.
He highlighted the necessity of a national union government representing all Lebanese, insisting on the particular context and structure of the Lebanese society which requires a representation that adresses the concerns of all its communities. On this basis he is asking that the opposition be granted a third of the seats in the government allowing it to block some decisions, whether this opposition is Hezbollah and its allies or the actual government.

A unity government with or without the actual government consent and by peaceful means.
Nasrallah asked to maintain the protest as long as the present government stays with its actual composition. He asked that the protest be peaceful avoiding any insults, clashes or conflicts which can lead to a civil war. He assured the international community that no matter what happens Hezbollah will never brandish its weapons against its lebanese brothers because lebanese understand that a civil war is a defeat for them and a victory for their Israeli ennemy who wishes that lebanon be thrown into dark abysses. He noticed, alluding to Saudi Arabia's and Egypt's recent remarks against the anti-Sanyura protest, that Israel is already inciting these Arab leaders to throw panic on the lebanese by warning them from a risk of civil war.

Hezbollah's intentions on the short term and its code of conduct during the protest.
Nasrallah confirmed that his party will fight those who intended to plant discord among Lebanese by killing Ahmed Mahmoud. He said that a thousand others Ahmed Mahmoud may fall but the Hezbollah resistance will not be driven into raising its arms against its Lebanese brothers and those who would fall would have done so for the love of their country, Lebanon. Hezbollah will work to avoid civil war in Lebanon. Hezbollah will maintain peaceful protests without resorting to any form of armed protest defying his detractors who are staking on a possible conflict. He exhorted Lebanese not to fall in the trap made by forces close to the Sanyura government whop are trying to portray the actual confrontation as a confrontation between Sunnis and Shias. He insisted that the opposition to the Sanyura government is composed of lebanese from all religions and sects and invited the Arab league (this same Arab league who does not move a finger when palestinians are slaughtered by Isreal but who seems mved by the opposition to the Sanyura government) to inquire on the site of the protest about the fact that the opposition to Sanyura comes from all religions and sects. He noted that any sectarian provocation is an act that goes against Religion, against Humanity and against morals.

The goal of Hezbollah on the long term.
He said that his party does not covet seats by asking for a unity government. He said that his party is ready to give these seats to any other movement in the opposition at the condition that the representation be fair. He said his party does not covet a throne neither a tomb (this an allusion to the political assassinations within March 14th) but a national unity government. he criticised the actual government as a government supported by the 'royal' courts of Bush and Olmert, rather than being a sunni government and that if this government was really a sunni government he would not oppose it.
(Nasrallah is criticising here the political maneuvres of the actual government which is asking the backing of traditional sunni states such as Egypt, Jordan and saudi Arabia, and sunni oulémas inside Lebanon, by appearing as sunni).
He called on Arab states for the creation of an Islamic or Arab judiciary council appointed to inquire on the legal aspects of the late Israeli agression on Lebanon in order and on the present sectarian agitation some are resorting to. He condemned those who (in Lebanon) encouraged and even pushed Bush and Cheney to launch a savage war on a Hezbollah resistance they could not disarm. He specified that those who encouraged the latest israeli agression on Lebanon are in the actual government and asked that they be tried for treason. He specified that he was not accusing all March 14th politicains but those who, being part of this March 14th coalition, sat on the same table as Bush and Cheney and asked them to initiate a war on Lebanon. He said that he was not going to name names and wishes he will may be obliged to do so in front of the international community. He also accuses Israel of opening a prison camp with a 10 000 men capacity in anticipation of the imprisonment of members of the actual Lebanese opposition.

Message to Sanyura: If you come to us we will forgive and we are determined in our demands and our forgiveness .
Hezbollah's leader adressed Sanyura knowing that he might be listening from his Prime Ministerial residence surrounded by the protests. He sermoned him for issuing an order to the Lebanese army to block ammunitions transfer to the resistance in the south while this resistance was battling the ennemy and defending the country. he asked how a Prime Minister of a country in war could try to block a resistance that even savage Israeli bombardments were not able to deter ? He however declared that he comes from a culture inclined to forgive and attached to Human values and tolerance and because of that he forgives his lebanese brothers who deviantly wanted to harm the resistance and who recently permitted a supposedly sunni terrorist network to infiltrate Lebanon with the goal of assassinating him.

He invited Sanyura to accept a national unity government and he warned that if Sanyura continues to oppose a unity government a time will come when the opposition wil withdraw the proposal in favor of a pure resignation of Sanyura's government. In which case, those who will lead the new government must allow Sanyura or anybody else who will be in the opposition a blocking majority because the promise of a fair and balanced government will be maintained. Lebanon being a country built on consensus, all political forces must be represented in the new cabinet.

Shias, Sunnis and Christians united in their faith for one God.
Nasrallah invited those who believe in the same God to aprticipate in a prayer Friday December 8th and asked shiites protesters to pray with sunnis at 11th instead of their usual prayer performed at 12.

He also called Lebanese to participate Sunday, 3 p.m., in a planned meet-up to renew and reaffirm the will of the December 1st protest not to bow to a government manipulated by foreign forces.

He concluded by promising victory to Lebanese from all confessions and parties and hailed the spirit of the protest victim and of all the protesters.

Angry Arab's analysis of the speech.

Google video of the speech (Arabic)

Addendum: I am listening now to the speech and I think what Libnanews missed is the harsh indictment of the Bush administration on Iraq asking how could Sanyura's government trust the people who ignited a civil war in Iraq and killed its children. He also ridiculed the Sanyura government by telling that this government can boast about having been the subject of a special meeting of the Israeli cabinet (who does such meetings only when the interests of Israel are at stake) with the goal of finding solutions to help Sanyura !
This is why I keep telling that we should leave the anti-Syria, pro-Syria characterisations of the present forces in lebanon and adopt the pro-USrael and anti-USrael categorisations.
Nasrallah praised also the neutrality of the Lebanese army but criticised the internal security forces controlled by the government and invited them to act in neutrality. He mentioned also attempts from the government at intimidating some sunni Oulémas who support the opposition in a clear strategy of mobilisation along sectarian lines.
He also asked : 'Do you want a government who takes his orders from amabassador Feltman or Secretary Rice ?'

Statement of the Lebanese opposition to Sanyura's government

Read the statement here.

Well, the December 1st movement against Sanyura's government does not seem to me like the authoritarian, anti-democratic and theocratic political movement Sanyura and western governments are portraying for mass consumption.

The anti-Sanyura protests and class struggle in Lebanon

Most of the time, Lebanon is portrayed as a sectarian country divided along religious and ehtnic lines and this is true. However, since the reconstruction of the country after the 15 year civil war, a new divide emerged between communities fueled by the increasing debt of the country and the absence of a real economic project for the Lebanese society, both brought by Hariri father who wanted to make Lebanon a country like Monaco or switzerland where Arab gulf states and Saudi Arabia can spend their money, spend, not invest. Consequently, the service sector increased while corruption reached incredible highs inside the state apparatus. An ambitious young professional friend of mine working for an NGO in Beyrouth during the Hariri years when Sanyura used to be minister of finances told me he was offered a high profile job but refused it because the corruption and incompetence in the government would have made any other professional move for him impossible if he would have accepted such a job.

The grim economic situation has reached now Christian communities who were usually relatively wealthy and the new economic divide is helping bridge old religious sectarian divides. Lebanon is traditionally an agrarian country. People possess their land and when they aren't able to have a job and a salary they could at least exploit their land and live in dignity. This is how it used to be. However, shiites were prevented from this dignified life, even before the civil war, due to the Israeli hostilities against Palestinian camps in the south and Israel's frequent invasions of the south since the seventies. Southern Lebanon could not sustain its villagers because of the perpetual state of war against which the Lebanese government did nothing, shiites being poorly represented within the government and the state apparatus. Shiites migrated to Beyrouth's southern suburbs and were the poorest in the country when all other communities enjoyed a relative wealth.

The civil war, its economic impact and the disastrous debt brought by Hariri, whose companies were heavily involved in the reconstruction of downtown Beyrouth, have contributed to the extension of economic distress to Christian communities. When I visited Lebanon in 2005 I was struck by the Disney land character of the new Beyrouth, a well reconstructed area that only the rich can reasonably access. Everything was expansive. I had promised my children, who were visiting for the first time, to take them to one of those ambulant restaurants on the seaside where we used to eat bountiful sandwishes of shawarma and falafel before the war but there was none. We had to walk to Raouché, a popular seaside, also invaded by Saudi money and a movenpick resort, to find only Kaak sellers (Lebanese bread with sesame), but there were no meals to eat on the go and one had to sit inside a restaurant to get some food. Everthing was so expansive, even by Canadian standards. I wondered how could poeople, whose salaries don't match those that are practised in a liberal economy, make ends meet ? I was told that Lebanese were living on their savings, working two to three jobs, borrowing and families were sticking together in a collective sort of household economy.

When we were children, my father used to say that those who did not possess land are those who are poor even if they had big salaries and big money in the bank. This is why, despite us living outside Lebanon for more than twenty years now, we kept the land there, olive orchards land which is being exploited by other people who barely send us olive oil and who keep shrinking our share in the harvest out of greed. We kept the land out of respect for my father. My father used to tell us also that those who sell their land are those who are in great financial need. Even though selling the land and investing this money in the west could have brought us a fortune, we didn't do it out of respect for my father and his values which were and still profound Lebanese values. In 2005, I realised that many people from my village have sold their land in order to send their children to school and universities. The cruel irony in this is that the Lebanese economy, which Hariri built after the civil war and which was not human resources oriented but Las Vegas style oriented, was not able to meet the expectations of young educated Lebanese. Lebanese traditionally value education and higher education and in 2005 I met many young people educated at the university who were desperate because there were no well paid jobs or no jobs at all for them in the country.

This new economic context brought to us by Hariri and his mentors, the Saudis, has managed to install an additional divide in Lebanon, the rich and wealthy on one side and the poor and needy on the other. Lebanon has become a land of opportunity more and more for a restricted oligarchy and much less for the majority of its population. Along these lines, the March 14th movement that installed Sanyura as head of the government is the movement of rich sunnis and christians. Their protest against Syria in 2005 was called the Gucci revolution because women who marched were dressed with couturier wear and accessories and marched with their Sri Lankans maids. The alliance between Christians who support Aoun and the shiites of Hezbollah is the aliance of the disgruntled, of the people for whom the new lebanese economy brought poverty and more uncertainty about the future.

Recently, many analyses start pointing to this fact and to the fact that the Sanyura government and its supporters are treating these protesters with contempt...Read the following links:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 2 has its source in an LATimes article that requires a registration.

The Beyrouth Fall: Lebanon Wants Sanyura's pro-USrael Government Out

One million are gathering now in Lebanon in an open-ended sit-in protest asking Sanyura, who resisted demands by the opposition to make his cabinet more representative of the Lebanese population, to quit. The Lebanese opposition is called Pro-Syrian by its detractors. I am not sure this is correct, this christian-shiite opposition is definitely anti-USrael. It is mainly united against USrael meddling in Lebanese Politics. The last Israeli agression on Lebanon was meant to reequilibrate political forces in Lebanon by weakening or eliminating the shiite Hezbollah, it did not succeed.

The government of Sanyura emerged from elections made in 2005, just after the Syrian army left Lebanon, on the basis of a Syrian crafted electoral law meant to give advantage to its allies, which were composed mainly of actual members of the Sanyura government at the time. There is a caste of Politicians in Lebanon (and they are a majority) who will do whatever they are told to do by the West (US and France). These politicians were pro-syrians when they were told to be pro-syrians and they are now calling themselves anti-syrians because they are told to be anti-syrians. But what they are right now, really, is pro-USrael

Lebanon is tired from foreign interference. There is a huge popular and cultural resistance in Lebanon to those who want to align it along a USrael political line. We now know what a USrael political line have produced so far in the ME. So instead of calling the forces in presence pro-Syrians and ant-Syrians, because Syria, while it was something important in the Lebanese political game a while ago with the blessings of the US, is really nothing right now in the Lebanese and regional political game, I propose calling them pro-USrael for Sanyura and its government and anti-USrael for the shiite-Christian opposition.

In the current context, what really matters is not being pro or anti something external to Lebanon but being for Lebanon. And in the current circumstances, after having witnessed what USrael wanted to achieve in its July war on lebanon in destruction and mayhem, it is fair to say that anti-USrael forces in Lebanon are those who are working for Lebanon proper.

I think the actual government should listen to the people.

On the protest: UrSalim

Michel Aoun's adress to the protest

The picture above was published on Le Monde's website