Is Hassan Nasrallah of the Hezbollah terrorist "resistance" going to turn his missiles towards Syria, since it occupies "sacred" Lebanese land? Or is Syria, the Arab sister, allowed to pilfer Lebanese land and violate Lebanese sovereignty under the umbrella of Arab brotherhood and Islamic incest before this jackass traitor feels a shudder of patriotism? Or is this yet another example of the double standard by which all Arabs and Muslims measure their patriotism, which is by the degree of their hatred to all other non-Arab, non-Muslim people? If this is not blind fanaticism, then what is? If this not selective hatred and an upside down notion of patriotism, I don't know what is.
To make the analogy more comprehensible to those Americans who refuse to understand it, this would be similar to the Americans allowing the Canadian army, but not the Mexican army, to seize US territory, steal water, pilfer resources, kidnap people, refuse to recognize the US as a sovereign country, and violate US air space and land space, simply because Canadians are English speakers. In Western jargon, this is tantamount to racist treason at best.
But that is exactly what Nasrallah wants people to believe when it comes to Lebanon, Syria and Israel. He will not tolerate that the irrelevant Shebaa Farms land dispute between Lebanon and Israel (a problem which both countries inherited from Syria in fact) be resolved peacefully by negotiation, and instead aggrandizing and exaggerating the so-called "Israeli Threat" beyond reason, and willing to burn Lebanon in order to liberate Jerusalem and Palestine on behalf of the Palestinians. But he has no problem with Syria refusing to recognize Lebanon's distinct identity, its right to independence and to exist as a sovereign nation, massing troops and threatening Lebanon's stability with assassinations, kidnappings, and bombings, after occupying Lebanon for 30 years and detaining, torturing and killing thousands of innocent Lebanese civilians in its prisons, crossing the border and stealing water and land, etc., simply because Syria is an "Arab brother".
This illustrates the primitive foundation of nationhood and patriotism in the Arab-Muslim world. People like the barbaric medieval clergyman Hassan Nasrallah do not subscribe to the notion of statehood, let alone the Lebanese one. All the attributes of statehood, nationhood, sovereignty and independence fall before the preeminence of Islam. In other words, you will allow your own brother to sleep with your sister, kill your parents and take you hostage simply because he is your brother. But God forbid that a foreigner dare look at your sister or come close to your house. This is the extent to which fanatic Muslims like him hate Jews and Christians as "foreigners".
--- Hanibaal
____________________________________________________________
[From the Daily Star]: Monday September 29, 2008
Syrian troops 'dig trenches inside Lebanese territory'.
Syrian troops allegedly were digging long trenches between the regions of Rachaya and Haqel Ashty in the Kfarkouq area near the northern Lebanese border, according to Al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Sunday. According to the newspaper, Syrian troops have remained in this area despite the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in April 2005.
Syrian troops, according to the report, are dug in about 500 meters inside Lebanese territory. Political sources told the newspaper that Syria was trying to occupy Lebanese territory in the border region prior to the completion of the demarcation process. The sources said this issue was related to the Syrian military activity near the northern Syrian-Lebanese border. According to a Lebanese Army spokesman quoted by AFP, "Nearly 10,000 Syrian special forces have been deployed in the Abbudiya region along the border between Lebanon and Syria."
"We asked Damascus for clarification," the source added, "and we were told that the measures were strictly internal and on Syrian territory and that they were in no way directed against Lebanon." Another military source confirmed that Syrian forces had deployed in Abbudiya, but he told The Daily Star, "There is no need to worry."
"The troop deployment on the northern border relates to Syrian internal affairs," he said, adding that the Lebanese Army has been "watching the border closely for some time now."
The army source said the troops were deployed to thwart smuggling, and that Damascus had informed Beirut beforehand. - The Daily Star, with AFP
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
To Hassan Nasrallah: Palestine does not belong to Arabs.
Hassan Nasrallah delivered yet another one of his ultimately boring and tiresome speeches to an audience that has had it up to its eyeballs with his rhetoric of resistance, blood, fighting, destruction, and futile windmill-battle heroism that all Arabs, and particularly the Lebanese, have tired from.
If this idiot does not stop talking, the Palestinians are going to lose the last sliver of land they still hang on to. Nasrallah has not learned the lessons of 1948, or the lesson of Nasser, Arafat and all the other “heroes” before him [Nasrallah] of the dead-end Arab causes: You need to have free societies in order to muster the will for the Quixotic battles he is calling for. As long as Arab societies are the putrid cesspools where the human spirit is crushed by antiquated, ignorant, and ultimately useless beliefs from the Stone Age, no Palestine can ever be “liberated”.
But Nasrallah’s claim that Palestine belongs to the Arabs and the Muslims is debunked by the history of the land. Below is a timeline showing that sovereignty and/or rule over historic Palestine is nowhere exclusive to Arabs or Muslims. Excerpts from Hassan Nasrallah’s speech follow in the last section of this piece.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From about 3000 BC until about 1250 BC, Palestine was Canaanite-Phoenician, Hebrew, Persian, and Babylonian. These people were neither Arab, nor Muslim.
In 1250 BC, the Hebrews conquer it and run the place until 721 when the Assyrians seize parts of it. Other parts (Judah) remained Jewish until 586 when the Babylonians complete the takeover of Palestine. In total, Palestine was under Hebrew sovereignty for 664 years.
Then, it became Greco-Roman for close to 1,000 years (from 333 B.C. with Alexander the Great until 641 A.D. when the Arab armies conquer it).
Throughout these centuries and until 641 A.D., Palestine was pagan, Jewish and Christian. It was never Arab, nor was it Muslim.
The Arabs stay in Palestine from 641 A.D. until about 1071 A.D. (450 years) when the Seljuks (non-Arabs from Central Asia) seize it. In 1099, the Crusaders arrive and Palestine became European Christian from 1099 until 1187 when the Kurd – not Arab - Saladdin seized it.
The Mameluks (non-Arab Turks, Mongols and Circassians) seize Palestine in 1260 and hold it until 1516 when the Ottomans (non-Arabs) from Central Asia conquer it and hold it until 1918.
In 1918, Palestine became British, then divided into two states, an Israeli and an Arab. And that is where we are today.
Throughout this 5,000 year history, Palestine was under Arab rule for only 450 years out of all this history. It was in fact under direct Jewish rule for much longer than that: 664 years.
Throughout this history, all these conquests of the land we call Palestine-Israel today included massive migrations, settlements and colonization, such that there is no such thing as a “Palestinian” ethnic identity, any more than there is an “Israeli” ethnic identity for that matter. Furthermore, Jewish re-settlement in the 19th and 20th centuries is no different from Arab settlement and colonization after the Arab conquest, Frankish settlement and colonization (during the Crusades), or from any settlement and colonization by any of the peoples who conquered that miserable region through the centuries and the millennia.
I am not sure if the argument can be turned into a religious sovereignty one by running a similar accounting of historical rule based strictly on religion – i.e. Muslim rule versus Jewish rule, versus Christian rule, versus Pagan rule... But on the whole, I do, in fact, subscribe to the fallacy of Israeli-Jewish sovereignty as much as I subscribe to the fallacy of Arab-Muslim sovereignty.
But the fundamental reality is that no one can claim absolute sovereignty over the land. The land is no more Arab than it is Jewish, Central Asian, Muslim, Mameluk, Canaanite, Ottoman, Turkish, Christian, Greek, Roman, Perisan, Babylonian, British, etc....
-------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from Hassan Quixote Nasrallah’s speech in Beirut on Jerusalem Day today Sept. 26, 2008:
"Jerusalem and Palestine, from the sea to the river, belong to the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the Muslims, and no one has the authority to concede a grain of earth, wall or stone from the holy land."
...
"This is the greatest humiliation of this nation. The second message is to stress the historic, religious and legitimate responsibility of the Muslim nation towards Jerusalem, Palestine and the Palestinian people."
...
He warned Israel not to attack Lebanon. "I have always said that the way of the resistance is not a classic war. We are ready to help the resistance of the Palestinian people. But those who attack Lebanon – we shall face them.
"(Defense Minister) Ehud Barak spoke in the past about five divisions which would invade Lebanon, and today he talks about eight. Okay, he may have made new calculations. But you should know that your eight divisions will be destroyed on our territory by our fighters. If Israel makes this mistake… The enemy and the friend know these things are promises from the Arab victory periods and are not taken from the times of past defeats."
"We understand this. Our holy lands will not be liberated through talks with the West. The way to return the lands and liberate the Palestinian people is through desire, resistance and self-sacrifice in the region – the same resistance which succeeded in imposing itself on this entity."
"Unfortunately, there were those among the Arabs who took advantage of the conflict within the Palestinian people to wash their hands off the Palestinian issue. If the Arab nation does what is needed, the liberation of Jerusalem will be possible, maybe even soon."
"Following the reports in Lebanon that Israel objects to the US equipping the Lebanese army with a number of arm systems, can we maintain the sovereignty of Lebanon and its people this way? Must we really wait for permission from the US and Israel to equip our national army and give it all it needs to carry out its secret missions?”
"If we wait for the United State's permission, we might receive trucks, weak armored personnel carriers, etc, but we will never get weapons which will allow us to face the Zionist enemy. A national force is not built through an external entity, but through national determination."
"Israel is not only the enemy of the Palestinian people, but also of Lebanon, all the Arab people and all the Muslim nations. Israel is a cancerous tumor, as Imam Khomeini said.
"Today, as in the past, we stress that the only way to return the land and overcome the difficulties is through the way of resistance – by the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the rest of the region's nations. It's still possible, but today more can be done that ever before."
"Today the time of the Zionists' dreams has passed and the time of our dreams has begun. Today we don't just dream, we implement our dreams. After the year 2000 and following the historic victory in southern Lebanon, the al-Aqsa Intifada broke out. It was a historic golden opportunity to realize these hopes. Unfortunately, the entire Islamic nation did not stand by the Palestinians, who were forced to sacrifice victims."
As for dreams, Nasrallah went on to say that "while some people were busy with the internal crisis in Lebanon, there were people in the resistance who did not sleep at night since the end of the war – led by the martyr Imad Mugniyah, and they are still working to realize the dream."
"Out of all these things, the public's lack of faith in this [Israel] entity and its future is the most important. Polls released in Israel recently say two-thirds of the public believe they are living in an area where they feel insecure."
Nasrallah spoke during the al-Aqsa Day events, a tradition launched in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini which calls for "Jerusalem's liberation” and is marked on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan.
The Beirut event was attended by representatives of the Lebanese president and army commander, the parliament speaker, diplomats and other supporters. It was held in the Sayyed Al-Shuhada Mosque, Hizbullah's main mosque in the Dahiya quarter.
------------------------------
Hanibaal
If this idiot does not stop talking, the Palestinians are going to lose the last sliver of land they still hang on to. Nasrallah has not learned the lessons of 1948, or the lesson of Nasser, Arafat and all the other “heroes” before him [Nasrallah] of the dead-end Arab causes: You need to have free societies in order to muster the will for the Quixotic battles he is calling for. As long as Arab societies are the putrid cesspools where the human spirit is crushed by antiquated, ignorant, and ultimately useless beliefs from the Stone Age, no Palestine can ever be “liberated”.
But Nasrallah’s claim that Palestine belongs to the Arabs and the Muslims is debunked by the history of the land. Below is a timeline showing that sovereignty and/or rule over historic Palestine is nowhere exclusive to Arabs or Muslims. Excerpts from Hassan Nasrallah’s speech follow in the last section of this piece.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From about 3000 BC until about 1250 BC, Palestine was Canaanite-Phoenician, Hebrew, Persian, and Babylonian. These people were neither Arab, nor Muslim.
In 1250 BC, the Hebrews conquer it and run the place until 721 when the Assyrians seize parts of it. Other parts (Judah) remained Jewish until 586 when the Babylonians complete the takeover of Palestine. In total, Palestine was under Hebrew sovereignty for 664 years.
Then, it became Greco-Roman for close to 1,000 years (from 333 B.C. with Alexander the Great until 641 A.D. when the Arab armies conquer it).
Throughout these centuries and until 641 A.D., Palestine was pagan, Jewish and Christian. It was never Arab, nor was it Muslim.
The Arabs stay in Palestine from 641 A.D. until about 1071 A.D. (450 years) when the Seljuks (non-Arabs from Central Asia) seize it. In 1099, the Crusaders arrive and Palestine became European Christian from 1099 until 1187 when the Kurd – not Arab - Saladdin seized it.
The Mameluks (non-Arab Turks, Mongols and Circassians) seize Palestine in 1260 and hold it until 1516 when the Ottomans (non-Arabs) from Central Asia conquer it and hold it until 1918.
In 1918, Palestine became British, then divided into two states, an Israeli and an Arab. And that is where we are today.
Throughout this 5,000 year history, Palestine was under Arab rule for only 450 years out of all this history. It was in fact under direct Jewish rule for much longer than that: 664 years.
Throughout this history, all these conquests of the land we call Palestine-Israel today included massive migrations, settlements and colonization, such that there is no such thing as a “Palestinian” ethnic identity, any more than there is an “Israeli” ethnic identity for that matter. Furthermore, Jewish re-settlement in the 19th and 20th centuries is no different from Arab settlement and colonization after the Arab conquest, Frankish settlement and colonization (during the Crusades), or from any settlement and colonization by any of the peoples who conquered that miserable region through the centuries and the millennia.
I am not sure if the argument can be turned into a religious sovereignty one by running a similar accounting of historical rule based strictly on religion – i.e. Muslim rule versus Jewish rule, versus Christian rule, versus Pagan rule... But on the whole, I do, in fact, subscribe to the fallacy of Israeli-Jewish sovereignty as much as I subscribe to the fallacy of Arab-Muslim sovereignty.
But the fundamental reality is that no one can claim absolute sovereignty over the land. The land is no more Arab than it is Jewish, Central Asian, Muslim, Mameluk, Canaanite, Ottoman, Turkish, Christian, Greek, Roman, Perisan, Babylonian, British, etc....
-------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from Hassan Quixote Nasrallah’s speech in Beirut on Jerusalem Day today Sept. 26, 2008:
"Jerusalem and Palestine, from the sea to the river, belong to the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the Muslims, and no one has the authority to concede a grain of earth, wall or stone from the holy land."
...
"This is the greatest humiliation of this nation. The second message is to stress the historic, religious and legitimate responsibility of the Muslim nation towards Jerusalem, Palestine and the Palestinian people."
...
He warned Israel not to attack Lebanon. "I have always said that the way of the resistance is not a classic war. We are ready to help the resistance of the Palestinian people. But those who attack Lebanon – we shall face them.
"(Defense Minister) Ehud Barak spoke in the past about five divisions which would invade Lebanon, and today he talks about eight. Okay, he may have made new calculations. But you should know that your eight divisions will be destroyed on our territory by our fighters. If Israel makes this mistake… The enemy and the friend know these things are promises from the Arab victory periods and are not taken from the times of past defeats."
"We understand this. Our holy lands will not be liberated through talks with the West. The way to return the lands and liberate the Palestinian people is through desire, resistance and self-sacrifice in the region – the same resistance which succeeded in imposing itself on this entity."
"Unfortunately, there were those among the Arabs who took advantage of the conflict within the Palestinian people to wash their hands off the Palestinian issue. If the Arab nation does what is needed, the liberation of Jerusalem will be possible, maybe even soon."
"Following the reports in Lebanon that Israel objects to the US equipping the Lebanese army with a number of arm systems, can we maintain the sovereignty of Lebanon and its people this way? Must we really wait for permission from the US and Israel to equip our national army and give it all it needs to carry out its secret missions?”
"If we wait for the United State's permission, we might receive trucks, weak armored personnel carriers, etc, but we will never get weapons which will allow us to face the Zionist enemy. A national force is not built through an external entity, but through national determination."
"Israel is not only the enemy of the Palestinian people, but also of Lebanon, all the Arab people and all the Muslim nations. Israel is a cancerous tumor, as Imam Khomeini said.
"Today, as in the past, we stress that the only way to return the land and overcome the difficulties is through the way of resistance – by the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the rest of the region's nations. It's still possible, but today more can be done that ever before."
"Today the time of the Zionists' dreams has passed and the time of our dreams has begun. Today we don't just dream, we implement our dreams. After the year 2000 and following the historic victory in southern Lebanon, the al-Aqsa Intifada broke out. It was a historic golden opportunity to realize these hopes. Unfortunately, the entire Islamic nation did not stand by the Palestinians, who were forced to sacrifice victims."
As for dreams, Nasrallah went on to say that "while some people were busy with the internal crisis in Lebanon, there were people in the resistance who did not sleep at night since the end of the war – led by the martyr Imad Mugniyah, and they are still working to realize the dream."
"Out of all these things, the public's lack of faith in this [Israel] entity and its future is the most important. Polls released in Israel recently say two-thirds of the public believe they are living in an area where they feel insecure."
Nasrallah spoke during the al-Aqsa Day events, a tradition launched in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini which calls for "Jerusalem's liberation” and is marked on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan.
The Beirut event was attended by representatives of the Lebanese president and army commander, the parliament speaker, diplomats and other supporters. It was held in the Sayyed Al-Shuhada Mosque, Hizbullah's main mosque in the Dahiya quarter.
------------------------------
Hanibaal
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Why I Will No Longer Vote for McCain
After George H. Bush (father) sold Lebanon to the Syrians and helped defeating the Christians of Lebanon in 1989-1990 against their enemies the Syrians who had, a few years earlier, sponsored Hezbollah's October 1983 attack against the US Marines in Beirut (241 US Marines and servicemen were killed that day) in the first ever truck suicide bombing;
When President Reagan ran away from the terrorist threat in the aftermath of that 1983 attack against the US Marines in Beirut, and pulled all US forces out of Lebanon and abandoned Lebanon and US national security in the face of the terrorist regime in Damascus and its proxy Hezbollah, Senator John McCain, who today brags about his foreign policy and how he will defend the US against Islamic radicalism, endorsed that cowardly withdrawal by questioning: "What is the US interest in Lebanon?" on the floor of the US Senate in opposition to keeping US peacekeeping forces there.
Today, George W. Bush (son) - and John McCain in his footsteps - has violated all his post-September 11 pledges and has gone back to cavorting to traditionalists, corrupt leaderships, former warlords and war criminals and propping them as the best hope for a democratic Lebanon, for the sole and short-sighted purpose of opposing Hezbollah (without actually doing anything serious to actually defeat Hezbollah or help the Lebanese army defeat Hezbollah);
When George W. Bush has returned to old and stale policies of making deals with corrupt and unrepresentative leaders in order to buy stability from them at the expense of true freedoms, true change, true reforms, true justice and real grassroots, civil society-based democracy; Then, I as a Lebanese-American who once believed the lies and the myths propagated by the Republicans, will not vote for John McCain.
I had voted for McCain in previous elections and primaries because I believed in his "maverick" image. But on the issue of Lebanon, he is endorsing the Bush pack of lies: He is supporting the traditionalists, the corrupt warlords and war criminals who collaborated with the Syrian occupation for decades, and who in a heartbeat will revert back into pan-Arab Islamic nationalism, and to all the rejectionist anti-peace, pro-Syrian, pro-Muslim radical platforms. These are people who for decades supported the PLO terrorism and who to this day support Hezbollah's terrorism (see other articles in this blog about how Prime Minister Siniora and President Michel Sleiman continue to defend Syria's interests and brandish Israel as the enemy of Lebanon when the reverse is true).
How can anyone believe that Lebanon will know peace without the Lebanese government acquiescing to a negotiated peace between Lebanon and Israel? How can the Republican Party support those same people who refuse a political negotiated solution between Lebanon and Israel, and instead argue for a military confrontation with Israel? How can the US government and the Republicans support the Sleiman-Siniora regime in Lebanon whose government's plan include "endorsing the right of the 'Resistance' [i.e. the terrorist Hezbollah organization] to defend Lebanon" and is working on a "common defense strategy" between the Lebanese state and that terrorist organization whose hands are soaked with the blood of American citizens and soldiers?
For all those reasons, I have come to despise and not trust the Republicans.
For all those reasons, I will vote for either Barack Obama or Ralph Nader this coming November. The treason of the Republicans to the Lebanese Cause is beyond belief because it is the treason of your own friend.
Let all the Lebanese-Americans look at the history of how the Republican Party handled the Lebanese problem for the past decades and they will reach the same conclusion: a betrayal that deserves to be confronted and defeated.
Hanibaal
When President Reagan ran away from the terrorist threat in the aftermath of that 1983 attack against the US Marines in Beirut, and pulled all US forces out of Lebanon and abandoned Lebanon and US national security in the face of the terrorist regime in Damascus and its proxy Hezbollah, Senator John McCain, who today brags about his foreign policy and how he will defend the US against Islamic radicalism, endorsed that cowardly withdrawal by questioning: "What is the US interest in Lebanon?" on the floor of the US Senate in opposition to keeping US peacekeeping forces there.
Today, George W. Bush (son) - and John McCain in his footsteps - has violated all his post-September 11 pledges and has gone back to cavorting to traditionalists, corrupt leaderships, former warlords and war criminals and propping them as the best hope for a democratic Lebanon, for the sole and short-sighted purpose of opposing Hezbollah (without actually doing anything serious to actually defeat Hezbollah or help the Lebanese army defeat Hezbollah);
When George W. Bush has returned to old and stale policies of making deals with corrupt and unrepresentative leaders in order to buy stability from them at the expense of true freedoms, true change, true reforms, true justice and real grassroots, civil society-based democracy; Then, I as a Lebanese-American who once believed the lies and the myths propagated by the Republicans, will not vote for John McCain.
I had voted for McCain in previous elections and primaries because I believed in his "maverick" image. But on the issue of Lebanon, he is endorsing the Bush pack of lies: He is supporting the traditionalists, the corrupt warlords and war criminals who collaborated with the Syrian occupation for decades, and who in a heartbeat will revert back into pan-Arab Islamic nationalism, and to all the rejectionist anti-peace, pro-Syrian, pro-Muslim radical platforms. These are people who for decades supported the PLO terrorism and who to this day support Hezbollah's terrorism (see other articles in this blog about how Prime Minister Siniora and President Michel Sleiman continue to defend Syria's interests and brandish Israel as the enemy of Lebanon when the reverse is true).
How can anyone believe that Lebanon will know peace without the Lebanese government acquiescing to a negotiated peace between Lebanon and Israel? How can the Republican Party support those same people who refuse a political negotiated solution between Lebanon and Israel, and instead argue for a military confrontation with Israel? How can the US government and the Republicans support the Sleiman-Siniora regime in Lebanon whose government's plan include "endorsing the right of the 'Resistance' [i.e. the terrorist Hezbollah organization] to defend Lebanon" and is working on a "common defense strategy" between the Lebanese state and that terrorist organization whose hands are soaked with the blood of American citizens and soldiers?
For all those reasons, I have come to despise and not trust the Republicans.
For all those reasons, I will vote for either Barack Obama or Ralph Nader this coming November. The treason of the Republicans to the Lebanese Cause is beyond belief because it is the treason of your own friend.
Let all the Lebanese-Americans look at the history of how the Republican Party handled the Lebanese problem for the past decades and they will reach the same conclusion: a betrayal that deserves to be confronted and defeated.
Hanibaal
The Syrian President of Lebanon Speaks at UN
The Syrian President of Lebanon, Mr. Michel Suleiman, delivered yesterday his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York. In his remarks, Suleiman completely ignored the threats posed by Syria against Lebanon, including the current massing of 10,000 troops along Lebanon's northern border, and chose to enumerate all the Syrian positions dictated by the Syrian regime on Lebanon.
"Lebanon is facing a series of dangers and challenges which require the international community to compel Israel to implement Resolution 1701 and to stop its dangerous threats to launch a new war on Lebanon," the president said.
Instead of demanding that Syria cede the Shebaa Farms back to Lebanon (after Syria annexed them in the 1950s, killing two Lebanese policemen in the process) in order for Lebanon to then demand Israel to withdraw from them, the Syrian President of Lebanon asked the international community to force Israel to unconditionally withdraw from the Shebaa Farms, thus granting Hezbollah another "divine" victory that will further bolster the radical fundamentalist terror organization and ensure its grip on Lebanon's destiny.
Instead of demanding that Syria pay back the billions of dollars it pilfered from the Lebanese economy during its 30 years of occupation, and compensate the Lebanese people for the tens of thousands it killed and maimed, the thousands it still holds in its prisons, and all the assassinations and crimes against humanity Syria perpetrated in Lebanon, this traitor President of Lebanon vowed to obligate Israel to pay compensations for all the damages that resulted from its "repeated offensives on Lebanon," which were conducted by Israel as a response to attacks by Palestinian, Hezbollah, and other terror groups from Lebanese territory against Israeli villages along the Lebanese border.
The Syrian President of Lebanon Michel Suleiman did not demand that the international community compels Syria to stop the influx of weapons and terrorists into Lebanon across the Syrian-Lebanese border. He did not demand that Syria recognize Lebanon's right to exist as a distinct and sovereign nation and stop its ambitions to annex Lebanon and convert it into a Syrian province. Since the independence of Lebanon in 1943, Syria has refused to recognize the right of Lebanon to exist as an independent country - in the same way that Saddam Hussein never recognized Kuwait's right to exist - and never accepted to exchange diplomatic missions between the two countries as a way to remind the world that it does not recognize Lebanon.
The Syrian President of Lebanon ignored the fate of the thousands of detainees and prisoners that Syria abducted in Lebanon over 30 years of occupation and illegally transferred into Syria where they were tortured, killed, and never heard from again. No international organization has been allowed to visit the prisons of Syria to see who, if any, among these Lebanese citizens, may still be alive. Once in a while, one of them is released and shows up in Lebanon, after 10, 20 or 30 years. Many return with deep psychological scars and trauma as a result of the torture they are subjected to, every time raising the question as to how many remain in Syria.
The traitor Syrian President of Lebanon Michel Suleiman does not demand that Syria account for all these people. He does not even allow the mass graves and ossuaries that continue to be uncovered in Lebanon near former Syrian military positions and intelligence bureaus be excavated properly according to international standards and the remains be identified.
This President - while still Army Chief appointed by the Syrian occupation - followed the evacuating Syrian army of occupation in 2005, apologizing to them and expressing his regrets to see them leave.
The international community should have no respect for this traitor or for the country he represents. He is an operative of Hezbollah and Syria, and as long as he holds this position, the international community should not provide any assistance to him or to his country.
Hanibaal
"Lebanon is facing a series of dangers and challenges which require the international community to compel Israel to implement Resolution 1701 and to stop its dangerous threats to launch a new war on Lebanon," the president said.
Instead of demanding that Syria cede the Shebaa Farms back to Lebanon (after Syria annexed them in the 1950s, killing two Lebanese policemen in the process) in order for Lebanon to then demand Israel to withdraw from them, the Syrian President of Lebanon asked the international community to force Israel to unconditionally withdraw from the Shebaa Farms, thus granting Hezbollah another "divine" victory that will further bolster the radical fundamentalist terror organization and ensure its grip on Lebanon's destiny.
Instead of demanding that Syria pay back the billions of dollars it pilfered from the Lebanese economy during its 30 years of occupation, and compensate the Lebanese people for the tens of thousands it killed and maimed, the thousands it still holds in its prisons, and all the assassinations and crimes against humanity Syria perpetrated in Lebanon, this traitor President of Lebanon vowed to obligate Israel to pay compensations for all the damages that resulted from its "repeated offensives on Lebanon," which were conducted by Israel as a response to attacks by Palestinian, Hezbollah, and other terror groups from Lebanese territory against Israeli villages along the Lebanese border.
The Syrian President of Lebanon Michel Suleiman did not demand that the international community compels Syria to stop the influx of weapons and terrorists into Lebanon across the Syrian-Lebanese border. He did not demand that Syria recognize Lebanon's right to exist as a distinct and sovereign nation and stop its ambitions to annex Lebanon and convert it into a Syrian province. Since the independence of Lebanon in 1943, Syria has refused to recognize the right of Lebanon to exist as an independent country - in the same way that Saddam Hussein never recognized Kuwait's right to exist - and never accepted to exchange diplomatic missions between the two countries as a way to remind the world that it does not recognize Lebanon.
The Syrian President of Lebanon ignored the fate of the thousands of detainees and prisoners that Syria abducted in Lebanon over 30 years of occupation and illegally transferred into Syria where they were tortured, killed, and never heard from again. No international organization has been allowed to visit the prisons of Syria to see who, if any, among these Lebanese citizens, may still be alive. Once in a while, one of them is released and shows up in Lebanon, after 10, 20 or 30 years. Many return with deep psychological scars and trauma as a result of the torture they are subjected to, every time raising the question as to how many remain in Syria.
The traitor Syrian President of Lebanon Michel Suleiman does not demand that Syria account for all these people. He does not even allow the mass graves and ossuaries that continue to be uncovered in Lebanon near former Syrian military positions and intelligence bureaus be excavated properly according to international standards and the remains be identified.
This President - while still Army Chief appointed by the Syrian occupation - followed the evacuating Syrian army of occupation in 2005, apologizing to them and expressing his regrets to see them leave.
The international community should have no respect for this traitor or for the country he represents. He is an operative of Hezbollah and Syria, and as long as he holds this position, the international community should not provide any assistance to him or to his country.
Hanibaal
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
10,000 Syrian troops on Lebanon border
Syria has massed 10,000 Syrian troops on the Lebanese northern border, which is raising fears among the Lebanese people about Syria’s intention to re-enter the Lebanon after it was evicted in humiliation in 2005 by massive grassroots demonstrations across Lebanon.
Syria says that the deployment is to prevent cross-border smuggling of weapons and terrorists, something that the international community has been asking the Syrian regime to do for years. However, the timing of this deployment is clearly related to the tensions in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between the Lebanese Alawi community (the Assad dynasty and dictatorship is itself from the Alawi minority of Syria) and the Sunni community.
The Syrian regime has been playing both sides of the geopolitical game, alternating overnight between an apparent openness to the West (including peace overtures and indirect negotiations with Israel, exchange of visits between Paris and Damascus at the highest levels of government) on one hand, and an escalating hostility (including a blatant support to Russia’s intervention in Georgia, support to Iran’s bellicose posturing on the nuclear issue, continued support to Hezbollah with weapons and gunmen across the Lebanese border)
Beirut and Damascus have in recent months been working to improve relations, which deteriorated sharply after the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister - an act widely blamed on Syria. However, those improvements in relations were only cosmetic, since even a visit by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to Damascus last month failed to achieve any substantive progress on the major contentious issues between the two countries: The hundreds and thousands of imprisoned and missing Lebanese in Syria, exchange of diplomatic missions, and Syria’s reluctance to officially cede the Shebaa Farms back to Lebanon which is a pre-requisite for an Israeli withdrawal from this disputed border area between Israel, Syria and Lebanon near the Golan Heights.
Damascus retains influence through its support for political forces in Lebanon including Hezbollah, the armed Shiite movement heading the opposition." There are fears that Syrian influence is growing again," said one European diplomat in Beirut. "The Syrians are determined [that their proxies] win the upcoming 2009 parliamentary elections in Lebanon - the stakes are high."
Nevertheless, a significant number of Lebanese remain skeptical about whether Damascus is finally prepared to recognize Lebanon as an independent and distinct nation. Ever since the two countries were born between the two world wars of the 20th century, Syria has entertained the ambition of annexing its smaller neighbor Lebanon. Some politicians believe that the recent sectarian fighting in the northern port city of Tripoli between Alawis and Sunnis was fueled by Syria, looking for an excuse to re-enter Lebanon. Many in Lebanon – except Hezbollah – are of the belief that Lebanon will never know stability and peace as long as the Syrian Baathist regime remains in control in Syria.
Hanibaal
Syria says that the deployment is to prevent cross-border smuggling of weapons and terrorists, something that the international community has been asking the Syrian regime to do for years. However, the timing of this deployment is clearly related to the tensions in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between the Lebanese Alawi community (the Assad dynasty and dictatorship is itself from the Alawi minority of Syria) and the Sunni community.
The Syrian regime has been playing both sides of the geopolitical game, alternating overnight between an apparent openness to the West (including peace overtures and indirect negotiations with Israel, exchange of visits between Paris and Damascus at the highest levels of government) on one hand, and an escalating hostility (including a blatant support to Russia’s intervention in Georgia, support to Iran’s bellicose posturing on the nuclear issue, continued support to Hezbollah with weapons and gunmen across the Lebanese border)
Beirut and Damascus have in recent months been working to improve relations, which deteriorated sharply after the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister - an act widely blamed on Syria. However, those improvements in relations were only cosmetic, since even a visit by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to Damascus last month failed to achieve any substantive progress on the major contentious issues between the two countries: The hundreds and thousands of imprisoned and missing Lebanese in Syria, exchange of diplomatic missions, and Syria’s reluctance to officially cede the Shebaa Farms back to Lebanon which is a pre-requisite for an Israeli withdrawal from this disputed border area between Israel, Syria and Lebanon near the Golan Heights.
Damascus retains influence through its support for political forces in Lebanon including Hezbollah, the armed Shiite movement heading the opposition." There are fears that Syrian influence is growing again," said one European diplomat in Beirut. "The Syrians are determined [that their proxies] win the upcoming 2009 parliamentary elections in Lebanon - the stakes are high."
Nevertheless, a significant number of Lebanese remain skeptical about whether Damascus is finally prepared to recognize Lebanon as an independent and distinct nation. Ever since the two countries were born between the two world wars of the 20th century, Syria has entertained the ambition of annexing its smaller neighbor Lebanon. Some politicians believe that the recent sectarian fighting in the northern port city of Tripoli between Alawis and Sunnis was fueled by Syria, looking for an excuse to re-enter Lebanon. Many in Lebanon – except Hezbollah – are of the belief that Lebanon will never know stability and peace as long as the Syrian Baathist regime remains in control in Syria.
Hanibaal
Monday, September 22, 2008
SINIORA IS STILL SITTING ON THE FENCE
Listen to what the Prime Minister of Lebanon Fuad Siniora told the Turkish media yesterday. (See news report following this commentary). This is the same whiny cry-baby pitiful idiot who cried on TV because he was angry at Hezbollah for starting a war with Israel in 2006.
This is the same Prime Minister who has, for the past several years, accused Hezbollah of undermining the Lebanese state and Mr. Siniora’s own government because Hezbollah refuses to lay down its weapons.
This is the same Sunni traitor who allied himself with Yasser Arafat’s PLO against his own Christian countrymen in the 1970s and 1980s, and who gave the PLO carte blanche to shell Israel from Lebanese territory, thus inviting Israeli reprisals leading up to the 1982 invasion.
This is the same Sunni traitor – he and his late boss Rafik Hariri – who stood by the Syrian occupation for 20 years, even as the Syrians were assassinating members of his own political group.
Siniora now claims that Hezbollah’s weapons are the result of the Israeli occupation, which in fact no longer exists. The Shebaa Farms now in Israeli hands were annexed by Syria from Lebanon in the 1950s, and Israel seized them from Syria. It is Syria’s obligation to FORMALLY relinquish the Shebaa Farms to Lebanon before Israel legally withdraws from them. Otherwise, it looks like Siniora – like all the traitor Sunni Prime Ministers of Lebanon before him – want to liberate Syrian land on behalf of the Syrian regime at Lebanon’s cost in blood and treasure, exactly as they tired to liberate Palestine on behalf of the Palestinians in the 1970s. Hasn’t Lebanon suffered enough?
This ass of a Prime Minister Siniora now has changed his mind about disarming Hezbollah. He is denying that the 1982 Israeli invasion ACTUALLY RID LEBANON OF THE PLO, and when Syria and Iran lost the PLO card, they created Hezbollah specifically for the purpose of replacing the PLO in the South of Lebanon to continue harassing Israel and inviting Israeli reprisals.
Siniora cannot make up his mind about who his real enemy. Is it Israel that holds the useless sliver of land (Shebaa Farms) that Syria in fact annexed from Lebanon in the 1950s only to lose it to Israel in 1967 and 1973? Or is it Syria that has assassinated hundreds of Lebanese leaders, killed tens of thousands of Lebanese citizens in brutal shellings during the 1970s and 1980s, pilfered the Lebanese treasury for decades, still holds innocent Lebanese citizens in its dungeons and prisons, is massing troops on Lebanon’s borders as we speak, and does not recognize Lebanon’s right to exist as a distinct and independent nation?
Lebanon’s enemy is the Muslims of Lebanon: As long as they put Islam and their religious affiliations (Sunnis with the Sunni Arabs, and the Shiites with Shiite Iran) ahead of their Lebanese identity, there will be no peace in Lebanon. The Muslims of Lebanon have assassinated Lebanon for the sake of all other Arab causes, except the cause of Lebanon, and they don't learn their lesson.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Siniora’s comments as reported in the Turkish press today Sept. 22, 2008:
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora says there are no plans to disarm Hezbollah, citing continued Israeli occupation as the real problem.
"We will not try to disarm the resistance (Hezbollah). This issue is the subject of discussion among the Lebanese themselves," Lebanon's National News Agency quoted Siniora as saying. Siniora said that Israeli occupation forced Hezbollah to arm, adding that the Israeli regime's 1982 invasion of Lebanon led to the creation of the resistance movement.
"These weapons are the result of occupation. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 using fabricated excuses under the pretext of destroying the Palestine Liberation Organization. What happened? The PLO was not dismantled, but the occupation led to the emergence of Hezbollah," said the Lebanese prime minister.
So the real problem lies in the continuing Israeli occupation of Lebanese land, Siniora explained.
The majority bloc [of which Siniora is a leader] in the Lebanese parliament maintains that the government should take control of weapons and have the sole authority to take decisions on war and peace. In contrast, Hezbollah refuses to disarm, arguing that it needs its weapons to defend the country against Israel. By stating that his government does not wish to disarm Hezbollah, Siniora is speaking from both sides of his mouth and is one big liar.
In the summer of 2006, the Israeli regime waged a 33-day war against Lebanon from July 12 to August 14. It imposed an air and naval blockade on Lebanon and launched a ground incursion into the country's southern regions.
This is the same Prime Minister who has, for the past several years, accused Hezbollah of undermining the Lebanese state and Mr. Siniora’s own government because Hezbollah refuses to lay down its weapons.
This is the same Sunni traitor who allied himself with Yasser Arafat’s PLO against his own Christian countrymen in the 1970s and 1980s, and who gave the PLO carte blanche to shell Israel from Lebanese territory, thus inviting Israeli reprisals leading up to the 1982 invasion.
This is the same Sunni traitor – he and his late boss Rafik Hariri – who stood by the Syrian occupation for 20 years, even as the Syrians were assassinating members of his own political group.
Siniora now claims that Hezbollah’s weapons are the result of the Israeli occupation, which in fact no longer exists. The Shebaa Farms now in Israeli hands were annexed by Syria from Lebanon in the 1950s, and Israel seized them from Syria. It is Syria’s obligation to FORMALLY relinquish the Shebaa Farms to Lebanon before Israel legally withdraws from them. Otherwise, it looks like Siniora – like all the traitor Sunni Prime Ministers of Lebanon before him – want to liberate Syrian land on behalf of the Syrian regime at Lebanon’s cost in blood and treasure, exactly as they tired to liberate Palestine on behalf of the Palestinians in the 1970s. Hasn’t Lebanon suffered enough?
This ass of a Prime Minister Siniora now has changed his mind about disarming Hezbollah. He is denying that the 1982 Israeli invasion ACTUALLY RID LEBANON OF THE PLO, and when Syria and Iran lost the PLO card, they created Hezbollah specifically for the purpose of replacing the PLO in the South of Lebanon to continue harassing Israel and inviting Israeli reprisals.
Siniora cannot make up his mind about who his real enemy. Is it Israel that holds the useless sliver of land (Shebaa Farms) that Syria in fact annexed from Lebanon in the 1950s only to lose it to Israel in 1967 and 1973? Or is it Syria that has assassinated hundreds of Lebanese leaders, killed tens of thousands of Lebanese citizens in brutal shellings during the 1970s and 1980s, pilfered the Lebanese treasury for decades, still holds innocent Lebanese citizens in its dungeons and prisons, is massing troops on Lebanon’s borders as we speak, and does not recognize Lebanon’s right to exist as a distinct and independent nation?
Lebanon’s enemy is the Muslims of Lebanon: As long as they put Islam and their religious affiliations (Sunnis with the Sunni Arabs, and the Shiites with Shiite Iran) ahead of their Lebanese identity, there will be no peace in Lebanon. The Muslims of Lebanon have assassinated Lebanon for the sake of all other Arab causes, except the cause of Lebanon, and they don't learn their lesson.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Siniora’s comments as reported in the Turkish press today Sept. 22, 2008:
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora says there are no plans to disarm Hezbollah, citing continued Israeli occupation as the real problem.
"We will not try to disarm the resistance (Hezbollah). This issue is the subject of discussion among the Lebanese themselves," Lebanon's National News Agency quoted Siniora as saying. Siniora said that Israeli occupation forced Hezbollah to arm, adding that the Israeli regime's 1982 invasion of Lebanon led to the creation of the resistance movement.
"These weapons are the result of occupation. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 using fabricated excuses under the pretext of destroying the Palestine Liberation Organization. What happened? The PLO was not dismantled, but the occupation led to the emergence of Hezbollah," said the Lebanese prime minister.
So the real problem lies in the continuing Israeli occupation of Lebanese land, Siniora explained.
The majority bloc [of which Siniora is a leader] in the Lebanese parliament maintains that the government should take control of weapons and have the sole authority to take decisions on war and peace. In contrast, Hezbollah refuses to disarm, arguing that it needs its weapons to defend the country against Israel. By stating that his government does not wish to disarm Hezbollah, Siniora is speaking from both sides of his mouth and is one big liar.
In the summer of 2006, the Israeli regime waged a 33-day war against Lebanon from July 12 to August 14. It imposed an air and naval blockade on Lebanon and launched a ground incursion into the country's southern regions.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Apology of a Criminal
This blogger knows firsthand the crimes and atrocities committed by Samir Geagea and his Lebanese Forces. Yet, one has to recognize that even criminals can sometimes hold part of the truth, and Samir Geagea said some pretty convincing things in his speech today. Yet, the face of the man who represents the worst of the Lebanese Christian resistance will forever remain a scar and a blemish on that resistance, and Geagea would do the Christians of Lebanon his ultimate service by stepping down and vanishing into his cave.
Until Geagea steps down and relinquishes power to a newer and cleaner leadership, no Christian and no Lebanese should ever trust Geagea and the blood that still drips from his hands. No Christian Lebanese should vote for Geagea and his henchmen, and neither should the Lebanese Christians vote for Aoun and his "nouveau Christian liberals" whose definition of patriotism has turned into full fledged political prostitution and whoring. And, one might add, the Lebanese Christians - secular and fundamentalists alike - do not need a reconciliation between Aoun and Geagea because between the two of them, the blood of so many has been spilled for naught and for the loss of Lebanon to its enemies.
Geagea and Aoun should step aside in order for the Lebanese to forget the war and its atrocities. As long as their faces show up every evening on the news, there will never be reconciliation. NEVER. The Lebanese Christians should find new leadership, a more modern, educated and progressive leadership, one that is not tarnished by the war, and one that has a vision for the future other than clinging to the robes of Patriarch Sfeir and kissing his ring, or clinging to the military uniform of Aoun and kissing his ass. The Lebanese people are much better than these leaders. They are more educated and more likely to be democrats and open-minded and liberal in the true sense of the word. We ought to go beyond the antiquated obsolete religious foundation of who we are and what we stand for. We are much better: We have seen the separation of Church and State in our countries of exile and we know how well it works. We have seen how religion is pushed back inside the home in these advanced societies - and not shoved down our throats in public and political life, and we should do the same here in Lebanon.
Yes, the Lebanese Forces did fight for an honorable cause, but they did it with tyranny, theft, wanton murder, betrayal and treason assassinations of other Christian leaders under the pretense of "unifying" the Lebanese Resistance. One has always to remember to separate the Cause from those who fight for it. The Lebanese Forces and Geagea are NOT the Lebanese Cause, they are mere opportunist actors in it who committed some of the worst crimes against humanity in their prosecution of their resistance, and that is what made the Lebanese Christians lose the war in the end.
Here are some excerpts from Geagea's speech today Sunday September 21. [From report by NowLebanon]
“Martyrdom does not hurt the martyrs and their families, but what hurts are the attempts to deny or exploit their martyrdom for personal interest.” He added that the LF was proud of its martyrs, and would not surrender to misleading information and unfair accusations.
“A lie can kill a person but it cannot kill the truth, and our truth will remain,” he said, adding that the LF’s “martyrs” are actually those of all Lebanon.
“We had to defend the country’s sovereignty, freedom and public safety, because no one was there,” he said, adding that those who died had been described by some parties as criminals and thieves.
Geagea said the LF was the first party that responded to the call for peace.
“If we resist, they call us criminals, and if we forge peace they call us colluders,” he said, before he called for the “victory” of the truth against lies and misleading information.
“I fully apologize for any mistakes we committed when we carried out our national duties during the war,” Geagea said, adding that he asked for forgiveness from God and for those they had hurt.
“I call upon those who are exploiting our mistakes to stop, because only God can judge us,” he added.
“I know that the people of Lebanon are looking forward to unity and reconciliation. We aim to unite but over what?” he asked. “United over Hezbollah’s weapons, at the expense of the Lebanese state, until the Liberation of Palestine and the resolution of the Middle East peace process?”
“Over calling for an investigation into the Army Command sending a helicopter into a Hezbollah region? Over bringing Syrian authority back into Lebanon? Over fighting American imperialism in the Middle East and the world, until victory? Over the practice of camping in Beirut in order to bring about change and reform?” Geagea asked.
“Are the Christians of the March 8 alliance ready to unite, or did they replace the slogan of “Lebanon is always right” with “Hezbollah and Syria are always right?” he continued, asking if there could be anything more divisive among the Christian community than attacking Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.
“The parliamentary elections will be a turning point that will define Lebanon’s destiny,” said Geagea.
“I call on the Christians who are against the Lebanese Forces, and especially against me, to think about Lebanon’s interests and to overcome all personal interests, because we can only save Lebanon with unity among the people and among Christians in particular,” he added.
He said that the March 14 alliance and the Cedar Revolution represented Lebanon’s true resistance, adding that they would take steps to liberate all of Lebanon’s occupied territories, including Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills. Geagea said he wanted the state to be powerful and for all weapons to be restricted to legitimate military institutions.
Geagea called for the Special Tribunal into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to proceed, for judicial reforms and economic development.
He added that combating Israel required an agreement between all Arab countries in order to establish a successful defense strategy.
“The Palestinian cause is not one party’s cause, but it concerns all Arabs” he said.
Geagea added that the Lebanese defense strategy was almost defined by the Doha Agreement and the ministerial statement.
“Some parties insist on keeping their weapons because they claim that the state was still not powerful and capable. We believe that as long as there are weapons in the hands of a Lebanese party, there will not be a powerful state,” he said.
“We are going through a new phase with President Michel Sleiman, and we should abandon all personal interest and support the state authorities,” he added.
---------------------
Hanibaal
Until Geagea steps down and relinquishes power to a newer and cleaner leadership, no Christian and no Lebanese should ever trust Geagea and the blood that still drips from his hands. No Christian Lebanese should vote for Geagea and his henchmen, and neither should the Lebanese Christians vote for Aoun and his "nouveau Christian liberals" whose definition of patriotism has turned into full fledged political prostitution and whoring. And, one might add, the Lebanese Christians - secular and fundamentalists alike - do not need a reconciliation between Aoun and Geagea because between the two of them, the blood of so many has been spilled for naught and for the loss of Lebanon to its enemies.
Geagea and Aoun should step aside in order for the Lebanese to forget the war and its atrocities. As long as their faces show up every evening on the news, there will never be reconciliation. NEVER. The Lebanese Christians should find new leadership, a more modern, educated and progressive leadership, one that is not tarnished by the war, and one that has a vision for the future other than clinging to the robes of Patriarch Sfeir and kissing his ring, or clinging to the military uniform of Aoun and kissing his ass. The Lebanese people are much better than these leaders. They are more educated and more likely to be democrats and open-minded and liberal in the true sense of the word. We ought to go beyond the antiquated obsolete religious foundation of who we are and what we stand for. We are much better: We have seen the separation of Church and State in our countries of exile and we know how well it works. We have seen how religion is pushed back inside the home in these advanced societies - and not shoved down our throats in public and political life, and we should do the same here in Lebanon.
Yes, the Lebanese Forces did fight for an honorable cause, but they did it with tyranny, theft, wanton murder, betrayal and treason assassinations of other Christian leaders under the pretense of "unifying" the Lebanese Resistance. One has always to remember to separate the Cause from those who fight for it. The Lebanese Forces and Geagea are NOT the Lebanese Cause, they are mere opportunist actors in it who committed some of the worst crimes against humanity in their prosecution of their resistance, and that is what made the Lebanese Christians lose the war in the end.
Here are some excerpts from Geagea's speech today Sunday September 21. [From report by NowLebanon]
“Martyrdom does not hurt the martyrs and their families, but what hurts are the attempts to deny or exploit their martyrdom for personal interest.” He added that the LF was proud of its martyrs, and would not surrender to misleading information and unfair accusations.
“A lie can kill a person but it cannot kill the truth, and our truth will remain,” he said, adding that the LF’s “martyrs” are actually those of all Lebanon.
“We had to defend the country’s sovereignty, freedom and public safety, because no one was there,” he said, adding that those who died had been described by some parties as criminals and thieves.
Geagea said the LF was the first party that responded to the call for peace.
“If we resist, they call us criminals, and if we forge peace they call us colluders,” he said, before he called for the “victory” of the truth against lies and misleading information.
“I fully apologize for any mistakes we committed when we carried out our national duties during the war,” Geagea said, adding that he asked for forgiveness from God and for those they had hurt.
“I call upon those who are exploiting our mistakes to stop, because only God can judge us,” he added.
“I know that the people of Lebanon are looking forward to unity and reconciliation. We aim to unite but over what?” he asked. “United over Hezbollah’s weapons, at the expense of the Lebanese state, until the Liberation of Palestine and the resolution of the Middle East peace process?”
“Over calling for an investigation into the Army Command sending a helicopter into a Hezbollah region? Over bringing Syrian authority back into Lebanon? Over fighting American imperialism in the Middle East and the world, until victory? Over the practice of camping in Beirut in order to bring about change and reform?” Geagea asked.
“Are the Christians of the March 8 alliance ready to unite, or did they replace the slogan of “Lebanon is always right” with “Hezbollah and Syria are always right?” he continued, asking if there could be anything more divisive among the Christian community than attacking Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir.
“The parliamentary elections will be a turning point that will define Lebanon’s destiny,” said Geagea.
“I call on the Christians who are against the Lebanese Forces, and especially against me, to think about Lebanon’s interests and to overcome all personal interests, because we can only save Lebanon with unity among the people and among Christians in particular,” he added.
He said that the March 14 alliance and the Cedar Revolution represented Lebanon’s true resistance, adding that they would take steps to liberate all of Lebanon’s occupied territories, including Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills. Geagea said he wanted the state to be powerful and for all weapons to be restricted to legitimate military institutions.
Geagea called for the Special Tribunal into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to proceed, for judicial reforms and economic development.
He added that combating Israel required an agreement between all Arab countries in order to establish a successful defense strategy.
“The Palestinian cause is not one party’s cause, but it concerns all Arabs” he said.
Geagea added that the Lebanese defense strategy was almost defined by the Doha Agreement and the ministerial statement.
“Some parties insist on keeping their weapons because they claim that the state was still not powerful and capable. We believe that as long as there are weapons in the hands of a Lebanese party, there will not be a powerful state,” he said.
“We are going through a new phase with President Michel Sleiman, and we should abandon all personal interest and support the state authorities,” he added.
---------------------
Hanibaal
Sunday, September 14, 2008
To Mohammad Raad: Syria is Lebanon's Enemy
The head of the so-called "Loyalty to the Resistance" bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, said that "the Resistance [i.e. the pro-Iranian terrorist organization Hezbollah]is heading to the national dialogue, Called for by the traitor President of Lebanon, General [How shameful that he bears this title] Michel Sleiman, with the intention of strengthening national unity and protecting the country."
Raad added that whoever wanted to discuss the national defense strategy must first clarify who is Lebanon’s enemy. “Do we want a defense strategy that protects Lebanon from its enemies or one that protects it from its brothers?” he asked.
--------------------
Here are some clarifications for Mr. Raad who apparently is mentally very dense and reputedly an illiterate:
Mr. Raad's so-called "brother" of Lebanon:
- Still refuses to recognize Lebanon's historic right to exist as an independent and sovereign nation. Since the 1920s, Syria has refused to exchange embassies with Lebanon because it does not recognize Lebanon.
- Killed 150,000 Lebanese between 1970 and 2005.
- Was forced out of Lebanon in 2005 after 35 years of occupation.
- Kidnapped thousands of Lebanese who are still missing in Syrian prisons.
- Assassinated hundreds of political, religious, media, and academic figures under its occupation.
- Laid siege to Christian Beirut on several occasions, indiscriminately bombing and shelling civilian areas [I was there].
- Has an ongoing ceasefire since 1974 with Israel, never fired a bullet against Israel on the Golan Heights and is currently negotiating with Israel, while denying Lebanon's sovereign right to do so. Meanwhile Syria's dogs, like Siniora, Hariri, Aoun, Sleiman, Nasrallah etc. agree that Lebanon should not negotiate with Israel (to resolve the Shebaa Farms fallacy) before Syria itself has settled its own problems with Israel on the Golan.
- The Syrian regime keeps its own people like dogs: The Internet is monitored, journalists and human rights activists are in prisons, the siege of the Syrian city of Hama killed 20,000 people in an overnight of killing and destruction in 1981.
- Has alternatively supported every murderous militia in Lebanon's war history: The PLO, the PFLP, Walid Jumblatt's Druze militias, Samir Geagea's Christian militias, Nabih Berri's Amal militia, Hassan Nasrallah's Hezbollah militias, arming them and inciting them to wreck havoc in Lebanon, according to its own interests.
So to MP Raad:
- With a "brother" like Syria, who need enemies?
- Israel is not Lebanon's enemy. Syria is Lebanon's enemy.
- Lebanon has no enemies and does not want or need enemies. All of Lebanon's "enemies" are invented by traitors like Mohamamd Raad who need those "enemies" to stay armed and in power.
- MP MOhammad Raad is himself the enemy of Lebanon because, as every traitor to his country does, his Hezbollah keeps giving Lebanon's neighbors Israel and Syria all the pretexts to keep interfering in Lebanon and preventing Lebanon from finally knowing peace like all the other Arab "brothers". While those "brothers" have become rich, have stability and send their children safely to school every morning, Lebanon has collapsed, has become poor and primitive, has been unable to have peace, and the Lebanese cannot keep their children safe because of Syria and Hezbollah.
The Lebanese know who their real enemy is. Let's hope MP Raad's thick skull gets it one day.
Hanibaal
Raad added that whoever wanted to discuss the national defense strategy must first clarify who is Lebanon’s enemy. “Do we want a defense strategy that protects Lebanon from its enemies or one that protects it from its brothers?” he asked.
--------------------
Here are some clarifications for Mr. Raad who apparently is mentally very dense and reputedly an illiterate:
Mr. Raad's so-called "brother" of Lebanon:
- Still refuses to recognize Lebanon's historic right to exist as an independent and sovereign nation. Since the 1920s, Syria has refused to exchange embassies with Lebanon because it does not recognize Lebanon.
- Killed 150,000 Lebanese between 1970 and 2005.
- Was forced out of Lebanon in 2005 after 35 years of occupation.
- Kidnapped thousands of Lebanese who are still missing in Syrian prisons.
- Assassinated hundreds of political, religious, media, and academic figures under its occupation.
- Laid siege to Christian Beirut on several occasions, indiscriminately bombing and shelling civilian areas [I was there].
- Has an ongoing ceasefire since 1974 with Israel, never fired a bullet against Israel on the Golan Heights and is currently negotiating with Israel, while denying Lebanon's sovereign right to do so. Meanwhile Syria's dogs, like Siniora, Hariri, Aoun, Sleiman, Nasrallah etc. agree that Lebanon should not negotiate with Israel (to resolve the Shebaa Farms fallacy) before Syria itself has settled its own problems with Israel on the Golan.
- The Syrian regime keeps its own people like dogs: The Internet is monitored, journalists and human rights activists are in prisons, the siege of the Syrian city of Hama killed 20,000 people in an overnight of killing and destruction in 1981.
- Has alternatively supported every murderous militia in Lebanon's war history: The PLO, the PFLP, Walid Jumblatt's Druze militias, Samir Geagea's Christian militias, Nabih Berri's Amal militia, Hassan Nasrallah's Hezbollah militias, arming them and inciting them to wreck havoc in Lebanon, according to its own interests.
So to MP Raad:
- With a "brother" like Syria, who need enemies?
- Israel is not Lebanon's enemy. Syria is Lebanon's enemy.
- Lebanon has no enemies and does not want or need enemies. All of Lebanon's "enemies" are invented by traitors like Mohamamd Raad who need those "enemies" to stay armed and in power.
- MP MOhammad Raad is himself the enemy of Lebanon because, as every traitor to his country does, his Hezbollah keeps giving Lebanon's neighbors Israel and Syria all the pretexts to keep interfering in Lebanon and preventing Lebanon from finally knowing peace like all the other Arab "brothers". While those "brothers" have become rich, have stability and send their children safely to school every morning, Lebanon has collapsed, has become poor and primitive, has been unable to have peace, and the Lebanese cannot keep their children safe because of Syria and Hezbollah.
The Lebanese know who their real enemy is. Let's hope MP Raad's thick skull gets it one day.
Hanibaal
Saturday, September 13, 2008
How disgusted are Lebanese-Americans at Lebanon?
The Lebanese back home may believe all the myths about how great their Lebanese immigrants are and what great achievements they attain in politics, business, the arts and the sciences and so on. Like Khalil Gebran's myth - that he achieved all this fame and perspicacity because he's Lebanese - and every other one of us brag about him to our non-Lebanese friends.
But beneath all that boisterous bragging, there is the truth, which is is that Lebanon as a country stinks - morally, physically and in every other respect, except perhaps in some of its remote mountain retreats where the filthy Lebanese, with their money grabbing mentality of savages, have not arrived yet, and the beauty of the land remains untarnished by its own people.
That truth is in fact known to most Lebanese immigrants, who generally do not voice these opinions out of respect and in order not to embarrass their families and friends back home. But when they talk to each other in private e-mails and conversations, they vent their anger at the rape of Lebanon by its own people - the moral and physical rape, the distortions made in the name of archaic and obsolete religious beliefs, the abuse of the environment and all that the money whales, the powerful families, the political and the business Mafia, the churches and religious institutions, deny to the people of Lebanon. We, the emigrants from Lebanon, have watched Lebanon over the past 40 years fall and decline - yes, because of the interferences and occupations and manipulations of outsiders - but also in large part due to our own sickness (as Lebanese people) and our own inability to evolve from the state of primitive savages in which we live back in Lebanon. And until we do, Lebanon will remain a country to be ashamed of, not to brag about.
One little example comes to mind. As I was checking in on my flight at Beirut Airport this past August, a man standing next to me lit a cigarette, to the annoyance of many people around him and in violation of the signs and voice reminders blaring across the airport. I asked him politely to go to one of the designated areas for smokers, to which he replied in anger: "This is Lebanon, I can do what I want here." As I reported him to a female airport security officer, she waved her hand and said something like "What can we do? Even the airport personnel smoke anywhere they want." A minuscule metaphor about how the Lebanese people do not understand the role of the law in their daily lives.
If the politicians in Lebanon read this blog, let them know that we will vote - as Lebanese-Americans - the way we think, in freedom, right here in our countries of exile. We will not vote like the dogs back home, licking the very hands that beat them and kill them and ruin their lives.
Here are excerpts from a letter (made anonymous) by a Lebanese-American to another:
[Begin letter]
Dear friend
I skimmed through the blog below. I like it, and I was moved by the article "Lebanon: where maids come to die". I was in Lebanon many years ago and I saw how they treat the maids and lock them up and I saw a lady slap one in public. I was disgusted. I like the name "lebanoniznogood" for that blog, because if we lie to ourselves and if we never admit there are problems we will never correct them.
A country that does not value human life does not deserve to have freedom. A country where the president "Slime" as they said calls a terrorist who kills children a hero, is a country that does not deserve freedom nor respect nor help.
You know our pastor one time said "Great people are great because they believe in a good cause, so believe in a cause not in people." He says "do not come to this church because of me, i may disappoint you. But come for what you believe. I built it on principles, principles do not change but people do."
One time I was in Lebanon and I had a guy drive me somewhere. At the Syrian checkpoint, he was saying "Yes Sir" and "No Sir" and almost wanted to kiss his ass. At the Lebanese checkpoint, he was arrogant and rude with the Lebanese soldiers. I made him go back and apologize to the Lebanese soldier or else I would get out of the car. These people deserve that a Syrian step on their neck.
I had so many people insult me because I did not worship Aoun, or Geagea or some other other politicians. I received ugly emails and at one point point cursed the day I was born as Lebanese.
But then i found some good people who do not belong to this or that party but they have no place to go nor a site to represent them, so this is who the site is for. I work for the department of health and I helped many Native Americans, Latinos, and indigent people to create coalitions, etc... One day I saw an organization that is trying to save a bat from extinction. They had newsletters, adopt a bat program, and the way they function amazed me. It hit me that if people can do that for a bat, I can do something for our heritage. I know several email lists have thousands of people but they want me to add their link, so I was willing to lose these numbers and not compromise. If I add a Christian militia site, then I would have to add Hezbollah or some other terrorist organization, and we would be back in the same shit that we have in Lebanon. I have nothing in common with Hezbollah and I cannot believe we are from the same country. It makes me sick that every damn terrorist group has offices or is related to Lebanon somehow. the PLO terrorists were kicked out of every country but roam free in Lebanon. Lebanese politicians would sell their mothers for a dollar and have no principles.
When I think of Lebanon I get sick to my stomach. I left very young and never thought of it. I met a Jewish man who told me I need to learn about my country because that is where I am from, but the more I read the more I got disgusted. One day a leader is against Syria, then next he is sleeping with them and yet his people follow him and I am talking about educated people.
[End of the letter]
Hanibaal
But beneath all that boisterous bragging, there is the truth, which is is that Lebanon as a country stinks - morally, physically and in every other respect, except perhaps in some of its remote mountain retreats where the filthy Lebanese, with their money grabbing mentality of savages, have not arrived yet, and the beauty of the land remains untarnished by its own people.
That truth is in fact known to most Lebanese immigrants, who generally do not voice these opinions out of respect and in order not to embarrass their families and friends back home. But when they talk to each other in private e-mails and conversations, they vent their anger at the rape of Lebanon by its own people - the moral and physical rape, the distortions made in the name of archaic and obsolete religious beliefs, the abuse of the environment and all that the money whales, the powerful families, the political and the business Mafia, the churches and religious institutions, deny to the people of Lebanon. We, the emigrants from Lebanon, have watched Lebanon over the past 40 years fall and decline - yes, because of the interferences and occupations and manipulations of outsiders - but also in large part due to our own sickness (as Lebanese people) and our own inability to evolve from the state of primitive savages in which we live back in Lebanon. And until we do, Lebanon will remain a country to be ashamed of, not to brag about.
One little example comes to mind. As I was checking in on my flight at Beirut Airport this past August, a man standing next to me lit a cigarette, to the annoyance of many people around him and in violation of the signs and voice reminders blaring across the airport. I asked him politely to go to one of the designated areas for smokers, to which he replied in anger: "This is Lebanon, I can do what I want here." As I reported him to a female airport security officer, she waved her hand and said something like "What can we do? Even the airport personnel smoke anywhere they want." A minuscule metaphor about how the Lebanese people do not understand the role of the law in their daily lives.
If the politicians in Lebanon read this blog, let them know that we will vote - as Lebanese-Americans - the way we think, in freedom, right here in our countries of exile. We will not vote like the dogs back home, licking the very hands that beat them and kill them and ruin their lives.
Here are excerpts from a letter (made anonymous) by a Lebanese-American to another:
[Begin letter]
Dear friend
I skimmed through the blog below. I like it, and I was moved by the article "Lebanon: where maids come to die". I was in Lebanon many years ago and I saw how they treat the maids and lock them up and I saw a lady slap one in public. I was disgusted. I like the name "lebanoniznogood" for that blog, because if we lie to ourselves and if we never admit there are problems we will never correct them.
A country that does not value human life does not deserve to have freedom. A country where the president "Slime" as they said calls a terrorist who kills children a hero, is a country that does not deserve freedom nor respect nor help.
You know our pastor one time said "Great people are great because they believe in a good cause, so believe in a cause not in people." He says "do not come to this church because of me, i may disappoint you. But come for what you believe. I built it on principles, principles do not change but people do."
One time I was in Lebanon and I had a guy drive me somewhere. At the Syrian checkpoint, he was saying "Yes Sir" and "No Sir" and almost wanted to kiss his ass. At the Lebanese checkpoint, he was arrogant and rude with the Lebanese soldiers. I made him go back and apologize to the Lebanese soldier or else I would get out of the car. These people deserve that a Syrian step on their neck.
I had so many people insult me because I did not worship Aoun, or Geagea or some other other politicians. I received ugly emails and at one point point cursed the day I was born as Lebanese.
But then i found some good people who do not belong to this or that party but they have no place to go nor a site to represent them, so this is who the site is for. I work for the department of health and I helped many Native Americans, Latinos, and indigent people to create coalitions, etc... One day I saw an organization that is trying to save a bat from extinction. They had newsletters, adopt a bat program, and the way they function amazed me. It hit me that if people can do that for a bat, I can do something for our heritage. I know several email lists have thousands of people but they want me to add their link, so I was willing to lose these numbers and not compromise. If I add a Christian militia site, then I would have to add Hezbollah or some other terrorist organization, and we would be back in the same shit that we have in Lebanon. I have nothing in common with Hezbollah and I cannot believe we are from the same country. It makes me sick that every damn terrorist group has offices or is related to Lebanon somehow. the PLO terrorists were kicked out of every country but roam free in Lebanon. Lebanese politicians would sell their mothers for a dollar and have no principles.
When I think of Lebanon I get sick to my stomach. I left very young and never thought of it. I met a Jewish man who told me I need to learn about my country because that is where I am from, but the more I read the more I got disgusted. One day a leader is against Syria, then next he is sleeping with them and yet his people follow him and I am talking about educated people.
[End of the letter]
Hanibaal
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Youssef Chaabane: 14 Years of Injustice
277 World Citizens Urge Lebanese Authorities to Release Youssef Chaabane
Human Rights activists and citizens worldwide are mobilizing for the release of Youssef Chaabane.
From Lebanon, France, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil and the United States, they were 277 to sign an electronic petition addressed to the Lebanese authorities demanding the release of Mr. Youssef Chaabane who has been in arbitrary detention in Lebanon since 1994.
The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) submitted a copy of the petition today to Justice Minister Mr. Ibrahim Najjar, and to the President of the Republic Mr. Michel Sleiman.
Go to the following page to sign the petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Chaabane/petition.html
International mobilization is ongoing for the release of this individual whose detention was declared arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and who has been forgotten in Lebanese prisons for 15 years.
After his arrest on February 5, 1994, Mr. Chaabane was forced to sign confessions under torture by the Syrian Intelligence Services, then by the Lebanese Criminal Investigation Police, in the assassination of a Jordanian diplomat in Lebanon.
Although Youssef Chaabane has not ceased to maintain his innocence in this case, the Lebanese Justice Council sentenced him to a life sentence on October 19, 1994.
In 2000, two individuals were arrested in Jordan in the same case. They were found guilty, sentenced to death and executed for the Jordanian diplomat’s murder. During the Jordanian trial, the two accused individuals did not incriminate Youssef Chaabane and, in fact, stated that he was not involved, which is corroborated by several key pieces of evidence in the case.
A request for a presidential pardon has been submitted.
Beirut
September 11, 2008
Check the Blog of CLDH (Lebanese Center for Human Rights) at:
http://cldh-tribunal-liban.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
US government's Ignorance and Lack of Spine
Fact: The United States government lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organization which is second only to Al-Qaeda in the number of Americans it has killed over a decades-old career in anti-Western terrorism.
Fact: Hezbollah is now a full-fledged member of the Lebanese government, and Hezbollah has a veto power over any decisions of the Lebanese government.
Question: How come the US government still recognizes the Lebanese government and keeps an embassy in Beirut?
Answer: Because the US government - especially "freedom-lover" Bush - is a spineless government whose history of foreign policy is replete with idiotic alliances, short-term deals, and utter failures.
Why? Because most US bureaucrats, politicians and think-tank analysts are total ignoramuses when it comes to engaging the world on realistic and well-founded terms. We have a government of the morons, by the morons, and for the morons. I have no idea who to vote for in November.
Barack Obama will talk and kiss ass to any jerk out there, while McCain has said (at least on Lebanon) that he will continue the Bush administration's moronic alliance with traditionalists and warlords in the Lebanese political establishment - including supporters of Al-Qaeda like Hariri and Siniora, and criminals of war like Samir Geagea - just to "stand up" to Hezbollah, even though most of these people are in fact latent strategic allies with Hezbollah, playing good guy-bad guy with the ignorant Americans of State Dept. Meanwhile, the US refuses to arm the Lebanese army because "it might fall into the hands of Hezbollah". It is as though the US "wants" Lebanon to fall into Hezbollah's hands, like it appeared to "want" the Taliban to take over Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Wow! What a strategy! The US has not learned anything from its former experiments: It supported Saddam to counter Khomeini, then had a problem on its hands. It supported Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to stand up to Russia, then had the Taliban to deal with. This is truly the policy of the illiterate whore preaching virtue.
Hanibaal
Fact: Hezbollah is now a full-fledged member of the Lebanese government, and Hezbollah has a veto power over any decisions of the Lebanese government.
Question: How come the US government still recognizes the Lebanese government and keeps an embassy in Beirut?
Answer: Because the US government - especially "freedom-lover" Bush - is a spineless government whose history of foreign policy is replete with idiotic alliances, short-term deals, and utter failures.
Why? Because most US bureaucrats, politicians and think-tank analysts are total ignoramuses when it comes to engaging the world on realistic and well-founded terms. We have a government of the morons, by the morons, and for the morons. I have no idea who to vote for in November.
Barack Obama will talk and kiss ass to any jerk out there, while McCain has said (at least on Lebanon) that he will continue the Bush administration's moronic alliance with traditionalists and warlords in the Lebanese political establishment - including supporters of Al-Qaeda like Hariri and Siniora, and criminals of war like Samir Geagea - just to "stand up" to Hezbollah, even though most of these people are in fact latent strategic allies with Hezbollah, playing good guy-bad guy with the ignorant Americans of State Dept. Meanwhile, the US refuses to arm the Lebanese army because "it might fall into the hands of Hezbollah". It is as though the US "wants" Lebanon to fall into Hezbollah's hands, like it appeared to "want" the Taliban to take over Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Wow! What a strategy! The US has not learned anything from its former experiments: It supported Saddam to counter Khomeini, then had a problem on its hands. It supported Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to stand up to Russia, then had the Taliban to deal with. This is truly the policy of the illiterate whore preaching virtue.
Hanibaal
Friday, September 5, 2008
To The Two Michels: Deliver or Lose
Both Michel Sleiman and Michel Aoun, former generals in the Lebanese army, are the major custodians of the issues affecting the status of the secular Christians in Lebanon.
Michel Sleiman is now the President of the Republic and represents - whether we, secularists and anti-religious people, like it or not - the Maronite community in the power structure in Lebanon.
Michel Aoun is the head of one of the largest Christian political parties - the Free Patriotic Movement - which is no longer in the opposition since his party has veto-power ministers in the current government.
Neither of these two individuals has any excuses anymore for not promoting the interests of the secular Christians in Lebanon against the encroachments of the duplicitous Sunni establishment of the Hariri-Siniora tandem (which is secular on the surface, but staunchly behind the Salafists, fundamentalists and other pro al-Qaeda terrorist groups), and of the Shiite establishment represented by the equally hypocritical Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and the openly radical Hassan Nasrallah of the Hezbollah terrorist organization which is now an ally of Aoun and a member of the government.
There are two basic tests to whether Aoun and Sleiman will survive the coming 2009 parliamentary elections. While Aoun is probably too old to have a significant political future, his party's future is at stake. Sleiman on the other hand has open political ambitions beyond the presidency as he is seeking to create a political base in his hometown of Amchit and the surrounding Byblos district.
The two tests are:
- The Lebanese prisoners in Syria. Aoun has made many promises in the past but has appeared to renege on them lately. When the issue comes up, he defends Syria indirectly by diluting the issue (of the Lebanese kidnapped in Lebanon and jailed in Syria) with those missing in Lebanon as a result of the decades of strife in the 1970s and 1980s. That is one cheap and sleezy way for him to get back at Samir Geagea (who is behind many assassinations and kidnappings during the 1980s).
Sleiman mentioned the prisoners once - during his swearing-in speech - but then never brought the issue up again, even when he crawled to a "summit" with Assad in Damascus last month. Licking Assad's ass was a lot of work for him, so when the Syrians ordered him to shut up on the issue and keep licking, he obliged as the prime pro-Syrian dog that he is.
- The Lebanese refugees in Israel. These are close to 5,000 Lebanese citizens who fought Syria and Hezbollah throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but who were abandoned by both their government (from the 1970s) and the Israeli government in 2000 when Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon. The most prominent of those refugees is Etienne Sacre - Abu Arz - who is not in Israel but who lives in exile outside Lebanon and who is the President of the Guardians of the Cedars Party, the cleanest and most decent secular Christian party in Lebanon. The choice of these villagers was either to suffer retaliation from both Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian Hariri-Siniora government (for "dealing with the enemy"), or seek refuge in Israel. Most of them chose the latter and have been living in Israel ever since. Note that, even though Siniora and Hariri switched from being pro-Syrian before 2005 to anti-Syrian after 2005, the Siniora-Hariri stance vis-a-vis these anti-Syrian, anti-Hezbollah fighters and villagers, has remained the same: They are enemies because they dealt with the "enemy" Israel.
Turncoat Michel Aoun has a 2006 memorandum with Hezbollah stating that these people should return unharmed. Two years later, nothing has happened, and the very few who dared return were kidnapped, tortured and harassed by Hezbollah, then turned over to the Siniora government which promptly set up kangaroo courts that sentenced them to various punishments. One of them was a 9-year old girl in 2000 (who is now 17) who could not possibly have any idea about what "dealing with the enemy" meant. Many of them end up leaving the country as soon as they can. So Aoun has yet to deliver on this issue, particularly since he has amply covered for Hezbollah's terror rule but has so far gotten nothing in return.
Sleiman, on the other hand, has done nothing on this issue at all. His discourse continues to be that of a lackey dog to Hezbollah and Syria (he was promoted as Army Chief by the Syrian occupation in 1990), and he is therefore expected to behave as such on this issue.
Finally, the other "anti-Syrian" Christians in the Siniora-Hariri coalition are Samir Geagea (fundamentalist religious Christian) and Amin Gemayel (traditionalist Christian feudal lord). Neither of these two individuals have done anything on this issue, which is surprising since they are the allies (more like lackeys, really) of Siniora-Hariri. You'd think that they can leverage their support to Siniora by demanding that he not mistreat the returnees from Israel who are his "anti-Syrian" allies in fact, but they have done nothing as they worry more about maintaining the little power that is left for them (as crumbs from the Hariri-Siniora table).
These two issues will be the litmus test of the 2009 parliamentary elections, at least in the Christian camp. The secular Christians of Lebanon want these issues closed for both humanitarian and national dignity reasons. Both the religious Christians (of Geagea and Gemayel and the senile Maronite Patriarch), nor the secular Christians(of Aoun and Sleiman) seem impotent at delivering their base on these two issues. The revenge of the electorate should not be a surprise to them in 2009, especially if Lebanese eimgrants and the Diaspora at large is allowed to vote. There are rumors that the Diaspora is rallying itself to field a large slate of candidates for Parliament in 2009; if that is the case, I know who I will be voting for.
Hanibaal
Michel Sleiman is now the President of the Republic and represents - whether we, secularists and anti-religious people, like it or not - the Maronite community in the power structure in Lebanon.
Michel Aoun is the head of one of the largest Christian political parties - the Free Patriotic Movement - which is no longer in the opposition since his party has veto-power ministers in the current government.
Neither of these two individuals has any excuses anymore for not promoting the interests of the secular Christians in Lebanon against the encroachments of the duplicitous Sunni establishment of the Hariri-Siniora tandem (which is secular on the surface, but staunchly behind the Salafists, fundamentalists and other pro al-Qaeda terrorist groups), and of the Shiite establishment represented by the equally hypocritical Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and the openly radical Hassan Nasrallah of the Hezbollah terrorist organization which is now an ally of Aoun and a member of the government.
There are two basic tests to whether Aoun and Sleiman will survive the coming 2009 parliamentary elections. While Aoun is probably too old to have a significant political future, his party's future is at stake. Sleiman on the other hand has open political ambitions beyond the presidency as he is seeking to create a political base in his hometown of Amchit and the surrounding Byblos district.
The two tests are:
- The Lebanese prisoners in Syria. Aoun has made many promises in the past but has appeared to renege on them lately. When the issue comes up, he defends Syria indirectly by diluting the issue (of the Lebanese kidnapped in Lebanon and jailed in Syria) with those missing in Lebanon as a result of the decades of strife in the 1970s and 1980s. That is one cheap and sleezy way for him to get back at Samir Geagea (who is behind many assassinations and kidnappings during the 1980s).
Sleiman mentioned the prisoners once - during his swearing-in speech - but then never brought the issue up again, even when he crawled to a "summit" with Assad in Damascus last month. Licking Assad's ass was a lot of work for him, so when the Syrians ordered him to shut up on the issue and keep licking, he obliged as the prime pro-Syrian dog that he is.
- The Lebanese refugees in Israel. These are close to 5,000 Lebanese citizens who fought Syria and Hezbollah throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but who were abandoned by both their government (from the 1970s) and the Israeli government in 2000 when Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon. The most prominent of those refugees is Etienne Sacre - Abu Arz - who is not in Israel but who lives in exile outside Lebanon and who is the President of the Guardians of the Cedars Party, the cleanest and most decent secular Christian party in Lebanon. The choice of these villagers was either to suffer retaliation from both Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian Hariri-Siniora government (for "dealing with the enemy"), or seek refuge in Israel. Most of them chose the latter and have been living in Israel ever since. Note that, even though Siniora and Hariri switched from being pro-Syrian before 2005 to anti-Syrian after 2005, the Siniora-Hariri stance vis-a-vis these anti-Syrian, anti-Hezbollah fighters and villagers, has remained the same: They are enemies because they dealt with the "enemy" Israel.
Turncoat Michel Aoun has a 2006 memorandum with Hezbollah stating that these people should return unharmed. Two years later, nothing has happened, and the very few who dared return were kidnapped, tortured and harassed by Hezbollah, then turned over to the Siniora government which promptly set up kangaroo courts that sentenced them to various punishments. One of them was a 9-year old girl in 2000 (who is now 17) who could not possibly have any idea about what "dealing with the enemy" meant. Many of them end up leaving the country as soon as they can. So Aoun has yet to deliver on this issue, particularly since he has amply covered for Hezbollah's terror rule but has so far gotten nothing in return.
Sleiman, on the other hand, has done nothing on this issue at all. His discourse continues to be that of a lackey dog to Hezbollah and Syria (he was promoted as Army Chief by the Syrian occupation in 1990), and he is therefore expected to behave as such on this issue.
Finally, the other "anti-Syrian" Christians in the Siniora-Hariri coalition are Samir Geagea (fundamentalist religious Christian) and Amin Gemayel (traditionalist Christian feudal lord). Neither of these two individuals have done anything on this issue, which is surprising since they are the allies (more like lackeys, really) of Siniora-Hariri. You'd think that they can leverage their support to Siniora by demanding that he not mistreat the returnees from Israel who are his "anti-Syrian" allies in fact, but they have done nothing as they worry more about maintaining the little power that is left for them (as crumbs from the Hariri-Siniora table).
These two issues will be the litmus test of the 2009 parliamentary elections, at least in the Christian camp. The secular Christians of Lebanon want these issues closed for both humanitarian and national dignity reasons. Both the religious Christians (of Geagea and Gemayel and the senile Maronite Patriarch), nor the secular Christians(of Aoun and Sleiman) seem impotent at delivering their base on these two issues. The revenge of the electorate should not be a surprise to them in 2009, especially if Lebanese eimgrants and the Diaspora at large is allowed to vote. There are rumors that the Diaspora is rallying itself to field a large slate of candidates for Parliament in 2009; if that is the case, I know who I will be voting for.
Hanibaal
The Drums of War are Beating for 2009
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, said yesterday that his group will never lay down its weapons, even if the disputed Shebaa Farms in
"Even if Shebaa is liberated the weapons of the resistance are staying. The resistance is a defense project for
Shebaa was captured from
Last week, Israeli officials warned that
Hezbollah itself was for the time being concentrating on building its strength within
Rather chillingly, perhaps, he said the next war would see far more bombing and far more damage to Lebanese infrastructure. "The damage to
Hezbollah's presence in the Lebanese government now was actually helpful from an Israeli military point of view, he explained.
"When the terrorists become the government, the list of targets is longer."
[Sources: BBC and other news reports]
Hanibaal
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
President "Slime" Sleiman: A Syrian Traitor
The "Slime" President of the Lebanese Republic is basically a Syrian dog pretending to be a Lebanese human being.He welcomed Samir Kuntar and kissed him.
He keeps on talking about the "resistance" and "liberation" and the "Israeli enemy" and "sisterly Syria".
He even went to Damascus, kissed Bashar Assad's derriere, and came back empty-handed. The only thing this spineless slime got from Assad was a vague promise to exchange embassies.
Nothing about the Lebanese prisoners and missing in Syria's jails.
Nothing about stopping the flow of weapons and fundamentalist Muslims into the country. Nothing about the assassinations. Nothing about the hundreds of thousands of illegal Syrian workers in Lebanon whom this dog of a traitor president doesn't dare take a penny in foreign workers taxes to help his own country.
Nothing about Syria's forcing his own country of Lebanon to fight wars right and left while Syria has been enjoying peace and stability for 40 years.
This is the perfect example of the Maronite idiot "dhimmi" who does not know what he wants, other than a chair behind a big desk.
"Slime" Sleiman was a general in the Lebanese army. Throughout the Lebanese wars of the past 40 years, he never saw combat, like his girlie predecessor Emile Lulu Lahoud, and made his way by sticking his head up the Assad's assholes.
"Slime" was appointed by the Syrian occupation as chief of staff of the army, and when the Syrian army was being evicted out of Lebanon in 2005 by the Lebanese people, this dog followed his Syrian masters to Anjar to bid them farewell and tell them how sorry he was that they were leaving...How can he be anything but a traitor?
There are no men left in Lebanon - only traitors and more traitors.
Hanibaal
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Religions - Divine Bullshit
Voltaire, one of the major architects of the European Enlightenment that led to the concept of separation of church and state, and the rational abandonment of the myths and bullshit stories of all religions, said:
"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities."
This was true of Judaism in its conquest of other people's lands. It was true of Christianity during the Middle Ages. And now unfortunately it is true of Islam.
Enough bullshit about "Chosen people and promised lands"
Enough bullshit about "Virgin birth and resurrection"
Enough bullshit about "Final prophecy and rising to heaven on a winged horse"
Hanibaal
"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities."
This was true of Judaism in its conquest of other people's lands. It was true of Christianity during the Middle Ages. And now unfortunately it is true of Islam.
Enough bullshit about "Chosen people and promised lands"
Enough bullshit about "Virgin birth and resurrection"
Enough bullshit about "Final prophecy and rising to heaven on a winged horse"
Hanibaal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)