LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 30/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 2,22-35. When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord," and to offer the sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons," in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
The Way of Perfection, ch. 31 (©Institute of Carmelite Studies)/« Symeon took the child in his arms»
In the Prayer of Quiet the Lord begins to show that he hears our petition. He begins now to give us his kingdom here below so that we may truly hallow and praise his name and strive that all persons do so. This prayer is something supernatural, something we cannot procure through our own efforts.
In it the soul enters into peace or, better, the Lord puts it at peace by his presence, as he did to the just Simeon, so that all the faculties are calmed. The soul understands in another way, very foreign to the way it understands through the exterior senses, that it is now close to its God and that not much more would be required for it to become one with him in union. This is not because it sees him with the eyes either of the body or of the soul. The just Simeon didn't see any more than the glorious, little, poor child. For by the way the child was clothed and by the few people that were in the procession, Simeon could have easily judged the babe to be the son of poor people rather than the Son of our heavenly Father. But the child himself made Simeon understand. And this is how the soul understands here, although not with much clarity. For the soul, likewise, fails to understand how it understands. But it sees it is in the kingdom, at least near the King who will give the kingdom to the soul. And seemingly the soul has so much reverence that it doesn't even dare ask for this.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Colombian priest turned Maronite monk finds life of solitude in Qadisha Valley-By Michael Frey  29/12/08
The confrontation over Lebanon's identity continues-By David Ignatius 29/12/08
Israel, Gaza and the usual free pass-By Marc J. Sirois 29/12/08
Israel's Gaza assault wastes lives without changing anything-The Daily Star 29/12/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 30/08
Egypt Accuses Nasrallah of Declaring War, Vows to Confront-Naharnet
March 14 For U.N. Resolution on Gaza-Naharnet
Phalange Party rejects Confrontation with Arabs-Naharnet
Source hints Gaza offensive may spur Hezbollah to attack-Ha'aretz
Hezbollah stage massive mourning rally for Gaza-Monsters and Critics.com
Hezbollah chief calls for uprising in Palestinian territories and ...Xinhua
Israel Says It Wants To Weaken Hamas, Avoid Being Drawn Into Stalemate-Hartford Courant
Aoun's Bloc for Arab Solidarity with Gaza-Naharnet
ANALYSIS-Gaza carnage brakes Syria-Israel peace moves-Reuters
Major Crackdown on Drug Dealers and Car Thieves Underway in Bekaa, Scores Arrested, Arms Depot Found-Naharnet
Abul Gheit to Nasrallah: Our Armed Forces Could Protect Egypt Against People Like You-Naharnet
Lebanese Army, UNIFIL on Alert in South Lebanon in Wake of ...Naharnet
With Strikes, Israel Reminds Foes It Has Teeth-New York Times
Attacks on Gaza Spur Anti-Israel Protests Across Region-Wall Street Journal
In Solidarity with Gaza, Lebanon Reluctant to Accept Arab Summit Invitation-Naharnet
Nasrallah Predicts Divine Victory for Hamas, Agitates Egyptians Against their Government-Naharnet
Lebanese-Mexican Behind Bars for People-Smuggling, Including Hizbullah Supporters-Naharnet
Jumblat Visits Bkirki to Wish Sfeir Well on Christmas-Naharnet
Local Meetings to Discuss Impact of Gaza Situation on Lebanon-Naharnet
2 Killed by Gunfire at Byblos Chalet-Naharnet
Israel Gaza Blitz Ignites Protests across Lebanon, Arab World-Naharnet
Saniora Calls for Immediate U.N. Action to End Israeli Attack on Gaza-Naharnet
Arab Parliamentarians to Meet in Tyre-Naharnet
Police Disperse Demonstrators at Egyptian Embassy-Naharnet
Mustaqbal Condemns Israeli Aggression on Gaza-Naharnet
Lebanese Army, UNIFIL on Alert in South Lebanon in Wake of Israel's Gaza Attack-Naharnet
Attacking Gaza, Israel Worries About Lebanon-TIME
Turkey suspends mediation between Israel and Syria-MSNBC
At least 296 dead as Israelis pound Gaza-Daily Star
Nasrallah condemns Israeli assault, Arab collaboration-Daily Star
Is Israel reprising the Lebanon war in Gaza?-Reuters
South learns from North's travails during 2nd Lebanon War-Jerusalem Post
Lebanon is no one's playground - Sleiman-Daily Star
Beirut seems to have upper hand against extremists-Daily Star
Beirut Stock Exchange sees little trading activity amid holiday festivities-Daily Star
Israelis step up airspace violations over South-Daily Star
Gaza assault fuels rage across the spectrum-By Inter Press Service

Colombian priest turned Maronite monk finds life of solitude in Qadisha Valley
By Michael Frey
Special to The Daily Star
Monday, December 29, 2008
EDITORS' NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles The Daily Star will be publishing to acquaint readers with prominent, unusual, and captivating people and places in Lebanon.
BSHARRI: It is a steep, stony path leading from a remote part of Bsharri in North Lebanon down into the Qadisha Valley. After about an hour of walking down the dangerous trail, one reaches the place where Father Dario, a Maronite hermit, has chosen to live: the Hermitage of Our Lady of Hawqa, consisting of two small chapels, a study room and a sleeping room, all built into a cave.
It is quiet down here, deathly quiet for someone who was in Beirut only a few hours earlier. Only the sound of the river deep down in the valley can be heard, only the sound of nature. Like some others before him, from Lebanon, Ethiopia, Egypt and Europe, Father Dario chose the Qadisha Valley to live a new life - truly new, since nothing here reminds him of his old one. Before he took the decision to become a hermit, Father Dario was a cosmopolitan. Born in La Estrella, Colombia, as one of seven sons, he entered the novitiate of the Congregation of Jesus in Bogota in 1955, later studying theology, philosophy and pedagogy there.
In 1974, his studies took him to the US and Europe. This was followed by a stint teaching theology and psychology in Colombia, before he returned to Europe where he remained for 17 years, teaching in Spain, France, Germany and Italy. For some time, he was the director of a mental hospital in Colombia.
Father Dario was also well-off, due to an inheritance that came from the early death of his father. Asked whether he missed the luxury of his earlier days, he said he missed nothing. "I don't miss the money, the farm, the horses, the family, or anything," he told The Daily Star.
All that remains of Father Dario's possessions are some garden tools, a heating plate, books and two cassocks: one for work, one for night.
At the age of 55, he decided to become a hermit. "It wasn't really a choice," he said. "One day, God called me very clearly."
But the Latin bishop of Miami where Dario was working as a volunteer at the time of his calling did not allow him to become a hermit in the US.
"Then, a Maronite priest named Father Tayyah called me and told me about the life of Maronite hermits in Lebanon."
After having received the permission of Pope John Paul II to change his rite, Father Dario finally got his wish, becoming a Maronite monk.
In 1990, he moved to Lebanon to stay at different monasteries and novitiates until he obtained permission to become a hermit. "You have to stay at a monastery for 10 years before you can become a hermit," Father Dario explained.
"I cried the first two years when I was at the monastery because I didn't like this life. I was looking for a contemplative life, and the life in the monastery was nothing like that," he said. "But I stayed, because I hoped to become a hermit."
In 2000, he finally was able to relocate to the Hermitage of Our Lady of Hawqa, where he still lives today, at the age of 74.
Legend says the hermitage was built in the 13th century, when the many caves in the Qadisha Valley served as hiding places for Maronite Christians who had fled from persecution by the Mamelukes. Eight people were hiding in the cave where the Hermitage of Our Lady Hawqa is today, when a Maronite from Bsharri gave them away to the persecutors. A large fire was lit in front of the cave and the refugees died a horrible death. Another version of the legend says the attackers flooded the cave. However it happened, the stories converge by saying the traitor regretted his deed and later built the hermitage into the cave, where he spent the rest of his life in a bid to save his soul.
The life Father Dario lives today is regulated by a strict schedule and by rules: 14 hours a day reserved for the spiritual life, including praying, two hours for studying, three for work and five for sleeping. He is allowed to eat only once per day, at 2 p.m., and his meals are all produced from his garden, which is watched over by three scarecrows. He spends most of his working hours in the garden, which lies a little further down the valley. "I eat beans, potatoes, everything from the garden. I don't get anything from the outside. Sometimes I give things to the poor because sometimes I have too much," he said. "Sometimes I go all the way down to the river to go fishing. But I don't really like fish," he added. To cook his meals, he has a small electrical heating surface. The electricity for this, as well as the water, come from Bsharri.  During his study hours he reads, writes and translates. Currently, Father Dario is translating Syriac liturgical books into Spanish. With help from another hermit living in the Qadisha Valley, Father Dario is carrying out the task for Father Tayyah, the original inspiration for his journey toward the life of a hermit (Butros Tayyah is now the Maronite bishop of Mexico). Father Dario also knows French, English and Latin, and picked up German during his stay in Germany because there were only bad translations available of the books of Joseph Alois Ratzinger, who later in 2005 became Pope Benedict XVI.
The bed where Father Dario spends his five hours of sleep consists of a woolen mattress, a stone serving as pillow and a blanket made of goat hair.
"The blanket picks and itches," is his comment. It's not a particularly long "night" for the hermit: He usually sleeps from 7 p.m. until midnight.
"The only thing I don't like about the rules is that I have to grow my beard and my hair. I am only allowed to trim my moustache to drink the Mass wine," he said.
"Only people who have to compensate for something have large beards, only people who are bad philosophers or bad theologians have large beards," he said, laughing. But although his life is regulated by the same rules every day, Father Dario says boredom is not an issue. "Every day is different, even though I do the same thing," he said. "I am very busy every day."
Obviously, contact with others is very rare. "I only talk to my visiting neighbors, who live far away, and my friends, and to those who come here to confess," he explained. By hearing confessions, the hermit performs one of the most important functions of a Maronite hermit, which is to be a meeting point between God and his people. "But I normally don't speak to people who come from Beirut, people who just visit," he added. He also doesn't want his family from Colombia to visit him. He only communicates with them by exchanging letters from time to time. "I chose to come here because it is difficult to get here," Father Dario said.
He probably couldn't have chosen a better place than the steep, silent Qadisha Valley.

The confrontation over Lebanon's identity continues
By David Ignatius
Daily Star staff
Monday, December 29, 2008
It's Christmas time in Lebanon. The piano player in the lounge at the Phoenicia Hotel is pounding out carols for an audience that includes many Muslims, judging by the headscarves. Along Hamra Street in the heart of Muslim West Beirut, the stores are wooing holiday shoppers to buy the latest fashions and electronic gadgets. The window displays of the local lingerie stores would make a Victoria's Secret salesgirl blush.
Tis the season to be jolly, and that's true politically, too. This Christmas, unlike last, there are no Hizbullah demonstrators outside the office of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Thanks to the Doha Accord, brokered by Qatar, Lebanon finally elected a president last May; a unity government was installed and the Hizbullah fighters disappeared from the streets. The underlying tensions are all still there, but there's a national resolve to forget about them for a while.
What's interesting about this yuletide calm is that the United States had almost nothing to do with it. Indeed, Lebanon seems to have entered its own version of the post-American era. And, frankly, many people seem content with this state of non-alignment.
I talked last week with the parties that battled for two years over Lebanon's identity - Siniora and Ibrahim Moussawi, Hizbullah's informal spokesman. One thing they seemed to agree on was that the Bush administration had not been good for Lebanon's health.
Siniora is one of my favorite people in the Middle East. By sheer stubbornness, he outlasted the little army of Hizbullah supporters who camped outside his headquarters at the Serail palace. When I visited him over the past two years, he would point to the hostile crowd outside with the flinty smile of a man who wouldn't be budged, no matter what his enemies did.
And he survived: When the political impasse was broken at Doha in May, a key part of the deal was that Siniora, a Sunni, would continue as prime minister. He had come to symbolize the secular, modern part of Lebanon's identity that even Hizbullah accepts cannot be destroyed.
Siniora said he appreciates the Bush administration's support, especially that of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but added that the US played no significant role in the deal that broke the impasse. "I got from them checks, which not only bounced, but carried a penalty," he says. "They talked lots of good words about me, but words are nothing." "The Americans talk, but they actually don't put pressure on Israel to solve problems," Siniora continued. Specifically, he faults Rice for not pushing Israel to withdraw from the disputed border territory known as the Shebaa Farms - a process that might have undercut Hizbullah's rationale for maintaining its military machine. Across town, in an ultra-chic Hamra cafe, I meet Moussawi. He speaks fluent English, having taken a doctorate from the University of Birmingham, and he edits a pro-Hizbullah magazine. Moussawi sees the two-year siege of the prime minister's office in much the same terms Siniora does - as a battle over Lebanon's identity. It ended in a compromise, and Moussawi seems to find that acceptable. His organization doesn't want to create a Hizbullah state, he insists. It just wants to block a pro-American one. "Lebanon was meant to go again into the American age" after the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005, Moussawi says. "To Hizbullah, this meant the end. They don't want to be part of American hegemony, part of the West." The militia and its poor Shiite supporters felt they were fighting for their existence. (The other side felt the same way, as always happens in the existential conflicts of the Middle East.)
Hizbullah escalated its tactics on May 7, when its fighters seized western Beirut and other areas. The pro-American forces, known as the March 14 movement, were quickly overwhelmed. The heavy fighting ended in just a few hours, and a broad truce was negotiated over the next few days in Qatar with help from France and Turkey. "No one would have imagined the Americans would have let it (Lebanon) go. But they are a superpower, and they said: 'Let it go,'" Moussawi observes. Now, Hizbullah - along with every other political power in the Middle East - is wondering how Barack Obama will change the game.
That's how it looks as the new year approaches in Lebanon: Still straddling the fault line, a multicolored quilt of a country that is now dressed collectively in a neutral gray - a country that has escaped its political torment, at least momentarily, in the absence of American assistance.
Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published regularly by THE DAILY STAR.

Nasrallah condemns Israeli assault, 'Arab collaboration'
By Dalila Mahdawi /Daily Star staff
Monday, December 29, 2008
BEIRUT: Hizbullah secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah led a chorus of Lebanese condemnations of a massive Israeli air campaign on the blockaded Gaza Strip over the weekend that killed at least 296 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more. In a televised address Sunday evening, Nasrallah pointed the finger at "certain" Arab regimes for conspiring with Israel against residents of Gaza.
"There is true and full collaboration between certain Arab regimes, especially those who have already signed peace deals with Israel, to crush any form of resistance," he told thousands of Hizbullah supporters in Beirut's southern suburbs.
The Israel-US alliance was trying to impose a "humiliating" settlement on Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, Nasrallah said. "Those Arab regimes are helping the Israelis," he said. Nasrallah urged "the Egyptian regime specifically to open the Rafah crossing so that aid can flow into Gaza and help Gazans in their struggle [against Israel]."
"We are not asking in any way for Egypt to launch a war against Israel because in Gaza there are men able and ready to fight. All we ask is that Egypt does not exploit the war to put pressure on the Palestinian resistance. If you do not open the crossing, then you are partners in the crime," he said. The Hizbullah leader urged all Arabs to protest the Israeli military strikes. All Arabs states should help Gazans to remain steadfast in the face of Israel, he said, because "Israel cannot manage wars of attrition."Nasrallah also said the Arab world had "the money and enough political power to stop the carnage in Gaza."
Lebanon has to remain vigilant of a possible Israeli attack, Nasrallah added, calling for a mass rally at 3 p.m. on Monday in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Israel launched on Saturday what it referred to as "calculated" air strikes against Hamas, the Islamist group which runs the strip, just days after a six-month cease-fire with Palestinian resistance groups expired.
Also on Sunday, Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri met with representatives from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas in an act of solidarity and issued a statement calling for Arab parliamentary speakers to "hold an emergency meeting in South Lebanon to discuss developments in Gaza." Berri had earlier expressed his condemnation for Israel's "massacres," denouncing the latest in "persistent Israeli crimes against our Palestinian brethren."
Berri also phoned Arab and international speakers to press for a cease-fire in Gaza, said the National News Agency, as reports emerged that the Arab League would delay until Wednesday an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to unify their positions on the Israeli attacks. The meeting had originally been slated for Sunday.
Premier Fouad Siniora meanwhile issued a statement addressed to UN chief Ban Ki-moon in which he called the Israeli onslaught a "criminal operation" and referred to Palestinians killed as the victims of "new massacres to be added to [Israel's] full record of massacres." He called for immediate UN action to end the Israeli offensive, dubbed "Operation Cast Lead."
President Michel Sleiman also issued a statement Saturday in which he "strongly condemned the monstrous attacks in Gaza" and urged Arab nations to "take a unified stand" on the crisis.
Reform and Change bloc leader MP Michel Aoun also denounced the Israeli assault in Gaza, as did MP Butros Harb of the March 14 political alliance, who said Israel's action was almost akin to "genocide." He urged the UN and international community to halt violence that could "lead to the situation in the region exploding."
Harb's words echoed those made in an official March 14 statement Saturday.
"These barbaric massacres require a wide-scale Arab and international action to deter Israel and force it to stop its aggression," read the statement, which also called for an end to internal Palestinian divisions.
Earlier on Sunday, Hizbullah foreign relations officer Nawwaf Moussawi spoke of Arab "collusion" with Israel and the US against the Palestinian people.
"What is happening in Gaza today is an Israeli-US war, undertaken with Arab collusion to deprive the Palestinians of their rights," Moussawi told New TV.
Popular outrage at the Israeli air strikes spilled onto the streets of Lebanon Sunday, where police fired tear gas at angry protesters attempting to gather in front of the Egyptian Embassy. The protesters had been throwing stones to protest Egypt's closure of the Gaza-Rafah border. Egypt has come under fire in the past for not allowing enough aid or medicine into Gaza.
In Beirut's mostly Shiite southern suburbs, hundreds marched in solidarity with the Gazans and called for an end to Israeli air strikes. Earlier in the day, Hamas representative Osama Hamdan spoke to a crowd of 1,000 gathered outside the UN offices in Beirut. Protesters clutching Palestinian, Lebanese and green flags symbolizing Hamas chanted "death to Israel."
Hamas had no other choice but to continue its fight against Israel, Hamdan said. "We in the Hamas group and other resistance factions in Gaza know we don't have many alternatives. We have one alternative which is to be steadfast and resist and we will be victorious," he said.
The largest demonstration took place in Lebanon's largest refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, on the outskirts of Sidon, where some 4,000 protesters called on Hizbullah to attack Israel and shouted insults at long-time Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: "You agent of the Americans, you traitor!"
On Sunday, the Sidon municipality announced that it had designated Monday a day of mourning for Palestinian victims of the Israeli strikes.

Lebanon is no one's playground - Sleiman
President warns 'all parties' to respect country's sovereignty
By Hussein Abdallah -Daily Star staff
Monday, December 29, 2008
BEIRUT: President Michel Suleiman called on "all parties" over the weekend to respect Lebanon's sovereignty and not turn the country into an arena for conflicts and settling scores. "Lebanon is not a base for launching rockets," he said during an inspection visit to the South on Saturday, referring to the Lebanese Armed Forces' (LAF) recent defusing of eight rockets along the country's southern border.
The rockets were connected to timers and were just hours from firing into Israel.
"Such actions can no longer be tolerated, especially after the deployment of the LAF and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon [UNIFIL]," he added, following a visit to the peacekeeping force's headquarters in Naqoura.
The president was accompanied by Defense Minister Elias Murr and LAF commander General Jean Kahwaji.
Sleiman addressed the issue of "continued Israeli violations of Lebanon's sovereignty in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701."
He described such violations as "threats to Lebanon's security and stability" and called on Israel to respect the commitments it had made to the international community.
In addition to continuous overflights, Israeli forces had recently adbucted two Lebanese farmers from the border village of Blida.
The farmers were later released as Lebanon asked the UN to hold Israel accountable for its breach of Resolution 1701.
Sleiman laid a wreath at the UNIFIL memorial in Naqoura before being briefed by the force's commander, General Claudio Graziano, on the latest developments in UNIFIL's area of operation.
The talks included the investigations into the abduction of the two farmers as well as the discovery of the rockets.
Sleiman later visited LAF barracks in the coastal city of Tyre after a brief stop in the village of Qana, where he laid a wreath at the Qana memorial.
The southern town was the setting of two Israeli massacres in 1996 and 2006.
Speaking to LAF soldiers in Tyre, Sleiman said the military establishment was holding together and "cannot be divided."
"The army, contrary to what was being said in the past, cannot be divided. This is the rule today; this has been achieved with the sacrifices made by its soldiers," the president added.
Sleiman, a former army commander, also told his former comrades that Israel has not yet implemented Resolution 1701.
"Israel is violating 1701 on a daily basis through overflights and the continuous occupation of the border village of Ghajar," he said.
"Despite the border dispute in the Shebaa Farms area, Israel is still occupying the Farms and the Kfar Shuba Hills," he added.
Israel claims the Farms are Syrian, but both Beirut and Damascus have repeatedly said the territory belonged to Lebanon.
However, the occupied territory's ownership remains legally undecided in the absence of border demarcation between Lebanon and Syria.
The president also called on the military to stand strong in the face of terrorism.
Separately, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh sponsored the second general meeting of the Christian National Gathering on Saturday.
Almost 300 people took part in the meeting which was held in the northern town of Batroun.
The gathering was founded earlier this year, bringing together politicians and people from different professions.
Speaking before members of the gathering, Aoun urged the Lebanese people not to re-elect any of the current MPs affiliated with the March 14 Forces.
He also warned against electing "independent candidates."
"Those who claim to be independent are in fact aligned with the current parliamentary majority," he argued.
The FPM leader also criticized the idea of neutrality in next year's parliamentary polls.
"Both independents and neutrals are negligible," he said.
For his part, Franjieh explained to members of the gathering his insistence on delaying the reconciliation between the Marada and the Lebanese Forces (LF) until after the elections.
Maronite League-led efforts to reconcile Franjieh and LF boss Samir Geagea failed earlier this year when the Marada chief said his supporters were not yet ready for such rapprochement.
Franjieh accuses Geagea of being behind the slaying of his father, Tony Franjieh, in 1978.
"I want to ask a question: Why does Geagea insist on such a reconciliation at this particular time? Is he really doing it for the general interest of the Christians or all he wants is to clear his slate ahead of the elections?" Franjieh asked.
"If his only aim is to achieve peace among Christians, we are ready to reconcile ... but after the elections," he added.
Earlier on Saturday, Aoun paid a visit to Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir in Bkirki.
Aoun said after the brief meeting that his visit had been aimed at greeting the patriarch on the occasion of Christmas.
Later in the day Aoun added that he had briefed the patriarch on his recent trip to Syria and assured him that Syria would not return to Lebanon.
Aoun's Bkirki visit followed a visit Thursday by Franjieh which was sponsored by Sleiman.
Relations between the Maronite Church and Christian opposition leaders are tense as both Aoun and Franjieh had earlier accused the patriarch of siding with the March 14 Forces

Israel, Gaza and the usual free pass
By Marc J. Sirois
Daily Star staff
Monday, December 29, 2008
It is too early to know how far the Israeli government will press its murderous onslaught against the Gaza Strip, but one thing has been clear from the moment the first bomb was dropped: The great majority of those with a responsibility to acknowledge, expose and/or condemn the vicious and cynical nature of the assault will fail to do so.
Even before the attacks began on Saturday, most Western media outlets - those with the widest reach and therefore the greatest influence - were already parroting the rote Israeli line that whatever happened would be "in retaliation" for rocket fire from the enclave. They helpfully reminded us, too, that it was Hamas - the party that rules Gaza - which "ended" a six-month cease-fire.
Never mind that Israel has been denying food and medicine to children in Gaza since Hamas won democratic elections in January 2006.
Forget that the Israelis never honored their core commitment under the truce, which was to stop starving innocents, and violated the pact in every possible way since it was agreed to in June, while Hamas and other resistance groups frequently held or limited their fire despite the enemy's persistent treachery.
Disregard, also, the Israelis' policy of deliberately undermining the cease-fire by continuing to abduct and assassinate Palestinian activists in both Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.
Overlook the cease-fire's scheduled end date of December 19 and the intensification of Israeli attacks designed to ensure that it would not be renewed, culminating in an early November raid that killed seven Hamas men.
Forget, too, that the rockets that have been hitting Israel for years almost never hurt anyone or damage anything because they have tiny warheads and usually land in empty fields - and that the Israeli penchant for the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is as regular as the phases of the moon.
And pay no mind to the fact that as a people living under the boot or in exile (for more than six decades), the Palestinians have the unambiguous legal right, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, to resist occupation.
All of that, apparently, is irrelevant, especially now that the blitzkrieg has begun. Western media reports are almost always peppered with built-in alibis for Israeli aggression, but the practice becomes a formal procedure when the action is particularly lopsided. At last check the number of slain Palestinians was approaching 300, while a single Israeli had been reported killed, so a heavy dose of obfuscation is required to vindicate the aggressor.
Like defense lawyers for a murder suspect confronted by a stack of damning evidence against their client, some of the biggest names in the news business are trying to distract the jury - public opinion - from the facts at hand. "Retaliation" is a wonderfully versatile tool in this regard because unlike other legal-defense tactics, it does not require a choice between blanket denial and various forms of justification (e.g. diminished capacity, "the toy gun looked like a real one," "it was an accident," etc.) that rely at least in part on the (in this case stratospherically dubious) credibility of the accused. Having been wronged first, however, can be both a mitigating factor and an exculpatory one - i.e. something that attenuates the perpetrator's guilt or eliminates it altogether - depending on the views of the individual juror.
This catchall defense dominates Western coverage of the Gaza onslaught, making it obvious to the trained eye that an editorial decision has been taken by some news providers: No mention of Israel's sickening behavior will be made without trying to shift the blame onto someone else. Whether the story comes from Gaza itself, from Occupied Jerusalem, or from UN headquarters in New York, therefore, the "retaliation" defense must be inserted.
For good measure, many of the same articles note that Hamas is officially committed to the dissolution of the state of Israel, only they sex it up to read that the organization is "sworn to the destruction of Israel." They emphatically do not mention that a good many Orthodox rabbis feel the same way because they regard the Jewish state as an abomination for its having been established absent the conditions prescribed by Jewish scripture. Also conspicuously absent is any acknowledgment of the fact that Hamas has repeatedly hinted that it might be convinced to recognize Israel under the appropriate circumstances, only to have its overtures summarily and contemptuously dismissed.
The media is not alone, but its mendacity is particularly pernicious because it abets that of others by serving to mislead public opinion.
The mythical "international community" has buried its head in the sand, unwilling even in the waning days of George W. Bush's presidency to take a stand against his darling Israel. This helped to ensure that the Security Council's initial reaction fell short of even its usual response, a limply worded resolution preaching "restraint" to both sides: Instead, that august body made a mockery of its founding purpose by putting out a mere "statement" that might as well have been published on toilet paper by a neighborhood bridge club.
Some individual governments in the West - heirs in more ways than one to those that callously looked the other way while Hitler was exterminating European Jewry - have gone a little further, but not much. Others, predictably led by the loathsome Bush administration, have actually cheered the assailants on, blaming the victims for their own suffering. None is under much pressure to actually do anything in support of the human rights they purport to champion, a free pass made possible by media mollycoddling of Israel.
Arab regimes have expressed their usual outrage, but they haven't lifted a finger since the 1973 oil embargo. Now would be an excellent time to turn off the taps, especially since prices are so low it would be almost painless, but don't bet on it. I hope I will be proved wrong and that Arab leaderships will finally put their monies where their mouths are, but some of them have been so thoroughly co-opted by the Americans that they too are insinuating that Hamas (i.e. Gaza) is getting what it deserves. (Yes, Hamas has behaved foolishly by providing the Israelis with a pretext to attack, but condemning foolishness in the face of evil has a strange ring to it.)
It is never easy to discern the Israelis' motivations, not least because they often seem confused about the issue themselves. On this occasion, however, their timing is obviously related to the impending departure of Bush. It remains to be seen whether his successor, Barack Obama, will stray very far from the uber-Zionist path of the past eight years, but the Israelis are taking no chances. They know Bush will back whatever they want to do, so they are having a go while he still calls the shots.
Those who would step in to help Gaza would do well to keep this last point in mind when deciding how they might be of assistance. The Israelis are in a foul mood, and their bloody-mindedness is only exacerbated by the current certainty of full American support and the possibility of its dilution under Obama. On Sunday they stepped up their regular violations of Lebanese airspace in intimidating fashion, a naked provocation designed to elicit some form of response by Hizbullah. This is no time to offer them another opportunity for "retaliation."
**Marc J. Sirois is managing editor of The Daily Star. His email address is marc.sirois@dailystar.com.lb.

Beirut seems to have upper hand against extremists
Analysts warn consistent effort needed to contain Fatah Al-Islam, other groups
Monday, December 29, 2008
Year Review
BEIRUT: 2008 was a year of mixed success for security services tasked with tackling Al-Qaeda inspired militant groups in Lebanon. At times it seemed such groups were able to operate with impunity, particularly in the North, where two deadly blasts targeting Lebanese troops in Tripoli over the summer sparked fears a concerted campaign against state security forces was under way.
But further attacks did not materialize. After the second Tripoli bombing, on September 29, security services were able to act quickly and decisively, working their way backward from CCTV pictures of the foot-soldiers who planted the bombs to the planners and financiers behind the attack.
A month after the explosion, dozens of arrest warrants had been issued and many of the wanted men, with a few high-profile exceptions, including the cell's leader Abdel-Ali Jawhar, had been picked up.
Security analysts say there were several reasons for this. Firstly, Fatah al-Islam does not enjoy the support of the population and is universally condemned from all sides of the political spectrum. With a support base confined to radicalized fringe groups operating in volatile Palestinian refugee camps, Fatah al-Islam is fighting two battles - the first its so-called "jihad" against the Lebanese state, and the second a battle for popular support, which in a country as diverse as Lebanon, they seem destined to lose.
After the second Tripoli bombing, this weakness was exploited by security services, which Fadia Kiwan, a political analyst from the Universite Saint Joseph, said had been invigorated by a dose of "real political will" that had been lacking in the past. As a senior security source pointed out at the time, with the fugitives hiding among families who lost relatives at their hands in the battle at Nahr al-Bared in 2007, and the state security apparatus finally given the green light to act, their days on the run were surely numbered.
And so it turned out. Those hiding outside the Palestinian camps were captured, or turned themselves in, realizing that the game was up. Even inside the camps, where Lebanese security forces do not have jurisdiction, the fugitives were not safe. Palestinian authorities in the Beddawi camp near Tripoli co-operated with their Lebanese counterparts, leading to joint operations that saw high-value suspects brought in.
But in the sprawling Ain al-Hilweh camp near Sidon, Lebanon's largest and most volatile, the delicate balance of power between secular and religious parties has played into the militants hands. While representatives of both Fatah and Hamas are agreed that Fatah al-Islam's leader, Abdel-Rahman Awad, should be removed from the camp, neither side wants to risk expending hard fought political capital to achieve this.
With 70,000 people to hide among and Palestinian security forces in the camp deadlocked over how to proceed, Awad is still free - and according to a recent briefing from a senior security official, is planning attacks to "hit back" at the successes of counterterrorism agent.
If there are lessons from the past year that should be applied in Lebanon's fight against Islamist militants, they are simple ones, analysts say. The first is the importance of gathering reliable human intelligence. When the initial arrests were made in the days after the second Tripoli blast, they began a chain reaction of new intelligence that led officials back to the very center of the cell responsible.
From here, tracing the links to senior Fatah al-Islam militants was relatively easy. Compared to even a year ago, the intelligence picture of militant groups operating in Lebanon has been substantially fleshed out. Analysts say their operating methods are no longer a "mystery" but are now a "puzzle," which can be solved with a logical approach based on previous experience.
But there is a more important lesson for 2009. Coming as they did less than a year after the devastating battle of Nahr al-Bared, when Fatah al-Islam was said to be "history" and the army victorious, the 2008 attacks go to show that militant Islam is not a phenomenon that can be eradicated by force, only contained. "The army should have followed up the operation," retired Lebanese Army General Elias Hanna said of the period following Nahr al-Bared in October. "For whatever reason that didn't happen."
Security services in Lebanon are now only just beginning to understand the nature of the threat they face. Dangerous individuals drift in and out of loosely connected groups. There is no fixed hierarchy which can be dismantled, or command center which can be destroyed. It has been said so often it sounds cliched, but dealing with Islamist militants requires recognition that the ideology underpinning their actions cannot be bombed, shot, arrested or jailed.
To deal with this fluid reality, analysts say security services should employ a constant effort to foil militant attacks in the same way as police services work on the assumption there always will be individuals wanting to commit crimes. Hanna calls this a "process of prevention," an approach which recognizes the ill-defined boundaries of extremist groups, and allows constant monitoring of the threat.
While Lebanon will undoubtedly face the threat of extremist attacks in 2009, possibly from better-trained, battle-hardened militants returning from apparent strategic defeat in Iraq, the picture is not entirely gloomy.
Contrary to some of the more dire predictions, the country has not become a hotbed of Islamic extremism and security services have made good progress in tackling the problem where it does exist in past few months. Of course, such progress depends on wider political developments and it is inevitable that the background noise from the waning insurgency in Iraq and its revived equivalent in Afghanistan will be heard, in the form of radical Islamist militant activity, in Lebanon in 2009. But the indications at this point are that the security forces are in a good position to keep such noise at a reasonable volume moving into the coming year.