LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJuly 27/2010

Bible Of the Day
2 Corinthians 4:16-18/So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal
The departed (the dead) from this mortal world are happy where they are, pray for them
As long as we remain here on earth in these fleshly mortal bodies, we feel lonely and alienated. We long with utmost eagerness to return to our father's mansions, in heaven. Mansions that He has built for each and every one of us us and in which no man's hand had to do any thing in their construction. Our nostalgic and homesickness for our actual dwellings in heaven makes us always in a state of waiting with hope and happiness to return their and abandon the earthy tents, the bodies in which our souls are mere temporary guests.
Those righteous of us who depart their souls are in heaven, in their great father's dwelling with the angels and righteous. Where their souls are now there is no pain, no sadness, no fear, no hatred, no grudges, no hostilities, no fights, no sickness, no anger, no jealousness , no anguish or problems, but peace, love, comfort and happiness all the time. God who grants the souls life on earth, is the one who calls on it back when the time is due. The departed (the dead) are happy where they are, pray for them.
Day by day, our physical mortal bodies are dying. From the moment we are conceived, our flesh is in a slow process of aging until the day we reach our final breath. During times of affliction and trouble, we feel this "wasting away" more acutely. Are we disheartened today? No Christians are immune to discouragement. We all lose heart now and then. But, like Paul, we can look to the unseen for encouragement. During hard days, let our spiritual eyes come alive, and through this farsighted lens look past what is seen. With eyes of faith we see what cannot be seen and get a glorious glimpse of eternity.
"Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed", (Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 15 / 51-52).

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
The Sins of Damascus/By: Dr. Mordechai Nisan/
July 26/10
On a Repentant Environment/By: Abdullah Iskandar/26 July 2010
The hallmarks of desperation/Now Lebanon/July 26/10
Nasrallah and Syria's acquittal/By: Tariq Alhomaye/July 26/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 26/10
EU to hammer Iran with new sanctions package/Al Arabia
Turkish, Iranian, Brazilian foreign ministers meet/Al Arabia
Barak: Israel Would Strike Any Lebanese State Target During Next War /Naharnet
Mubarak, Saudi King to Discuss Lebanon on Wednesday /Naharnet
Ashkenazi about Lebanon Aid Ships: We'll Know How to Stop Them /Naharnet
French Official Rules Out End to International Financial Backing for Tribunal /Naharnet
Turkey Steps in to Limit Tension as Arab Leaders Gear up for Lebanon Visit /Naharnet
Khalils Visit Damascus to Set Stage for Assad's Trip to Beirut /Naharnet
Syria and the West: Another wasted decade/Peninsula On-line
Lebanon letting Hizbullah escape responsibility for an assassination/Examiner.com
Hezbollah: UN conducting biased probe of Hariri assassination/Ha'aretz
sraeli defense chief offers warnings on Iran and Lebanon/Washington Post
Murr Discusses with U.S. Defense Official Military Assistance to Lebanon /Naharnet
Nasrallah Urges Establishment of Lebanese Committee to Investigate False Witnesses in Hariri Case /Naharnet
Hariri Named Mustaqbal Leader for Second Time /Naharnet
Fatfat: Nasrallah should back his claims with evidence/Now Lebanon
Pietton: Hariri mentions deploying new LAF unit in South/Now Lebanon

Senior US Shiite cleric accused of embezzlement/Al Arabia
Alloush: there is nothing new in Nasrallah’s series of speeches/ANB
Zahra: Claiming STL is politicized, an attempt to invalidate it/Voice of Lebanon
Aoun plans a sit-in ahead of the Justice Ministry, Addiyar reports/Addiyar
Kadri: Nasrallah won’t drag Hariri to any response/LBCI TV
Houry: Nasrallah’s suggestions, unconvincing/Voice of Lebanon

Barak: Israel Would Strike Any Lebanese State Target During Next War

Naharnet/Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has warned that the next time violence breaks out, Israel would strike directly at the Lebanese government, which he said is allowing Hizbullah to rearm. If the Shiite party fires a rocket into Tel Aviv, "we will not run after each Hizbullah terrorist or launcher. . . . We will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to Hizbullah," Barak told The Washington Post. On Iran, Barak said Israel and the U.S. share the same "diagnosis" that Tehran is "determined to reach nuclear military capability." But he acknowledged "there are differences about what could be done about it, how it should be done, and what (is) the timeframe within which certain steps could be taken.""It's still time for sanctions," Barak said in the interview, but "probably, at a certain point, we should realize that sanctions cannot work."
Barak said Israel must put forward a peace plan that delineates the borders of a Palestinian state, ensures a Jewish majority inside Israel, solves the Palestinian refugee problem and offers a "reasonable solution" for the future of Jerusalem. Barak left on Monday for a working visit to the U.S. where he will hold a series of meetings with top officials. Beirut, 26 Jul 10, 11:34

Ashkenazi about Lebanon Aid Ships: We'll Know How to Stop Them

Naharnet/Israeli Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi has urged the Lebanese government to be responsible and stop two aid ships from sailing to Gaza in the coming days."I hope the Lebanese government will prevent the ships from departing Lebanon's territory, and if not – we'll know how to stop them," Ashkenazi said during a visit to the Tel Hashomer Induction Center on Sunday. "We have the duty and the right to prevent the transfer of arms, weapons and terror activists into the Gaza Strip," he added. The Israeli navy has been on high alert ahead of the possibility that the ships – currently docked in the northern port of Tripoli – would leave for the Gaza Strip. Ashkenazi's comment echoed similar remarks by Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday. The Israeli chief of staff also said the rise in the number of commissions of inquiry established to probe Israel's deadly raid of a Gaza-bound flotilla two months ago is "out of line." On Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Council named a panel of experts to investigate whether the commando operation, in which nine Turkish activists were shot dead, breached international law. Beirut, 26 Jul 10, 07:54

Turkey Steps in to Limit Tension as Arab Leaders Gear up for Lebanon Visit

Naharnet/Turkey has reportedly stepped in to limit tension in Lebanon at a time when the country is gearing itself up for the visits of four top Arab leaders – Saudi King Abdullah, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and the King of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa.
As Safir daily quoted informed sources as saying Monday that Turkey is holding regional and international consultations to diffuse the tension that erupted over the expected announcement of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's findings next fall.
The sources said Turkish delegates are holding meetings in several countries, including talks in Damascus on Wednesday.
The same sources told the newspaper that the Lebanese should not jump into conclusions about a possible Lebanese-Syrian-Saudi summit or a quadripartite meeting that would include the Qatari emir. They said it was not yet clear whether such a summit would be held between the Arab leaders and President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace, particularly that King Abdullah's visit to Beirut will not exceed the five hours. Abdullah arrives in Beirut on Friday following a visit to Damascus. Sheikh Hamad also visits the Lebanese capital the same day. However, according to An Nahar daily, it was not yet clear if Assad would head to Beirut on Friday. Informed political sources told the newspaper that the visits of the Arab leaders were scheduled before the eruption of the crisis in Lebanon. However, rising tension changed the priorities of the officials

French Official Rules Out End to International Financial Backing for Tribunal

Naharnet/A high-ranking French official ruled out that countries which supported Lebanon's demand to establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon would stop financing the court.
The official told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat the international tribunal that would try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's suspected assassins should operate in a calm atmosphere, stressing that Paris does not have the right to ask the court about the advances made in the investigation into the Feb. 2005 bombing. The tension in Lebanon could be the result of developments in the investigation, the source said, stressing, however, on the need to remain calm and await the findings of the STL. "Doubting the court before the announcement of decisions leads to a counter result," the official told al-Hayat. Asked if Paris asked Israeli chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi last week not to launch an aggression on Lebanon, the source said France is against violation of the U.N.-drawn Blue Line and condemns any violation of Security Council resolution 1701. About the alleged Syrian transfer of Scud missiles to Hizbullah, the official said: "The case collapsed and no one is talking about it because no one has any proof about the existence of these missiles." Beirut, 26 Jul 10, 07:29

Aoun plans a sit-in ahead of the Justice Ministry, Addiyar reports
Date: July 26th, 2010/Source: Addiyar
In its Monday edition, the Addiyar newspaper said that Change and Reform Parliamentary Bloc Leader MP Michel Aoun plans to call for a sit-in ahead of the Ministry of Justice and the Bar Syndicate, to pressure the Lebanese judges to withdraw from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, probing into martyr President Rafic Hariri’s assassination. Aoun’s second goal is to pressure the Bar Syndicate not to give the necessary permissions to enable lawyers to perform their role in Lebanon and abroad.

Houry: Nasrallah’s suggestions, unconvincing

Date: July 26th, 2010/Source: Voice of Lebanon
Almustaqbal Parliamentary Bloc MP Ammar Houry said Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s call for establishing a Lebanese committee, to investigate the issue of false witnesses in the assassination of martyr President Rafic Hariri, doesn’t convince anyone. In an interview to the Voice of Lebanon Radio station on Monday, Houry said the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is now far way from becoming a Lebanese issue. “There is Lebanese consensus to support the STL,” said Houry. He added “We believe that stability in the country is our responsibility but the STL does not contradict with it.”  Houry asserted that no one has accused Hizbullah of having a hand [in the assassination of former PM Rafic Hariri and no one knows anything about the STL’s upcoming indictment. “All that’s being circulated is just anticipations,” said Houry. Meanwhile, Houry said that Prime Minister Saad Hariri is open to all parties, alluding to a possible meeting between Lebanon’s premier and Nasrallah. Tension sparked in Lebanon after reports said the STL would soon issue an indictment. The tribunal is probing the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafic Hariri.

Kadri: Nasrallah won’t drag Hariri to any response

Date: July 26th, 2010/Source: LBCI TV
Almustaqbal Parliamentary Bloc MP Ziad Kadri said that Prime Minister Saad Hariri would not be drawn to any response related to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, probing the assassination of martyr President Rafic Hariri in 2005. In an interview to the LBCI TV channel on Monday, Kadri said that if Hizbullah’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speeches aim at luring a response from PM Hariri, we assure Premier Hariri won’t respond, preferring to keep the council secretariats. “I was hoping Nasrallah would meet PM Hariri half way, however, he did not,” Kadri said. Nasrallah said on Thursday during a press conference that Prime Minister Saad Hariri told him in May that the STL will indict Hizbullah members. Nasrallah has previously said the STL indictment, to be issued soon, is an “Israeli project” designed to target Hizbullah by stirring up sectarian strife in Lebanon.
To that, Kadri said that Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz’s visit to Lebanon comes within the framework of enhancing the Arab-Arab ties, and has nothing to do with the STL’s expected indictment. On Nasrallah’s proposal to establish a Lebanese committee, to investigate the issue of false witnesses in the assassination of martyr President Rafic Hariri, Kadri reminded that the STL was established upon a UN decision, approved upon by all Lebanese parties. “The truth is not in our hands. It is with the STL that’s why we should wait for the indictment,” said Kadri. On another note, Kadri touched on the positive evaluation for Almustaqbal movement during its General Founding Congress held Saturday and Sunday. He added PM Hariri’s speech within the Congress, assured there is no intention for bargaining on the STL. “The conference aimed at developing the movement into a real organizational structure,” said Kadri. Meanwhile, Kadri also tackled the Lebanese-Syrian ties, saying the relation between PM Hariri and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has moved a long way ahead. He assured Assad’s visit to Lebanon will happen, adding that if it coincides with the Saudi King and the Qatari Emir’s visits to the country, it will confirm the right course of the Arab-Arab ties.

Zahra: Claiming STL is politicized, an attempt to invalidate it
Date: July 26th, 2010/Source: Voice of Lebanon /Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra said that those who claim the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is politicized are attempting to invalidate it. In an interview to the Voice of Lebanon Radio Station on Monday, Zahra said that Hizbullah wants to politicize the STL. Calling on different rivals to maintain calm and wait for the tribunal’s pending indictment, Zahra considered that the tense statements made by Lebanese politicians against the STL only affect tourism negatively in Lebanon. Tension sparked in Lebanon after reports said the STL would soon issue an indictment. The STL is probing the 2005 assassination of martyr President Rafic Hariri. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah recently accused the STL of being an “Israeli project” designed to target the Resistance by stirring up sectarian strife in Lebanon.

Alloush: there is nothing new in Nasrallah’s series of speeches

Date: July 26th, 2010/Source: ANB
Former MP Mustafa Allouch said Monday there is nothing new in Hizbullah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s recent speeches. Allouch’s comments came in an interview with ANB television. “I think that the series of Sayyed Nasrallah’s speeches offered nothing new and there is no problem in forming a judicial committee if it leads to unraveling the truth. But, we must first wait for the indictment decision then act accordingly,” he told the TV station. Allouch denied knowledge of the false witnesses Nasrallah spoke of and noting “The indictment decision of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was not issued yet and in case it mentions false witnesses, we would demand their prosecution.” Nasrallah demanded in the speech he gave Sunday forming a Lebanese investigative committee to probe into what he called “false witnesses case” that he “claims” to have misled the international investigation into the assassination of martyr Rafik Hariri’s who was killed along with 22 other Lebanese in a suicide explosion on February 14, 2005. Allouch demanded Nasrallah to cooperate with the international investigation asserting “we will surely back any innocent defendant.” He denied knowledge of bid to postpone the indictment decision describing it as “media talk.”

In a bid to bring Iranians back to negotiating table EU to hammer Iran with new sanctions package

BRUSSELS (Agencies) The European Union will hit Iran with tough sanctions against its vital oil and gas industry on Monday in a bid to lure Tehran back to the negotiating table over its disputed nuclear program. "This (package of sanctions) is about applying pressure, but applying pressure in order to bring the Iranians to the table to talk," a European diplomat said.
EU foreign ministers will formally approve the sanctions following Iran's repeated refusals to halt sensitive nuclear activities, which the West fears are aimed at building a bomb.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned the EU against imposing unilateral sanctions, in remarks directed at the EU, which were translated into English by the Press TV channel.
"We do not welcome any tension or a new resolution. We seek logic and friendship," Ahmadinejad said.
"I should tell you that anyone who adopts a measure against the Iranian nation, such as inspection of our ships and planes, should know that Iran will react swiftly," he added.
Although the U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Tehran in early June, EU leaders and the United States decided shortly after to impose their own penalties against the Iranian energy sector. The sanctions are part of a twin-track approach, with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton seeking to revive moribund talks between Iran and six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

Nasrallah and Syria's acquittal!
Tariq Alhomayed/Monday, 26 July 2010
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is certainly the most aware that the number of meetings that have taken place recently between the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri exceeds the number of meetings between Hariri and himself, or even Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, who Nasrallah has politically forgiven – according to Nasrallah himself – after he [Jumblatt] reviewed his recent [political] positions. In the event of Hezbollah being accused, Jumblatt is expected to say – even if under his breath – that it would not be regrettable to him for Hezbollah to disappear, especially if Jumblatt believes that he has Syrian blessing to say this.
Therefore, Nasrallah's most recent speech is not so much a threat – which would not be unusual for him – as much as it is an expression of shock and fear towards a forthcoming decision that is expected to be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is investigating Rafik Hariri's assassination. This decision is expected to accuse members of Hezbollah of being responsible for the crime, which would represent an accusation against Hezbollah itself, while also acquitting Syria [of this crime], according to Nasrallah. Therefore Nasrallah's exaggerated praise for Syria's acquittal is more evidence of Hezbollah's apprehension than it is of the party's happiness, and this can be demonstrated by Nasrallah acting suspiciosuly. The Hezbollah leader would be wise to be aware of what we mentioned previously, namely that Hariri's recurring visits and meetings with President al-Assad are ongoing in a significant manner. Therefore Nasrallah talking about welcoming al-Assad's visit to Lebanon, and the need to accelerate this, and the need to apologize to Syria, is clear over-exaggeration in order to conceal Hezbollah's apprehension towards the acquittal of Damascus and the [forthcoming] incrimination of Nasrallah's associates.
From here, we can say that Nasrallah is concerned that Syria may have abandoned Hezbollah to face the storm surrounded the Hariri tribunal alone. This is not unlikely, for Hezbollah and Damascus are united not just by a belief and path of resistance – as we are told everyday – or a strategic position, but also by an understanding that this alliance is a temporary tactic whose continuance has not been due to the intelligence of Hezbollah or Iran, but the stupidity of Israel, and the shortsightedness of the U.S. in understanding the importance of achieving Israeli – Syrian peace and [Israeli] withdrawal from the Golan Heights. The Syrian – Iranian relationship which Hezbollah benefits from is more due to Tehran's strength than because this is a [permanent] strategic Syrian position, therefore as a result of the domestic and foreign crises that are being faced by Iran, we can understand why Damascus is using the Turks in all regional files. Therefore Damascus, whose president explicitly said that he is interested in establishing and consolidating secularism in Syrian society (and this was not a statement for foreign consumption, and so here is Damascus banning the niqab at universities and scientific instates) cannot be an ally of a religious party in Lebanon like Hezbollah, or a religious extremist regime like Iran, whose government specifies even what clothes the Iranian public can wear, or what kinds of haircut are acceptable.
Therefore, those scrutinizing Syria's actions and statements will be able to understand Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah's concern towards the Hariri tribunal and other issues, whether this is Iraq, Turkey's position, or the recurring meetings that have been taking place recently between Hariri and President Bashar al-Assad.
From here, we can say that what concerns Nasrallah is not just some members of Hezbollah being accused [of Rafik Hariri's assassination] but also Damascus being acquitted of this at the same time, as this represents a threat to Hezbollah, the significance of which Nasrallah is well aware of.
*Published in the London-based ASHARQ ALAWSAT on July 26, 2010.

On a Repentant Environment

Sun, 25 July 2010
By: Abdullah Iskandar/Al Hayat
There is a scenario in Lebanon which states that the forces of the March 14 Alliance are fabricating the formal indictment which will be issued by the general prosecutor of the Special Tribunal to try those suspected in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and other assassinations connected to it, and that these forces are directing accusations according to political circumstances. Certainly these forces would prefer for the tribunal’s accusations to go against the interest of their political opponents. Yet the tribunal, with its judges, employees and international sponsors, has not yet turned into an international branch obedient to the March 14 Alliance, writing its regular reports to the United Nations and preparing its formal indictment for the assassination based on the statements of the March 14 Alliance’s General Secretariat.
Making such a link with accusations according to political circumstances is not meant to preemptively defend against the possibility of accusations being directed at undisciplined Hezbollah members, as the party’s Secretary-General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah has announced in advance his absolute rejection of such a possibility. Indeed, Hezbollah does not hold any undisciplined members, and all members carry out the leadership’s orders. Thus the matter would become, as Nasrallah said, as if the leadership of the largest Lebanese Shiite party had ordered the assassination of the most prominent Sunni leader in Lebanon. Let us just imagine after that what would take place in terms of sectarian tension and incitement, as well as political and security turmoil, and what would follow it in terms of the apocalyptic climate that would take shape out of such an accusation penned down by March 14 forces. These forces would thus be responsible for driving the country into the furnace of yet another conflict, one for which the May 7 operation and the military control of Beirut and some of its surrounding areas would have only been a preliminary rehearsal. It would be evident in such a case for these forces to be responsible, first and last, for the new situation that would have arisen from their excessive engagement in the international conspiracy against Hezbollah, as from their failing to take warning of the lessons of its resilience.
This is why these forces must review their accounts, if they consider that current political circumstances allow them to divert the accusations of assassination from Syria and the leaders of the former Lebanese-Syrian security-political apparatus to Hezbollah. They are invited to critically reconsider their stances, ideology and politics, in order to emerge from their partnership with the conspiracy currently represented by the Special Tribunal, and to protect themselves from Hezbollah’s response to the accusations, including that which might reach the March 14 Alliance’s popular base in all regions of Lebanon. And there lies the crux of the matter.
Such reconsideration required of March 14 has been specified as following Jumblatt’s model. The basis for this model is not just relinquishing past opposition, but in fact joining into, in words and in deeds, the party’s slogans and the demands of its leadership. And if Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has clarified that joining in such a way was dictated by apprehensions of protecting his community, which suffered a great deal on May 7, everyone must realize that their protection can only be ensured by joining in the same manner.
Jumblatt has accepted to move from the position of main player in the March 14 Alliance and in Lebanon to that of recipient, for the protection of his community and his popular base. The others too must accept this new position. Nevertheless, there are past responsibilities, the burden of which someone must bear and be held accountable for. Intended here is the former government cabinet and former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the absent yet ever-present figure throughout Nasrallah’s latest press conference.
Thus, the reconsideration required of the March 14 Alliance means for its constituents to join Hezbollah’s politics, yet some of those forces are involved in the conspiracy to such an extent that there is no hope for them to evade being held accountable. And just as these forces perpetrated the crime of the Special Tribunal and its formal indictment, they must, as they currently head the government, go to the “game of nations” to put an end to their “game” in Lebanon through the Special Tribunal.
Developments in Lebanon, ever since the assassination of Hariri in 2005, would thus have represented a straight line by a single player, the March 14 Alliance, without excluding the possibility that its forces were behind the assassinations directly or indirectly in order to provide pretexts for the great conspiracy, i.e. the Special Tribunal.
The conspiracy is indeed great, and many countries are participating in it, led by Israel. It is a conspiracy that exceeds Lebanon and reaches the region, especially Iran and Syria. In order to fend it off, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has called on Muslims to “terrorize the conspirators” and “terrorize” their allies in the region.

Mubarak, Saudi King to Discuss Lebanon on Wednesday
Naharnet/Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah will discuss among other things latest developments in Lebanon during a meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday.
The Egyptian presidency said Sunday that the two leaders will meet for the first time since Mubarak's return from Germany following a surgery to remove his gall bladder in March.
The statement said the meeting comes ahead of Abdullah's visit to Syria and Lebanon later this week.Meanwhile, a source at the Egyptian presidency said Mubarak did not attend the African Union summit in Kampala on Sunday for security reasons, ruling out rumors about his deteriorating health. Beirut, 26 Jul 10, 08:59

Murr Discusses with U.S. Defense Official Military Assistance to Lebanon

Naharnet/Defense Minister Elias Murr on Monday discussed with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Alexander Vershbow military assistance to Lebanon.
U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison attended the talks at Murr's office at the ministry. Beirut, 26 Jul 10, 13:31

New Opinion: The hallmarks of desperation

July 26, 2010
Now Lebanon/On the face of it, Thursday night’s speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah marked another milestone in the party’s proud policy of intimidation. Those of us who lived through the attempted coup of May 7, 2008 know only too well what Hezbollah and its allies in the opposition March 8 bloc can and will do if they feel their agenda is under threat. Nasrallah’s speech, the second in which he has sought to discredit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon – the court formed to find the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others as well as the victims of subsequent political violence – targeted the March 14 bloc and urged its members to reconsider the “choices they made.” In short, as March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soueid said in an interview on Saturday with Radio Free Lebanon, Nasrallah was suggesting March 14 surrender the ideals forged in the heat of the 2005 Independence Intifada.
But so far March 14 has stuck by its political choices. There have been no concessions, and while the political grouping has had to adapt to the realities of the region, including opening diplomatic channels with Damascus – a move that many saw as signaling the end of the movement – its position on the tribunal has remained solid.
We must not forget that the purpose of the tribunal is twofold: It is about achieving justice, not just for the Hariri family, but the families of those who died with him on February 14, 2005, as well as the families of the dozens of victims – not just the MPs or state officials – of the political violence that punctuated daily life until the 2008 Doha Agreement brought a measure of calm to the domestic scene, albeit at the barrel of a gun.
Secondly it is about laying the foundations of a modern democratic state, one that can serve as a model for others in the region by demonstrating that there can be a mechanism to fight political violence. It will end the ability of regional despots to perpetrate murderous outrages and sell them as Zionist conspiracies, and it will show the common man that he can seek redress through the justice system. In this, the international community is standing squarely behind the Lebanese government, a commitment borne out by France’s recent assurances that funding for the court will not stop.
If we follow Hezbollah’s advice, we will have allowed threats and intimidation to derail justice, even if it is sold as a move to avoid civil violence. Nasrallah wants us to believe that the Resistance is more important than justice and that we should give up our pursuit of it because he will allow nothing to harm the Resistance.
Meaning what? That Hezbollah and its allies will take their gunmen onto the streets once again? That the government will be toppled and another more pliant cabinet installed to derail the tribunal? Both courses of action are hardly likely. They would not only be an admission of guilt to all but the most blinkered supporters, but would also once again prove that Hezbollah has no policy for advancing Lebanon as a modern state and no blueprint for building state institutions. It can only offer violence and conflict on behalf of its Iranian clients.
In fact, since 2005, Hezbollah’s contribution to the national whole has been one war, one downtown sit-in and one bout of murderous, civil violence. Let us also not forget the vast array of tools it has at its disposal for obstructing basic constitutional processes, such as elections, the selecting of a president and the forming of a government.
But short of throwing out the tried and tested, but ultimately weary Zionist card, Nasrallah has few options. This has been demonstrated by the mixed signals he has sent in the previous 24 hours. He will not allow the Resistance to be harmed, and yet he will enter into talks on the matter, either within the cabinet or at the national dialogue table, but only on the condition that the talks do not start on the basis of Hezbollah’s presumed guilt. These provisos have all the hallmarks of desperation.

Lebanon letting Hizbullah escape responsibility for an assassination

Examiner.com
According to Hizbullah head Nasrallah, Lebanon PM Saad Hariri told him he will let Hizbullah escape blame for its suspected assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri.
The UN is expected to find Hizbullah responsible for that assassination. PM Hariri is expected to excuse the organization by pinning responsibility on the lower level operatives who performed the assassination, as doing it on their own. Nasrallah supposes that PM Hariri anticipates that if he blames the organization, he would share his father’s fate or a renewed civil war that he would lose. Haaretz believes that PM Hariri considers survival more important than preserving family honor and punish all his father’s murderers. The Israeli daily debunks PM Hariri’s distinction in advance as a false rationalization: “"Hizbullah is well known for its rigid hierarchy, iron discipline and involvement of senior officials in all decisions at the field level. That makes it highly unlikely that Hizbullah operatives would have been involved in such an incident without the senior leadership's knowledge." (IMRA, 7/23/10).

Syria and the West: Another wasted decade
Monday, 26 July 2010 03:18
By Chris Phillips
As Bashar Al Assad celebrated his 10th year as president of Syria earlier this month, Human Rights Watch marked the occasion with a commendable report on the continued human rights abuses and anti-democratic nature of his regime. The report describes Assad’s reign thus-far as a “wasted decade”, with the 44-year-old eye doctor disappointing many by entrenching authoritarian rule rather than promoting greater political openness.
While these domestic failures should not be excused, they should not be viewed in isolation since they are closely related to the other major disappointment of Bashar’s first decade in power: Syria’s bumpy relationship with the west.
External threats have long provided the Ba’ath regime with a pretext for repression at home, and the past decade has seen no shortage of those. The invasions of Iraq in 2003 and Lebanon in 2006, followed by sectarian violence in both, as well as direct attacks on Syrian territory by Israel in 2007 and the US in 2008 have provided Assad with an arsenal of evidence to support his regime’s claim that it provides citizens with stability and safety in a rough neighbourhood.
Islamists, intellectuals and political dissidents are often arrested on charges of “weakening national sentiment” and other threats to this coveted stability. While Human Rights Watch correctly highlights that “a review of Syria’s record shows a consistent policy of repressing dissent regardless of international or regional pressures”, repression is still justified by the regime as part of a wider nationalist narrative of Syria constantly under threat from Israel, the US and its allies.
Western behaviour towards Syria in the past decade has only exacerbated this view. Despite initial intelligence co-operation between Washington and Damascus after 9/11, Syria’s opposition to the Iraq war placed it on a collision course with the Bush administration. With economic sanctions following, the withdrawal of the US ambassador from Damascus after the Hariri assassination in 2005, a cross-border raid by American marines in 2008 and the White House actually opposing indirect Israeli-Syrian peace talks in 2007-8, it was not difficult to paint the Bush administration as a genuine national threat.
While relations have warmed a little under Obama, sanctions have been renewed and, though the White House has named a new ambassador, the Senate has thus far refused to confirm the nomination. Despite Obama’s initial positive rhetoric, from the Syrian perspective the new president’s inability to stand up to pro-Israeli elements on Capitol Hill and his inertia on the Israeli-Arab peace process means little has changed. While the US is no longer the immediate enemy it was under Bush, Obama shows no sign of being able to restrain the hawkish Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, whose threats to Assad have further served to justify Syria’s tight security regime.
The EU’s approach to Syria has done little to balance the US’s confrontational stance in the past decade. Though European states resisted Bush’s request to implement their own economic sanctions on Syria, they did join in a diplomatic boycott for several years after Assad’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, and suspended Syria’s accession to the Euro-Med Partnership (EMP) in 2004. Although the boycott was eventually broken by French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, and an EMP Association Agreement was revived the following year, Syria seems not wholly convinced of European intentions.
EU members seem to hold Syria to a higher standard than they do its neighbours. Britain and France inserted a line in the 2004 draft Association Agreement requiring Syria to renounce weapons of mass destruction – a condition they had not demanded of Israel when it joined the EMP in 2000. Though this clause was eventually removed in the 2009 version, a new human rights “break clause” was added, not required of other EMP members with similarly poor records such as Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia. Not surprisingly, Syria remains suspicious of this new agreement and has yet to sign it.
Syria therefore feels unfairly victimised by the west and Assad is likely to continue to exploit this to bolster his domestic support while simultaneously justifying curbed freedoms. Having survived the Bush onslaught, Assad is visibly more confident: securing his position at home and reaching out for new allies abroad (notably his ever-closer ties to Erdogan’s Turkey). The US and EU, in contrast, look weak and less and less able to influence the region as they focus on internal problems.
The question for these western states is whether their antagonistic approach towards Syria has achieved any of the US and EU’s professed goals. After a decade of dithering, the region is no more stable, Israel is no safer and Syria no more democratic or free than it was when Bashar took over in 2000. The last 10 years have shown that none of these aims can be achieved by bullying, threatening or ignoring Syria. Full engagement on an equal footing would seem the best way to avoid wasting another decade.
The Guardian

Aoun warns of conspiracy to naturalize Palestinians

By The Daily Star
Monday, July 26, 2010
BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader and Kesrouan MP Michel Aoun warned of plans to naturalize Palestinians during a three-day visit to Zahle which he concluded Sunday by attending a Mass held to celebrate the inauguration of the new headquarters of Saint Elias monastery in the city.
The Mass was attended by Aoun’s son in law, Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil, Archbishop Jean Farah, Zahle MPs Nicholas Fatoush, Toni Bu Khater and Joseph Maalouf along with a number of officials and religious figures.
Farah delivered a speech in which he thanked Lebanese expatriate, Wadih al-Absi for funding the construction of the new monastery.
He also thanked Aoun for his participation in the event.
On Saturday night, the FPM leader participated in the annual dinner of the party’s Zahle district committee, held at the Arabi Restaurant.
Addressing attendants, the former general said Lebanon was currently witnessing an internal crisis “resulting from foreign policies that want to devastate Lebanon.”
“I promise you and you have to promise me in return that we will not be mercenaries for an international game, we will be the soldiers of nation and identity,” added Aoun.
The recent announcement of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon would indict members of his party in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has raised concerns over a renewed strife in the country.
Aoun criticized Lebanese parties that overlooked the legislative branch in Lebanon and instead granted judiciary prerogatives to foreign states sponsoring the STL.
“It is not enough to say there is no strife, we should not work secretly and use illegal means to instigate strife,” he said.
Aoun warned against Israeli and US plans aimed at naturalizing Palestinians in Lebanon.
“This is an issue that we reject, and we will not be subject to any foreign policy planning to execute certain plans,” he stressed.
Aoun said that the US was not interested in assuring the security, stability and sovereignty of Lebanon, but rather in solving the Palestinian problem at the expense of the Lebanese.
Aoun also visited a number of Zahle’s dioceses and religious figures after which he chaired a seminar in one of the schools, attended by some of Zahle’s youth.
“You will face a class of politicians with treason as their main objective,” he told the attendees, and urged Zahle residents not to sell their land, emigrate or allow the plan to naturalize Palestinians in Lebanon to succeed.
The FPM leader stressed that naturalizing Palestinians was a “real” rather than a “theoretical conspiracy that has started in 1948.”
Earlier on Saturday, Aoun received local delegations from the city and district of Zahle in the city’s Saint Elias monastery.
Aoun kicked of his visit Friday to the capital of the Bekaa by attending a dinner in Grand Qaderi hotel on the invitation of “General Michel Aoun’s Friends.” – The Daily Star

Clarity needed on Lebanon's stability

By Jamil K. Mroue
Publisher and editor in chief
Monday, July 26, 2010
Editorial/Daily Star
“Justice and stability” were the red lines set down this weekend by Prime Minister Saad Hariri. When the founding conference of his Future Movement was first organized, perhaps these weren’t the themes that Hariri intended to stress. But recent events have influenced the domestic scene, and by recent events, we mean the stances taken by Hizbullah about the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Hariri addressed the Future Movement conference amid an obligation to respond to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the prime minister’s remarks hit the right notes: an uncompromising commitment to domestic stability, and an equally uncompromising stance on “protecting the track” of justice, with no negotiations or other side-issues allowed to get in the way.
Hariri plays two roles; he’s the leader of the Future Movement, but he’s also the country’s prime minister, and he demonstrated that he is putting the interests of Lebanon first. Stability is an absolute priority for our small country, which is directly affected by events in the region, whether we like it or not.
Hariri’s sober speech reflected the legacy of his father, Rafik Hariri, whose commitment to Lebanon, during the daunting era of postwar reconstruction, is also known by all.
However, Saad Hariri happened to deliver this address to his own supporters, even if the nation was paying attention. Our leaders often deliver speeches on the occasion of specific events, such as anniversaries or commemorations. It wouldn’t hurt Hariri to take to the air waves again, in a more general forum, to clarify other matters, just as he clarified his stance on the STL and stability.
True domestic stability can be helped by filling in the blanks; the Hariri government’s policy statement is around 8 months old, and things are changing, as the prime minister acknowledged Saturday.
The premier has made several trips to Syria; while the first was largely symbolic, the others have tackled, obviously, bilateral relations between Beirut and Damascus.
These meetings have tackled many areas; some of them are hugely significant for our private sector, for our economic sectors and our very society. Will the meetings and agreements concluded with the Syrians have tangible impact for the Lebanese? If so, these need to be spelled out. Laying down the red lines is one thing; we need the same clarity and determination when it comes to outlining this country’s future on matters of state that aren’t connected to the STL and what should be everyone’s priority, namely stability.
*Jamil K. Mroue, Editor-in-Chief of THE DAILY STAR, can be reached at jamil.mroue@dailystar.com.lb

Canada: Anti-Semitic Website Shut Down
by Dan Verbin/Arutz Sheva
After being contacted by Canada’s Attorney General, a U.S. Internet company shut down two websites run by a man from the Greater Toronto Area who was charged with hate crimes by the Ontario Provincial Police.
Until early last week, Arizona-based Go Daddy was still hosting the website Filthy Jewish Terrorists, linked to former York University student Salman Hossain. On the site, the 25-year old Hossain called for genocide against Jews, the murder of Canadians and posted anti-Semitic rants under titles such as “The Jews and the West must be nuked” and “The destruction of the West is the only way to exterminate the Jews.”
A second website belonging to Hossain that was not online was also taken down by Go Daddy.
“There’s lot of ISPs out there who may not know who (Salman Hossain) is but my guess is once people are informed about the charges pending against him and his hateful conduct he will find it very difficult to find a home,” said Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber.
The OPP charged Hossain with two counts of promoting genocide and three counts of promoting hatred on July 8. However, Hossain had already fled Canada by that point in the investigation.
Police believe that Hossain, a Bangladeshi-Canadian who spent part of his childhood in Ghana before coming to Canada, is currently residing in either Bangladesh or Uganda.
From his location outside the country, he continued to post anti-Semitic screeds on his site until it was shut down this week, including a final post before Go Daddy pulled the plug. In it he blamed “the Jews” for pressuring the Internet host to take down his site, but added he was simply going to move to another server.
“Like I stated earlier, it makes very little difference if they try and take down the server as I am moving it to another country’s server where it will be much more difficult to take down and where they really and truly hate Jews,” he posted. “So therefore, in either case the Jews have lost and they should go shoot themselves in the head for trying to bring down the information that I have against them.” Hossain’s initial attempt to move to a new host proved unsuccessful when a National Post investigation located the server in Carlow, Ireland. After the newspaper contacted the company, Blacknight, Hossain’s contract with the ISP was promptly cancelled.
“The content on that website would be illegal in Ireland and in Europe,” Blacknight spokesperson Michele Neylon told the National Post. “And as far as our legal counsel is concerned, any website content that incites anybody to murder another human being, be that an individual or mass genocide, would be illegal.”He went on to say that the company’s terms of service do not allow for “illegal” websites. Farber said that CJC, which also sent a notice to Go Daddy, will monitor the situation to ensure Hossain does not find another online home for his hate writing, and will inform any future Internet hosts that Hossain is a fugitive who was charged with hate crimes. “It is the World Wide Web and anything is possible but we will monitor as best as we are able,” said Farber.

Fatfat: Nasrallah should back his claims with evidence
July 26, 2010 /Lebanon First bloc MP Ahmad Fatfat told New TV on Monday that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah should give evidence to back his statements claiming there is a conspiracy against Hezbollah. “Nasrallah [should do so] as there is enough tension escalation [in Lebanon],” Fatfat said. “If Hezbollah members were indicted by the [Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL)], then the party would have the right to defend itself,” Fatfat added. Tension sparked in Lebanon after reports said the tribunal would soon issue its verdict, most probably before the end of the year. Nasrallah has said that some Hezbollah members could be named in the indictment. -NOW Lebanon

Pietton: Hariri mentions deploying new LAF unit in South

July 26, 2010 /Following his meeting with Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday, French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton said that the PM informed him that an additional Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) unit would be deployed in South Lebanon starting Monday, according to a statement issued by Hariri’s office.“Such [a decision] is a positive development that will be appreciated by states taking part in UNIFIL,” Pietton said. Clashes broke out in the South last month, during which residents protested against UNIFIL during a maximum deployment exercise by the peacekeeping force.  The UN Security Council met earlier this month to discuss the incidents and called on all parties in the country to allow UNIFIL to move freely, in response to recent protests. -NOW Lebanon

Palestinians come closer to full labor rights in Lebanon

July 26, 2010 /NOW Lebanon’s correspondent reported on Monday that the Justice and Administration parliamentary commission approved to amend Article 9 of the Social Security law to grant Palestinian refugees working in Lebanon equal rights as their Lebanese peers but only in the cases of work-related emergencies and pension. Labor Minister Boutros Harb said that an agreement was reached entailing that employers would be responsible for guaranteeing the abovementioned rights and not the Social Security. -NOW Lebanon

Hassan Nasrallah

July 26, 2010
The following are excerpts from Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s July 25 speech on the Special Tribunal:
-The fighting in Ainata was one of the major battles fought by Israel to occupy Bint Jbeil during the 2006 July War. [The Israelis planned] for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to make a speech on Israel’s power [after taking Bint Jbeil]. However, the heroes of the Resistance proved Israel weak once again.
-The martyrs have been for 30 years the most important symbols of this country. They are the best victory makers of this [Islamic] nation. They protected its dignity and presence… We, as a resistance movement, have offered the most precious [of our sons]. My leader in the Resistance, Sayyed Abbas al-Moussawi and my brother in jihad, Imad Mugniyah, are the most precious people I have lost.
- With these sacrifices, the Resistance is the most precious of what we have. We will not allow any small or big person in this world to touch any of its dignity.
-All plots that threatened Lebanon, Palestine and the region were stopped [by the Resistance]. The Resistance prevented the plot in 1982 and the one in 2000 that aimed to accomplish the project of [building a] greater Israel [by invading Lebanon]. In 2006, the Resistance put an to end the new Middle East project, which was highly funded.
-The Resistance’s achievements have raised its standing in the world. The Resistance [overcame] all barriers as it is a Muslim resistance respected by Christians and most Sunnis. It is also a Lebanese resistance respected by Arab and Muslim people. This was achieved by shedding blood and making sacrifices. The Resistance is not only Hezbollah, but it is everyone who supported it and everyone who resisted. The Resistance made Lebanon effective in the region and it did not do this by [asking for others’ help] or by force.
-Syria and Iran supported the Resistance in Lebanon as well as others, but only the Resistance fought. It is too bad that Lebanon’s enemies realize the value of what Lebanon has more than others. That is why they conspire to end this [untouchable] power [of the Resistance].
-The gas issue can be compromised, but the Resistance cannot. You have to be strong when you face the enemy and whoever classifies himself as an enemy. [The international community] tried to bring this power to an end in the 2006 July War and failed. I will talk about this during the victory ceremony, which was postponed to August 3 upon President Michel Sleiman’s request because important guests will be in Lebanon on July 30.
-This is a funny country. There are matters that are discussed in salons [in private meetings between politicians]. Yet when we talk about them in the media, they tell you that this was unconfirmed. The problem [opponents have with Hezbollah] is not that the party is an Islamic one, but because it is a Resistance that does not want Lebanon’s protection to depend on foreign conditions.
-Israel unanimously accepts that it was defeated in the 2006 July War. But in the Arab world there are some who wonder how the Resistance defeated Israel. That is why they resorted to distorting the Resistance’s image.
-Since 1982, we have been lashed and offended. But at that time we did not have the resources we have today. Today, they are exploiting a just case on which there was unanimity; the case of [former] Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s [2005] assassination. Here, I am not responding to anyone…. What I have to say the country cannot tolerate all at once. That is why I divided my speech to protect the country.
- All of us in Lebanon want to know the truth behind Rafik Hariri’s assassination… We all paid the price of the repercussions of this assassination. We all support achieving justice, and not amnesty, after knowing the truth. All the Lebanese should cooperate on this.
- The root of the controversy that happened in Lebanon is over an international commission established by the US and British government, whose investigation officers have links with the Israeli Mossad [intelligence agency]… Anything not based on the truth amounts to injustice and is a second assassination of [former] Prime Minister Hariri.
-Here, we asked: Will the behavior and performance of the international commission lead to knowing the truth? No. I have witnesses and evidence. The truth can be attained by a scientific, honest and transparent investigation that considers all the possibilities about who might have been Hariri’s killer, or who has the interest, motive and capability [to carry out the assassination].
-But the investigation commission has never worked in this way. I say this to all those who want the truth. The commission since the first day [of its work] has prepared an indictment and a verdict and began searching for evidence [to fit the former].
- We are demanding justice, which is that the killer of [former] Prime Minister Rafik Hariri be punished. But to punish those who did not kill him, this is the peak of injustice… Is the behavior of some political forces in Lebanon, the behavior of the investigation commission and the behavior of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) the kind of behavior that wants to know the truth? No. I have two witnesses, the first is false witnesses and the second is the people who made them.
- Please, STL Prosecutor [Daniel Bellemare], summon the false witnesses and investigate them. But he does not want to on the pretext that this is not within the investigation’s mandate. But we ask him: Is it not the investigation’s mandate to know who brought false witnesses in order to know their relationship with the killers of [former] Prime Minister Rafik Hariri? His answer was that this is not part of his mandate or the mandate of the Lebanese judiciary and security apparatuses.
- [Some Lebanese] and some International Investigation Commission officers have participated in fabricating and coaching witnesses. Is it our right to know why did they do that? If you don’t want to punish them, at least expel them. But on the contrary, those who fabricated the witnesses are still under your custody. Some will say that [I am] causing tension in the country. But does telling the truth cause tension in the country? Did the false witnesses and those standing behind them come from the sky?
- [Former] Prime Minister Salim Hoss made an appeal today. I respect whatever this man says. When there is a Resistance that will be attacked and through it the door to attack Lebanon will be open, there is the cabinet that must shoulder its responsibility… Therefore, if the cabinet is called on to discuss the issue, we are ready. If the national dialogue is called for a meeting, we are ready. But if anyone wants to sit with us on the basis that there are people accused from [Hezbollah] and want to reach a deal, we will not accept. We are ready [for a cabinet meeting] on the basis of protecting the country and on the basis that we are a party facing a false accusation.
-What the Israeli media is saying is true and it matches our information. The Israeli information is from the STL. [Certain] security officials said the same things a while ago in Lebanon. That is why we call for forming a Lebanese parliamentary, judicial, security or ministerial commission to bring the witnesses and investigate with them to find out who told them to say what they said.
-If they really want a new serious beginning, then this is it. Those who want to prove their keenness on achieving justice should start from here and not tolerate being around politicians, judges, media and security figures who participated in fabricating false witnesses.


The Sins of Damascus

by Dr. Mordechai Nisan
Follow Israel opinion on and Syria foments war, creates the Syria-Lebanon-Iran-Turkey anti-Israel axis, and is rewarded for these efforts by those among us who are willing to give her the Golan Heights. But"the four sins of Damascus are unforgivable" said the prophet Amos (1,3)
The atmosphere in our area is heating up and the smell of war is in the air. Reports of long range rockets sent to Syria from Iran are only part of the story.
Alongside Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, the real kingpin of the axis of evil is Syria. Syria is at the apex of planning, encouraging and abetting constant tension, as well as acting as coordinator of all the aggressors in the anti Israel coalition.
The proof of the pudding came when at the end of February, Syrian president Bashar Assad called for a summit in Damascus, to which he invited and then welcomed Iranian President Ahmadenijad and Hizbullah head Hassan Narallah.
Syria’s political and military terror dossier is filled to overflowing. In the 1930’s Damascus organized an armed invasion against the struggling Jewish return to the land. In 1948 the Syrian army attacked Israel. From the 1950’s until the Six Day War there were non stop artillery bombardments and terrorist attacks from the Syrian held Golan heights to the kibbutzim in the valleys below.
From the 1960’s on, Damascus began supporting and encouraging Arafat’s PLO and Habash’ Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In the 1970’s the Syrian army invaded Lebanon in a barbaric war against the Marronite Christians who had ties to Israel. In the 1980’s, thanks to its training camps in the Eastern Lebanon Bak’a area, Syria aided and guided a variety of terror organizations—headed by Hizbullah, Amal and the National Syrian Party.
Syria’s defense and intelligence systems were behind a wide range of hijackings and kidnappings, as well as terror attacks against Jews/Israelis/Lebanese/Egyptians/ Americans and perpetrated on Israeli soil. It was understood that Syria masterminded the murderous terror in Beirut and Tyre, Maalot and Kiryat Shmona, Buenos Aires and in the attempted hijacking of an El Al plane in London. The actual perpetrators were Palestinians and Shiites.
Syrian support of Hizbullah was enhanced by the country’s being a land route for shipments of arms from Iran and Syria to Lebanon and Hizbullah. The fact that the headquarters of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership are in Damascus is proof of Syria’s leaning in the Palestinian war against Israel. A training course for Palestinian youth held near Damascus ended recently, after a new terror organization was founded called “Fata Al Intifada”. The name is probably meant as a barb to Abu Maazen who is considered too willing to compromise and make peace with Israel.
Syria has a finger in every pie
Syria is at the forefront of the strategic transformation that has formed against Israel over the last few years. In the past, Lebanon, Iran and Turkey were friendly or passive towards Israel, but today, all three are on the front line of the anti Israel campaign and their hostile stand has caused Israel political and strategic damage, as the country is now surrounded by a tightening, ever widening ring of hatred.
Syria’s achievements in the conflict with Israel are characterized by several landmark events: the 1976 invations of Lebanon, the alliance with Iran in 1980, peace with Turkey in 2004 as expressed in Bashar Assad’s visit to Turkish PM Erdogan.
The Turks and Syrian’s common interest in controlling the Kurds and their desire to demarcate their adjoining borders soon turned Turkey from an ally of Israel to her aggressive enemy. There is not doubt that widening the breach between Turkey and Israel is a significant Syrian political victory,
When the IDF succeeded in dealing the Shiites a heavy blow in 2006, the Hizbullah recovered and renewed itself thanks to Syria. It follows that until Syria is dealt a heavy blow, there is no chance of defeating Hizbullah, so that as far as long range strategic perspective goes, the Second Lebanon War accomplished nothing. In order to reach a modus vivendi in Lebanon, Syria’s central role must be taken into account. Syria cannot remain outside future conflicts.
The Iranian Shiite Revolution has strong ties to the Allawi rulership of Damascus, reaching all the way to Baal Bek, Nabatia and Dahyia in Southern Beirut. This Iran-Syrian treaty was begun in the 1980’s as a reaction to the Iran-Iraq War in the Persian Gulf and is as relevant as ever. It is not realistic to expect Damascus to break those ties at the request of the United States or Israel.
The ties between the Hizbullah and Palestinians, and between the Hizbullah and Iran pass through Damascus. In April 2007, the Deputy head of Hizbullah, Naim Kassam, said that the Teheran regime authorizes every step his organization takes. In June 2010 the Hizbullah intended to send a flotilla from Lebanon to Gaza and Syria’s long shadow could be seen coordinating, planning and authorizing the anti-Israel actions.
The left and its cohorts’s engage in constant polemics about leaving the Golan Heights so as to achieve peace with Syria. These are matched by Syria’s continuous warmongering and ‘resistance’ to Israel’s occupation. The government of Israel keeps bowing to the pressure and agreeing to negotiations with Syria. This Theatre of the Absurd has no rules, no logic and certainly no morality. The world’s hallucinatory perception, still based on the “Land for Peace” mantra, can bring about a terrible capitulation. Therefore, the time has come to change Israel’s music to a clear, understandable refrain, accompanied by suitable actions, that show without a doubt that Israel will never give up the Golan.

Nasrallah Urges Establishment of Lebanese Committee to Investigate False Witnesses in Hariri Case

Naharnet/Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called Sunday for the establishment of a Lebanese committee to investigate the issue of false witnesses in the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.
"Let them set up a committee -- a parliamentary, judicial, security, or ministerial committee—and bring witnesses and Mohammed Siddiq … and ask them who provided them with the information," Nasrallah said via video link during a celebration in honor of Hizbullah martyrs at Shahed Institute in Beirut's southern suburbs.
"If they really want a serious start, the beginning starts here," he said after paying tribute to martyrs.
"The investigating committee had, since Day 1, worked on one assumption. It has fabricated an accusation (against Hizbullah) and came out with a ruling and then went ahead to seek evidence," he said in reference to the U.N. probe into Hariri's Feb.14, 2005 murder.
Hizbullah leader said the truth is achieved through a "transparent, technical and scientific probe."
"Should an Investigation Committee made of Americans and the British government where investigating officers are brought from intelligence services closely linked to the Israeli Mossad be entrusted with a big issue at this level?" Nasrallah asked.
"Is the behavior of some political forces in Lebanon and the Prosecutor and the International Tribunal the behavior of those who seek the truth?" he argued.
"Isn't it the Lebanese right to bring the false witnesses, who have misled the investigation four years, and hold them accountable? Or at least expel them instead of keeping them under your protection," he shouted.
"Distortion of the Resistance, the dearest to us, will not be allowed. We shall preserve the Resistance and carry on the path of Resistance," Nasrallah vowed.
He said Hizbullah demands justice for Hariri, but not at the expense of the Resistance.
"If truth was not found, there will be no justice," he added. "We demand justice. Justice to punish Hariri's killers. And anything other than that is unjust."
"We are the side that is being accused. What the Israeli media is saying in this respect overlaps with our data," Nasrallah confirmed.
Nasrallah said that Hizbullah chose July 25 to celebrate "because it coincides with the martyrdom of Ahmed Jagbir who, along with his comrades, reiterated the saying 'Israel is weaker than a spider's web'."
"The Resistance is the most precious thing we have and we won't allow anyone in the world -- small or big -- to hurt its dignity.
He recalled that in 2006, the "Resistance was able to crush the 'new Middle East plan,' during which wars were waged on several countries in the region and other countries were threatened with war in which many people from outside and inside were involved."
"This Resistance made Lebanon in the heart of the regional equation after it was inferior. It made Lebanon a player.
"Many people helped the Resistance in Lebanon, from Iran to Syria to all honorable people, but the Resistance was the one that fought and everyone, but the Lebanese, knows the value of the Resistance. "The Resistance made Lebanon strong where officials visit to Lebanon. The Resistance is the reason that leaders meet you abroad," Nasrallah said, addressing Lebanese political leaders.
"Unfortunately, the enemies of Lebanon realize the value of what Lebanon has more than some Lebanese.
"This is why they plan to take away this thing that Lebanon owns. They may bargain on gas and oil, but they can never bargain on the Resistance.
"Hizbullah won't allow anybody in this world to impose conditions on it. It rejects the U.S.-Israeli compromise which desires to confiscate land and deny millions of Palestinians their right to return to their homes.
"War on the Resistance will continue, and Feltman himself admitted this before Congress, and Israel unanimously acknowledged its defeat in 2006 and the Americans know that they were defeated in Lebanon. "Distortion of the Resistance, the dearest to us, will not be allowed. We shall preserve the Resistance and carry on the path of Resistance," Nasrallah promised.
Nasrallah said celebrations to mark Hizbullah's victory in the July 2006 war will take place Aug. 3 and not July 30 as planned.
He also called for political support and talks.
"There are a lot of preparations being made against Lebanon and the Resistance.
"If the Cabinet or the national dialogue committee meets to discuss the issue, we will support that," Nasrallah said.
"There is something being prepared (against Hizbullah). So we must together consider how to confront it, how to deal with this matter," Nasrallah added. Beirut, 25 Jul 10, 18:55

LCCC/in the context of Hezbollah's attempts to abolish the STL, comes the below fabricated reading
The STL and the Anti-Lebanese Plot. Part 1: “Syria is Guilty!”
By: Yusuf Fernandez
July 25, 2010
Al-Manar.com.lb
Most international experts consider that it is the national jurisdiction of Lebanon, and not the Special Tribunal of Lebanon, that that should have investigated and prosecuted the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. They argue that according to the UN Resolution 1664, the bomb attacks are not counted as crimes that needed to be tried by an international tribunal. In fact, the UN had only previously taken such a measure -to set up a new international tribunal- to prosecute the most serious international crimes, as genocide and ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia and the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. Significantly, the Israeli genocide against Palestinian and Lebanese peoples have never led to the creation of a similar international court.
For example, the July 2006 war caused heavy loss of human life, population displacement and massive destruction in critical infrastructure and properties in Lebanon. Most of them were the result of serious violations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Protocol on the protection of the victims of international armed conflicts. These violations were war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, there was no UN resolution which recognized them as such, or even condemned them. The UN Security Council did not create an international commission, let alone a court, to investigate the violations of the international law committed during the war.
This is in strong contrast with the case of Hariri's assassination. It suggests that the Western powers think that some deaths are more important than others from a political view. This hypocritical stance has damaged the credibility of international law and has persuaded many people that international justice is driven by political considerations.
Therefore, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was the first international court set up exclusively to prosecute less serious crimes that are only international because the UN Security Council decided they should be so. This demonstrates that there was a clear political purpose behind the creation of the tribunal.
There is no doubt either that the enemies of Lebanon, Syria and the Arabism -first of all Israel and the Bush Administration- saw the tribunal as a tool to accomplish their goals – those that they failed to achieve in the battlefield against the Resistance or by killing thousands of Lebanese in Beirut, Qana or many other places of the country.
In this context of manifest international injustice and double standards, who can trust an international tribunal which has set up by those who express day by day their anti-Lebanese views? Someone has only to read UN reports about the implementation of the Resolution 1701 to see that Lebanon is always the guilty party. Israeli daily provocations and threats, including violations of the Lebanese air space, are mostly ignored or played down.
FALSE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SYRIA
Shortly after the assassination of Rafiq Hariri on February 14, 2005, the pro-West and anti-Syrian forces in Lebanon launched a campaign to blame Syria for the crime despite the lack of any evidence of Syrian involvement. These forces forgot Syrian efforts to protect Lebanon from the Israeli aggression because they were actually against Arabism and some of them had supported the signature of a “peace treaty” with Israel in 1983, which was only an imposed surrender to the Zionist entity and was later annulled due to the pressure of the Lebanese population.
Amid massive protests from a large number of Lebanese who had been pushed to believe that Syria was undoubtedly guilty of the crime, Damascus put an end to its 29-year military and intelligence presence in Lebanon. Soon after, the United Nations called for an investigation into al-Hariri's assassination.
Damascus claimed that Washington wanted to use the UN investigation to put an end to Syrian influence in the region. The Bush Administration considered Syria as one of its main enemies in the Middle East and it explains that the first investigations of the Tribunal were aimed at finding any kind of evidence implicating Syria in the murder. More recently, US neocons believed that the UN probe would undermine the attempts by the Obama administration to engage Syria diplomatically just as it would prevent Damascus from successfully making a case for the Israeli withdrawal from the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel took over in 1967 and is obliged by the UNSC Resolution 242 to return to Syria in exchange for peace.
In Lebanon, politicians aligned with the March 14 coalition (made up by anti-Syrian and pro-West political parties) insisted once and again that Syria was to blame for the former PM´s death. They also extended their criticism to the Resistance, which supported strong links with Syria and opposed to Western and Israeli influence on the country.
Some experts already then warned that the STL was politicized. Joshua Landis, co-director of the Centre for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, claimed that “a lot of people have their hopes pinned on this, particularly the people from the Bush administration.”
Some senior US diplomats claimed that Syria was being uncooperative and, as a consequence of it, the Security Council might impose sanctions on Syrian officials: the president, the prime minister, the defense minister, the foreign minister and members of Parliament. Under these proposed sanctions, UN member states would have been prohibited from hosting these officials and their assets in those countries would have been frozen.
The first reports from the UN International Independent Investigation Committee (IIIC) appeared to support claims by the US and Lebanon´s 14 March camp that Syria was implicated in the murder. Detlev Mehlis, the first IIIC Commissioner released in October 2005 an interim report which claimed that there was “converging evidence pointing at both Lebanese and Syrian involvement” in the assassination.
Mehlis was actually a favorite of the pro-Israeli neocons who served in the Reagan Administration. His investigation of the 1982 La Belle Discotheque bombing attack in West Berlin was used as pretext by the US government to launch a 1986 air attack on Libya. Mehlis concluded that Libya was behind the Berlin attack conveniently at the same time that neocons in the US administration, including Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Scooter Libby, and others were calling for an attack on Muammar Qaddafi. The fact that he was appointed as the IIIC Commissioner is a clear evidence of strong Israeli influence on the tribunal.
Key to Mehlis´s assertions were the testimonies of two witnesses, Hussam Hussam and Mohammed Zuhair al-Siddiq, who said that Syrian and Lebanese officials had ordered the attack on al-Hariri´s convoy. Siddiq claimed that Damascus and former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud had given the order to kill Hariri. He added that four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals and a number of Lebanese and Syrian politicians were also involved.
In October 2005, Mehlis published a report, whose electronic version mentioned the names of some Syrian officials who were allegedly involved in the assassination. Some Western media then claimed that the conclusion of the investigation would show that Syria had played a decisive role in the crime.
However, some weeks after the release of the October 2005 interim report, Hussam and Siddiq's testimonies were found to be unreliable. Hussam started trying to sell his story to several Lebanese media outlets. When his name and role as a witness were leaked by New TV in November, he abruptly left the country for Syria. Days later, he reappeared on Syrian state television and fully changed his testimony, claiming that he fabricated the tale after being tortured, drugged, and offered money by March 14 leaders.
For his part, former Syrian secret intelligence agent Mohammad al-Siddiq also proved to be a false witness. He left France after obtaining a fake Czech passport and fled to the United Arab Emirates, where he was arrested. He told reporters that he had received his passport from the French General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) in order to escape Lebanese justice. While being in France under the protection of DGSE, the French Police eavesdropped on his telephone calls and found out that Siddiq had lied to the tribunal.
Therefore, the report´s conclusions were proved to be false as well as its anti-Syrian claims. All these scandals undermined the credibility of the tribunal and led to Mehlis´s resignation.
In an apparent acknowledgement that the Bush administration had originally sought to use the al-Hariri case to pressure Damascus, an anonymous US official then told the International Crisis Group that the March 14 coalition could no longer assume that the tribunal will automatically deliver a damning indictment of Syrian complicity in the murder. This new situation sparked outrage among pro-March 14 Lebanese and some Western commentators. Shibli Mallat, a prominent Lebanese law professor, accused Brammertz from the pages of TIME magazine of a “total dereliction of duty” and said that he “single-handedly destroyed" the investigation. Michael Young warned in the Lebanese newspaper Daily Star of “grave damage being done to the UN's credibility.” March 14 leaders implored the UN to give some kind of public indication that Damascus was still involved in the murder, but to no avail.