LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِOctober 08/2010

Bible Of The Day
Luke 21/34-36: “So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. 21:35 For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. 21:36 Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Lebanon set to allow Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Israeli border/By: Ian Black/October 07/10 
Messaging System/By: Lee Smith /Tablet Magazine/October 6/10
Hariri pushed into corner over Syrian demands/By Michael Bluhm/
October 07/10
 
The '73 war drags on in Lebanon/By Jamil K. Mroue/October 07/10
 
Let's party like it's 1973/Haaretz/By Gideon Levy/October 07/10
 
Hezbollah Mobilize to Welcome Iranian President/Asharq Alawsat/October 07/10 

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 07/10 
Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah to appear together at rally/Now Lebanon
'Nobody Can Interfere' in STL Work, UN Chief/Naharnet
US: International Tribunal Will Not Be Political Bargaining Chip/Naharnet
Ban, Livni Discuss Implementation of 1701, 1559: Concerns over Hizbullah Rearmament/Naharnet
Abul Gheit Denies Egypt Arming Lebanese Groups/Naharnet
Assad Warns: Lebanon Situation Not Secure/Naharnet

Anti-Ahmadinejad Banners Appear in Tripoli: You Are Not Welcome/Naharnet
Muallem Says STL 'a Lebanese Affair', Describes Arrest Warrants as 'Purely Procedural/Naharnet
Declining Palestinian Christian populations fears its churches are turning into museums/Associated Press/Haaretz
Assad: Chances of Israel-Syria peace deal up in the air/By Reuters/Haaretz
UN chief tells Lebanese not to disrupt tribunal/AFP
Ahmadinejad may travel by helicopter to south with Sleiman - report/Daily Star
Geagea describes Aoun as a liar who has reached 'very low levels/Daily Star
Lebanon and the STL/Huffington Post
Lebanese Fed up with Hezbollah, report/Ya Libnan
Anti-Semitic preacher to address London conference/J.Post
Israel To Iran: Time's Up/The Jewish Week
Lebanese Forces: We Will Take Legal Action against those Spreading Lies that We are Arming Ourselves/Naharnet
Hizbullah: Refusal to Hand Sayyed Documents on Investigation is Interference in Legal Course
/Naharnet
Saqr: What We Possess in False Witnesses Case Eliminates 90 Percent of Rumors
/Naharnet
Houri: A Governmental Change at this Stage Will Take Us to the Unknown and Cause More Concerns
/Naharnet
Southern Villagers Eager to See Ahmadinejad at Israel's Doorstep
/Naharnet
Najjar: False Witnesses Report Needs Updating and Each Minister Will have a Copy on Tuesday
/Naharnet
Nicola: Geagea was Released from Prison Thanks to Aoun
/Naharnet
AMAL Ministers Insist on Debating 'False Witnesses', Berri: We'll Boycott Any Session Not Devoted to Studying the Issue
/Naharnet
March 14: Lebanese Fed up with Hizbullah Threats, Militia-Style Practices
/Naharnet
European Sources: Hof to Reassure Syria, Lebanon Their Role in Peace Process 'Definitely Coming'
/Naharnet
Geagea to Aoun: I Didn't Predict a Disgraceful End for You Such as the one We are Witnessing Today
/Naharnet
Qahwaji Warns: Lebanese Army Will Confront Attempts to Stir Discord/Naharnet


US: International Tribunal Will Not Be Political Bargaining Chip
Naharnet/U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan Rice, warned that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon "will not be a political bargaining chip." "It is very important to remember that the Lebanese government and people were the ones who requested the International Tribunal, and the United Nations provided support for their wish," Rice said. "The Court cannot be a political bargaining chip or a political soccer game," she said, adding that the STL, too, "cannot be an opportunity for the intervention of foreigners. " Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 07:19

Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah to appear together at rally

October 7, 2010 /Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are set to appear together next week at a rally at the Al-Raya stadium organized by Hezbollah for the Iranian leader's visit to Lebanon, a Hezbollah official said on Thursday. "We expect Nasrallah to make an appearance," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. It was unclear, however, whether Nasrallah would appear in person or via video link as is usually the case for security reasons.
Ahmadinejad's official visit to Lebanon from October 13-14 is eagerly anticipated by Hezbollah, which is planning to give him a warm welcome as well as a tour of the southern border region with Israel.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Lebanon set to allow Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Israeli border

Wednesday 6 October 2010
By: Ian Black/ Middle East editor guardian.co.uk,
Lebanon looks set to allow the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to make a highly controversial visit to its border with Israel next week.
The US has been leading diplomatic efforts to persuade the Beirut government that Ahmadinejad's presence in strongholds of the Shia movement Hezbollah in south Lebanon will pose a security risk that could provoke serious violence. But the signs are that the trip will go ahead, diplomats said today. According to some reports Ahmadinejad will symbolically throw stones across the border fence into Israel, which he regularly attacks as an illegitimate entity, as well as questioning the truth of the Nazi Holocaust. Israel is also concerned by Iran's nuclear energy programme, which it claims is intended to produce nuclear weapons which would challenge its own undeclared atomic arsenal. The reported two-day itinerary for Ahmadinejad's first state visit to Lebanon includes Qana, where he is to lay a wreath on the graves of Lebanese killed by Israeli forces. Another likely stop is Bint Jbeil, the scene of heavy fighting between Hezbollah and Israel in the 2006 war. Posters welcoming Ahmadinejad in Arabic and Persian have already appeared in the area amid reports that the Iranian leader, with a business delegation in tow, will bring investment, financing for oil exploration and a controversial offer to sell weapons to the Lebanese army.
Iranian embassy officials in Beirut have refused to confirm details of the southern leg of the trip, but Hezbollah is said to be massing supporters to welcome Ahmadinejad as a hero of the resistance. Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, has warned that the US and Israel have no right to oppose the visit, which its TV channel al-Manar hailed yesterday as "a non-conventional bomb in the face of enemies wherever they are". Representations have been made to the Beirut government by the US, France and the UN. Britain believes a direct appeal to cancel the visit to the border would be counterproductive as it could be seen as infringing Lebanese sovereignty. But it and other western governments have urged the exercise of caution in a highly volatile area. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, raised the issue with the Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman, at the UN in New York last week. US officials also stress that Iran is undermining Lebanon's sovereignty by backing Hezbollah. The Shia organisation has refused to yield its largely-Iranian supplied weaponry to the Lebanese armed forces and is listed by the US as a terrorist organisation. Israel is urging that the visit should be cancelled as it will undermine regional stability as well as strengthen the axis between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.
The well-informed Beirut daily an-Nahar reported that Ahmadinejad's visit would go ahead despite objections. But observers in Beirut said one possibility was that he would only visit Iranian-financed reconstruction projects and not go right up to the Israeli border for the stone throwing — on obvious security grounds. Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, insisted on Tuesday that it was natural for the president to visit such projects. Ahmadinejad is due to meet Suleiman; the prime minister, Saad al-Hariri; the speaker, Nabih Berri; and Hezbollah leaders. Supporters of Hariri's March 14 group have attacked the visit as a bid to underline Iran's ability to disrupt regional peace efforts. Hariri's bloc is also concerned about Hezbollah manoeuvring around the tribunal investigating the 2005 murder of his father Rafiq. Israeli officials say they fear the visit will go ahead and are ramping up border security following an armed clash in August that left five dead. Aluf Benn, a respected liberal columnist with the Haaretz newspaper, has suggested that Ahmadinejad be abducted and tried in Israel for incitement to genocide and Holocaust denial.

Ban, Livni Discuss Implementation of 1701, 1559: Concerns over Hizbullah Rearmament

Naharnet/U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon reviewed the Lebanon situation with Israeli opposition leader and former FM Tzipi Livni, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
He said Ban and Livni also discussed implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1701, "While concern was expressed at reports of the rearmament of Hizbullah, with whom Israel fought a month-long war in 2006, the Secretary-General urged respect for the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon," Nesirky said. "As he has in the past, Mr. Ban called on Israel to cease its over-flights of Lebanese territory and expressed the hope that progress could soon be realized on Ghajar, the northern part of which is still occupied by Israel," according to his spokesperson. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 07:33

Lebanese Forces: We Will Take Legal Action against those Spreading Lies that We are Arming Ourselves

Naharnet/The Lebanese Forces press office condemned on Thursday the March 8's campaign against it, "which is based on the same lie that the LF is arming itself and training military members.""Some hired pens are now drawing up security and military scenarios that allege that the LF is ready to drag the country towards sectarian strife through which it will be able to seize Christian-dominated areas," it said in a statement. "The Lebanese Forces adamantly denies these lies and warns that it will take legal action against those promoting them," it added. "The LF advises those manipulating people's nerves and hopes to be quiet if they have nothing to say in politics," it concluded. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 16:00

Hizbullah: Refusal to Hand Sayyed Documents on Investigation is Interference in Legal Course

Naharnet/Hizbullah's foreign relations chief Ammar Moussawi criticized on Thursday the United Nations' direct meddling in the functioning of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Hizbullah said in a statement after Moussawi's meeting with Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General Geir Pedersen that the U.N.'s refusal to grant Major General Jamil Sayyed documents on the international investigation is interference in the STL. It added that the U.N. has no right to exercise hegemony over the international tribunal or intervene in it.
Furthermore, it noted that this latest development confirms "without a doubt" that the investigation and tribunal are being politicized to serve the interests of major international powers. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 15:06

Assad Warns: Lebanon Situation Not Secure

Naharnet/The situation in Lebanon is shaky in light of heightened political rhetoric swirling around the International Tribunal, Syrian President Bashar Assad warned. "The situation in Lebanon is not secure, particularly in light of the recent escalation and attempts by foreign countries to interfere (in Lebanon)," Assad told Turkey's TRT television. "But at the end, we count on the awareness of the Lebanese," Assad stressed. On arrest warrants issued by Syria against 33 Lebanese, Arab and other officials over false testimony given in the probe into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Assad said: "This is an independent, judicial issue that has no political meaning or political interpretation. It is a purely judicial issue. "Some in Lebanon very much like to give a meaning to anything," Assad believed, adding that the issue of arrest warrants was being exploited to harm Lebanon-Syria relations. "The judicial decision would not change the Syrian position and will not lead to the achievement of certain Syrian interests in Lebanon," he assured. "So why would it be a political decision? the issue is purely judicial that goes back to a lawsuit filed by Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed," Assad added. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 06:51

Qahwaji Warns: Lebanese Army Will Confront Attempts to Stir Discord

Naharnet/Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji on Thursday warned that the military will confront attempts to stir discord.
"There are no negative signs at present of repercussions of regional conflicts on the Lebanese arena," Qahwaji said during a meeting with command chiefs and unit commanders in Yarze. "The more Lebanon is immune, the less vulnerable the country is from external repercussions," he added. He gave instructions regarding the necessary tasks of the units in the next phase -- at the forefront to defend Lebanon against Israeli threats, combat terrorism and preserve civil peace. On the internal situation, Qahwaji said that differences between the various Lebanese sides are basically a democratic phenomenon, particularly if it does not harm fundamental national principles. "But linking this variation with statements on division and strife pose a threat to the country and we will not allow that at all," he warned. Qahwaji said there is no "fear on the path of security and stability in Lebanon regardless of how much these developments reach." "The army will strongly confront any attempts to stir discord or put our own citizens at risk under any circumstances," he warned. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 14:28

Houri: A Governmental Change at this Stage Will Take Us to the Unknown and Cause More Concerns

Naharnet/Mustaqbal bloc MP Ammar Houri stated on Thursday that the AMAL ministers' withdrawal from Cabinet on Wednesday would not have an effect on the situation in government. He told Voice of Lebanon radio that any talk of a governmental change during this current phase would lead the country to the unknown and cause more concern. Furthermore, he stressed that the warnings and threats being issued will not deter Prime Minister Saad Hariri from his convictions nor will it deter an entire political team from its national inclinations.
Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 13:42

Najjar: False Witnesses Report Needs Updating and Each Minister Will have a Copy on Tuesday

Naharnet/Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar revealed on Thursday that his report on the false witnesses case in the investigation in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has been ready for some time, but it needs updating. He told Future News that the updates are a result of new developments that have taken place in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon during the past month, adding that President Michel Suleiman had requested the update. Najjar stated that ministers will probably each have a copy of the report during Tuesday's Cabinet session. Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 13:32

Anti-Ahmadinejad Banners Appear in Tripoli: You Are Not Welcome

Naharnet/A Sunni Islamist group in the northern city of Tripoli sent a blunt "not welcome" message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday ahead of his visit to the country.
Several banners and pictures of the Shiite Iranian leader, who is due in Lebanon October 13-14, went up in the mainly Sunni port city expressing discontent at the visit.
"You are not welcome in Lebanon", read in Arabic one banner hung over a pedestrian bridge in the Abu Samra neighborhood and signed by the Islamic Labor Front-Emergency Committee. "No to Wilayat al-Faqih" said another banner in a nearby neighborhood, referring to Iran's brand of Islamic rule. A picture of the hardline leader in another part of the city bore an X over his face and a message that read "Wilayat al-Faqih is not welcome here". The doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih, as it is called in Iran, grants absolute authority over all matters -- religious, social and political -- to a marjaa, or senior spiritual leader. Next week's visit will be Ahmadinejad's first official trip to Lebanon at the invitation of his counterpart Michel Suleiman.
The visit has sparked controversy, with members of the pro-Western parliamentary majority calling Ahmadinejad's plan to tour the border region with Israel a "provocation" and Washington also expressing concern. Iran is a key ally of Lebanon's Shiite group Hizbullah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006.(AFP) Beirut, 07 Oct 10, 16:22

Declining Palestinian Christian populations fears its churches are turning into museums

By The Associated Press
Latest update 12:49 07.10.10
Today, Christians make up just 1 percent of the mainly Muslim population of the Palestinian territories; in 1920, they were a tenth of the population of Palestine.
In the land where Jesus lived, Christians say their dwindling numbers are turning churches from places of worship into museums.
And when Christian pilgrims come from all over the world to visit the places of Christ's birth, death and resurrection, they find them divided by a concrete wall.
Members of the Abu al-Zulaf family, Palestinian Christians, have left the hills and olive groves of their village near Bethlehem for Sweden and the United States, seeking a better life than that on offer in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Ayman Abu al-Zulaf, 41, moved to France in 1998. But he returned to Beit Sahour, the village where he was born, a year later. "I needed to be here, not in France," he said. "Without Christians, the Holy Land, the land of Jesus, has no value." That's his message to Christian pilgrims he meets through his work as a tour guide. "Christians have a very major mission here in Palestine. We are the bridge to the West," he said. Today, Christians make up just 1 percent of the mainly Muslim population of the Palestinian territories, said Hanna Eissa, who is in charge of Christian affairs in the Palestinian Authority's religious affairs ministry. In 1920, they were a tenth of the population of Palestine -- land where today Israel exists alongside the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians remain stateless. Decades of conflict, shifting borders and occupation are the root causes of the poor economic situation that is forcing Christians to seek better lives abroad, Eissa said. Rising Muslim fundamentalism, a trend across the Middle East, concerns some. But most cite Israeli occupation as the prime cause of emigration and the decline of their community. "If there was no political problem, the economic situation would be good, so the problems are linked," Eissa said.
In Bethlehem alone, the Christian population has slumped to 7,500 from 20,000 in 1995. Then, the Middle East peace process had created hope that a Palestinian state would emerge alongside Israel. Some Christians who had left came back. Sandra al-Shoumali, Abu al-Zulaf's sister, and her husband were among those who invested at the time. They thought peace was imminent and saw a prosperous future in a new state. But talks collapsed in 2000 and several years of violence ensued. "There was no work, no way to live," she said. "Our family has been scattered," she said. They moved to the United States. She is visiting Beit Sahour for the first time in two years. Abu al-Zulaf knows personally of 50 people who have left Beit Sahour in the last decade. "When I talk to them, they say: 'We want to come back, but there is no work there'." He holds Israel responsible for the departure of Christians. "The occupation is menacing everyone's existence," he said. His tours take in Palestinian refugee camps as well as conventional pilgrimage places, such as the Church of the Nativity, revered as the site of Jesus's birth. "Our resistance is through staying here and sensitizing people," he said. The economy has improved since the Second Intifada, or uprising, abated. Tourists have returned, but their path to Bethlehem from Jerusalem has been complicated by the West Bank barrier Israel has constructed on the grounds of security. Abu al-Zulaf has not been to Jerusalem since he was 19 years old. He was jailed by Israel two decades ago because of activism in a previous uprising. "Jerusalem is the core of Christianity and as a Christian you are deprived of going there," he said.
"I am lucky to have seen Jerusalem," he said. "There are people here who have never been." "I am not optimistic because I don't think things are going to change. I don't trust the leadership on either side."

Assad: Chances of Israel-Syria peace deal up in the air

07.10.10/By Reuters/Haaretz
Syrian president says that western efforts to renew Israel-Syria peace talks are focusing on finding common ground; says chances of success are unknown.
Western efforts to renew peace talks between Syria and Israel are focusing on finding common ground, but nothing has crystallized yet and the chances of success are unknown, Syrian President Bashar Assad said. In his first public assessment of U.S. and French moves to relaunch the talks, Assad told Turkey's TRT television that envoys from the two countries are trying to accommodate Syria's demands for the return of the Golan Heights and Israel's security objectives. An official Syrian transcript of the interview was published on Wednesday.
"What is happening now is a search for common ground to launch the talks. For us the primary basis is the return of the whole land. For the Israelis they are talking about security
arrangements," Assad said. Assad said that if the talks were to resume they would be initially indirect, similar to the last four rounds that were mediated by Turkey and broke off in 2008 without a deal. "There is more than one movement in the region, including France and the United States ... a movement between Syria and Israel to search for ideas, but nothing has crystallized yet, and we cannot know what will happen," he said. Assad last month separately met U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who is trying to rescue Israeli-Palestinian talks, and Jean-Claude Cousseran, who was appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to pursue the so-called Syrian-Israeli track. The two envoys also visited Israel, which Assad said was scuttling peace efforts by Judaizing Jerusalem and building settlements on occupied land. Turkey still on"Talking about a mediation (between Syria and Israel) is premature and what is going on now is search for common ground," Assad said. He said Syria still wants a role for Turkey despite heightened contacts with the United States, the only power Syria considers capable of delivering a final peace deal. "The question (now) is about negotiations. Who can succeed in managing these talks and solving the many knots that will appear and remove the big obstacles?" Assad said. Israel, which wants Syria to distance itself from Iran and Lebanon's Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, insists on talking with Syria without preconditions
Damascus has stuck to its demand for a total Israeli pullout from the Golan, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in the Six Day War in 1967, but has been softening its tone.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this month that while Damascus would not compromise on the Golan, an Israeli
commitment to restore the territory was a requirement for renewing the peace negotiations and enshrined in United Nations resolutions, not a precondition for talks.
Semantics could play a crucial role in resuming talks between the two sides. Almost 10 years of U.S. supervised talks collapsed in 2000 after an Israeli offer fell just short of total withdrawal from the Golan. A U.S. official said after the Moualem-Clinton meeting in New York that Syria was "very interested" in pursuing peace with the Jewish state, as the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem threatened to stop Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly said Israel was willing to resume the talks without preconditions, although an adviser to his defense minister said last year that Syria may not be able to curb Hezbollah, a major Israeli calculation behind any talks with Syria.

Let's party like it's 1973

Haaretz/By Gideon Levy
Latest update 02:12 07.10.10
Nothing has changed in 37 years. Israel has the same arrogant hubris and the same obstinate resistance to any prospect of a peace agreement. The act of atonement in which we are engaged over the recently declassified documents from the Yom Kippur War is nothing but a hollow pagan ritual. Suddenly we learn that Golda Meir considered ordering an "insane" operation against Syria and said the world was "contemptible;" defense minister Moshe Dayan called for abandoning wounded soldiers in the field and was thoroughly depressed; and Israel Defense Forces chief of staff David Elazar tended to lie to the public.
We love to indulge in discussing the blunders of 1973, imagining that they belong to the ancient past. All the responsible parties are dead, but the topic is still alive and kicking. The winds of 1973 blow hard today, and nothing has changed. The fact is that today, when each of Golda's pronouncements and Dayan's proposals are headlines once again, nobody remembers another error from this period, a much more critical mistake, by the same gang, made when it squandered the opportunity, in the early 1970s, of reaching an agreement with Egypt. Had a real lesson been learned from the Yom Kippur War, the scandal would have been attributed to this missed chance for negotiations - the same error that is being made today.
In the early 1970s, there was a genuine prospect for peace with Egypt. President Gamal Abdel Nasser agreed to the Rogers Plan, to which all subsequent peace proposals bear a striking resemblance, and even invited World Jewish Congress head Nahum Goldmann to confer with him. Golda blocked the meeting and ridiculed the idea, and Dayan declared, "Better to have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace." The rest is history: Israel always prefers war to peace, and if there is no choice then we'll make peace after a war, never before. Peace with Egypt, the withdrawal from south Lebanon and recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization, all took place only after blood was shed, never before.
Nothing has changed in 37 years. It's the same arrogant hubris, the same obstinate resistance to any prospect of an agreement, the same failure to recognize that only peace will save us from another defense minister who sinks into an existential depression while warning of an impending holocaust. What's the point of this festival of 1973 war documents and this retroactive dance of death? Why look back, if on the day the settlement building freeze ended the settlers did a remarkably accurate imitation of the dance of arrogance that preceded the 1973 war?
There is no difference between the Plymouth Valiants driven by the lords of Israel in those days, the generals who went to Tel Aviv restaurants where their photographs decorated the walls, and today's torpor. The same drunken blindness is at play, even if the cult of the generals has since been curbed. Nasser sought peace in the early 1970s, and Bashar Assad, Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab League are knocking in vain at Israel's closed door in 2010. We mocked and turned a deaf ear then; we mock and turn a deaf ear now. We have examined photographs from parties in those power-drunk days and failed to find a hint of sobriety, or even a hangover, today. Look at us then and see us today. The fun and games continue, and the state shouts for joy, now as then.
Clip and save the bread and circuses: National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau promising power stations on the occupied Golan Heights and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz promising a railroad on the occupied West Bank, just as Dayan and Shimon Peres promised a "deep-water harbor" at Yamit. It's the same story - the jubilation over natural gas discoveries, the roars of joy over the bulldozers in the settlements, the blunt indifference to world opinion, the apathy to the ills of the occupation, the obsession with trivialities, the gossip columns that bow to the rich and powerful, the small screen that keeps us from knowing what is really happening and the smokescreen of complacency that shrouds it all. Clip and save, and when the next scandal over a failure of leadership arises, in much less than 37 years, once again we won't be able to pretend to be shocked and surprised.
Take the Home Front Command public service message in which a cute soldier tells actress Tiki Dayan not to hurry, she can continue to fry her schnitzels. Listen to the soldier, in her voice: Keep pounding those chicken cutlets, thin, just the way we like, there's nothing urgent.

Messaging System

Tablet Magazine
October 6, 2010
by Lee Smith
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going to Lebanon next week, where he intends to throw a stone at Israel across the border. While this set piece of information warfare, or propaganda, may seem more Japanese than Persian in its stark simplicity, it is best to think of it as a metaphor for Tehran’s regional strategy. For the last 30 years the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been throwing the same stone at Israel, a stone called Hezbollah.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s general secretary, is credited by many Arabs and Westerners, including his adversaries, as among the greatest of all modern Arab statesmen and warriors, a man of probity and honor. Unlike other Arab leaders, he makes his threats against the Jewish state come true, sometimes even before the very eyes of his captivated audience, as when Hezbollah struck an Israeli boat in the first week of its summer 2006 war with Israel. “Look at the warship that has attacked Beirut, while it burns and sinks before your very eyes,” Nasrallah said on live television, as though he were directing a movie. This was one of his most famous information operations, but the fact is that everything Hezbollah does is part of its information-warfare strategy.
The Hezbollah T-shirts and lighters sold to tourists are Hezbollah media, and the coloring books that indoctrinate children into Nasrallah’s cult of personality are as much a part of Hezbollah’s information war as the party’s Al-Manar TV station. Even Hezbollah’s military operations are part of its larger information-warfare strategy. Kidnapping Israeli soldiers and firing missiles on civilian population centers are real military actions, but sinking a single ship is of little strategic value against a state with an army, lots of other boats, and even nuclear submarines. As an asymmetrical warrior, Nasrallah understands that even his most capable guerrilla units are no match for Israel, so he wages war against what he correctly perceives as the Jewish state’s center of gravity—public opinion. Hezbollah’s information operations are among the most sophisticated in the history of modern warfare because the Party of God is itself an information operation, designed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
What makes the relationship between Iran and Hezbollah seem complex is the fact that the Party of God is an information operation directed at several audiences at once. For instance, when Nasrallah says that Israel is like a spider’s web, flimsy and on the verge of being swept away by the winds of history, he is speaking not only to the Israelis. He is also addressing a Lebanese and a regional Sunni Arab audience and even an Iranian audience. And yet even with all the smoke and mirrors, the multiple audiences, and Nasrallah’s reputation, there is nothing ambiguous about the fact that Hezbollah is a projection of Iranian military power on the Eastern Mediterranean. There is nothing Lebanese about Hezbollah except the corporal host; its mind belongs to the Revolutionary Guard.
“During the 2006 war, we captured a number of Hezbollah documents, dealing with everything from religious ideology to military doctrine, the lion’s share of the important texts was clearly written by and for the IRGC and then translated into Arabic,” Shmuel Bar, a former Israeli intelligence officer, told me. “In human influence operations, Hezbollah’s modus operandi is the same as Iran’s.”
Bar, the founder of IntuView, an Israeli tech firm that does automated meaning-extraction from terrorist-related documents, likens it to how the Soviets produced material for their Arab clients, from Syria to Palestinian organizations. “We couldn’t understand the Arabic used to explain how to utilize a certain weapon, so we translated the Arabic into Russian, then went to our Russian linguists, who explained what it meant. The Iranians have done the same with Hezbollah. These documents were not authored by Hezbollah but translated from Farsi and prepared by the Iranians.”
The difference is that the Palestinians were notoriously difficult to control, with Yasser Arafat often playing the Soviets against his various Arab backers. “But unlike the Palestinian organizations of the 1970s and 1980s, which jockeyed back and forth between Syrian, Libyan, and Iraqi patrons,” Bar said, “Hassan Nasrallah cannot wake up one day and decide that he has chosen to side with someone else. Hezbollah is a surrogate; it has no existence without Iran.”
This interpretation of course runs counter to the standard account, which sees Hezbollah as a strictly Lebanese entity—a militia that may receive support from Iran, as well as Syria, but has steadily integrated itself into the fabric of Lebanese politics and society. Known as the Lebanonization thesis, this idea is itself a Hezbollah information operation, one whose target audience consists of the Western intelligentsia and, more dangerously, policymakers like the White House’s counterterrorism czar, John Brennan, who would like to find a way to engage Hezbollah but need a cover story that whitewashes Tehran’s real role. In this account, Hezbollah owes its existence less to Iran than to the Israeli occupation that brought it to life.
“The popular view of Hezbollah’s origins sees it as a reaction to Israel’s 1982 invasion, which presumably radicalized the Shi’a,” said Tony Badran, a Hezbollah specialist at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (and a Tablet Magazine contributor). It’s not just left-wing academics hostile to Israel and war correspondents stage-managed by Hezbollah’s media handlers who believe that Israel’s 18-year occupation, from 1982 to 2000, gave rise to the party. Even Israel’s current defense minister, Ehud Barak, argues that, “It was our presence [in southern Lebanon] that created Hizbullah”—a rationalization for his decision as prime minister to withdraw from Lebanon that dovetails perfectly with this Hezbollah info op.
In reality, Hezbollah’s conception pre-dates the Israeli invasion, Badran said. “Hezbollah is the result of an inter-factional struggle between two strands of the Iranian regime, who fought bitterly between 1979 and 1981. The faction that prevailed, the Islamic Republic Party, dubbed itself the Party of God and created its namesake in Lebanon, which was a critical theater for projecting power, including against its domestic enemies in Iran.”
There were also Iran’s Arab enemies, especially Saudi Arabia, and hence one of the audiences for Hezbollah is the Arab political arena, both the ruling regimes and the masses, which the Iranians hoped to set against each other. By continuing the fight to liberate Jerusalem, Tehran had picked up the banner of Arab nationalism that the Sunni Arab regimes had tossed by the wayside. Here was another reason for the Arab masses to despise their cruel and now obviously cowardly rulers—and admire a Shia and Persian power they might otherwise fear and detest: As the Arabs got weaker, Iran got stronger, even in the eyes of the Arabs
In other words, what seems like Hezbollah’s war with Israel is in reality the Iranian Republican Guard’s 30-year war against almost everyone else. The Zionist entity in this contrived scenario is a little like the Washington Generals to Hezbollah’s Harlem Globetrotters—except that here it’s the eternal rival who sets the tempo and the Globetrotters who can’t get a break. Nasrallah boasts that he understands his Israeli enemy well, that he has made a study of their society and mores. But the fact that he says he reads biographies of all of Israel’s military and political leaders is just an index of how much time he has on his hands, hiding underground since the end of the 2006 war in fear of an Israeli assassination attempt. Hezbollah is never going to tip the balance of power against Israel, but that was never Iran’s main project. Understanding the political terrain of their real target audiences, the Republican Guard sought to create an effect that was best elicited by making war against the Jewish state.
Lebanon was fertile ground for such an info op, where any arms taken up against Israel are considered sacred. The Palestinians set the precedent in the 1970s by using Lebanon to wage war against the Zionists, so Iran could do the same, through Hezbollah. And yet now the Lebanese are confounded that Hezbollah calls anyone who doesn’t stand entirely behind the resistance and all of its actions an Israeli agent. But this turn of events is the logical outcome of the information war that Iran has been waging against Lebanon, with Lebanese connivance, for three decades.
Consider that it took most Lebanese some five years to recognize that the organization that pioneered the car-bombing during the 1980s might have had a hand in assassinating former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri with a massive car bomb. Few Lebanese believed that the resistance would ever turn their arms against fellow Lebanese before Hezbollah killed their Sunni and Druze neighbors in the streets of Beirut in May 2008. Those arms were pure, the Lebanese thought, because they had been directed at Israel—even as few asked what it means to “resist” an enemy whose enmity you have brought upon yourself with acts of terror. Iran can destroy Lebanon anytime it likes, either by getting Israel to retaliate massively, or directly through Hezbollah.
If Hezbollah engineers the coup against the Lebanese government that many dread—there is speculation that this is why Ahmadinejad is coming to Lebanon—and finally takes total control of the country, the most significant audience for this info op is domestic—not Lebanese but Iranian. The Iranian foreign legion that runs Lebanon has no problems slaughtering their Lebanese countrymen in the streets of Beirut, and the Iranian people should understand that the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s supreme leader, and its president will do at least as much in the streets of Tehran to hold on to power.
**Lee Smith is a visiting fellow at Hudson Institute and is the author of The Strong Horse: Power, Politics and the Clash of Arab Civilizations (Doubleday, 2010).

Hariri pushed into corner over Syrian demands
Prime Minister cannot risk his domestic legitimacy by giving Damascus what it wants

By Michael Bluhm /Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Analysis
BEIRUT: The latest unexpected twist in the rollercoaster relationship between Syria and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has left the premier in a vise, as Damascus continues squeezing Hariri for further concessions to neuter the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and add to Syria’s soaring regional standing, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
Five years ago, Hariri had accused Damascus of involvement in the February 2005 assassination of his father, five-time former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; after Saad became prime minister following June 2009 general elections, he shocked many by making peace with Syria, making his first visit to Damascus last December. Hariri has been to Damascus five times as head of the government, and last month stunned many observers again by saying he had made a mistake in blaming Syria for his father’s killing.
Last weekend, however, Syrian arrest warrants came to light for 33 Lebanese politicians and journalists – many among Hariri’s close allies – in connection with allegedly false testimony given in the investigation of Rafik Hariri’s assassination.
Syria has also been pushing its demands on Saad Hariri that he withdraw Lebanon’s support for the international tribunal and the country’s 49 percent share of the court’s budget, leaving the prime minister in an unenviable position, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political science at various universities. If he chooses to back the tribunal, Hariri will anger the Syrians and squander the undoubtedly painful concessions he has already given to Damascus – but if he renounces the tribunal, he will destroy his own legitimacy as a politician among the Lebanese, Hanna added.
“It’s a lose-lose situation,” Hanna said.
Hariri’s handling of his fraught relationship with Syria has only underlined that the head of the Cabinet remains a political novice, said Raghid al-Solh, political analyst and adviser to the Issam Fares Center, a non-partisan think tank. Hariri did not seek a career in politics, only assuming his father’s political mantle after his father’s killing. Hariri spent most of his life outside Lebanon and outside the political sphere, and now he needs to “expedite the move from an amateur politician to a professional politician,” added Solh.
“He is put in a position where he needs to be a 24-hour politician, like his father,” said Solh, adding that Hariri’s father well understood Syria’s motives and interests. “He still has many things to learn in the facts of life of Lebanese politics.”
Once he became prime minister, though, Hariri was forced by political reality to build a relationship with Damascus; with Syria’s undeniably sizable influence in Lebanon, no premier here could hope for a long or successful term in office without engaging Damascus, Solh said.
In addition, Hariri’s Saudi patrons also strongly encouraged the freshly ensconced premier to start anew with Syria, Solh said. The Hariri family made its initial fortune in Saudi Arabia, and Hariri’s father kept the Saudis closely involved – particularly with their Sunni coreligionists – in the post-Civil War rebuilding of Lebanon. For their part, the Saudis had long maintained a close political relationship with Syria, interrupted temporarily by the assassination of Hariri’s father, when Syria fell into international isolation and sealed a strategic partnership with Iran, Solh added. In the past two years, Riyadh has begun to reconstruct its ties with Damascus.
“You can even talk about a sort of [historic] Saudi-Syrian axis,” Solh said. “Saudi Arabia played a part in convincing Hariri that it’s important not to disturb that. I don’t think the Saudis could tolerate [an anti-Syrian] attitude while they were trying to develop relations with the Syrians.”
In his present predicament, however, Hariri might well be paying the price for working so closely with Saudi Arabia, said Hilal Khashan, who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut. Saudi interests in cooperating with Syria and Hariri’s interests in the tribunal and his own political standing have left the prime minister with no attractive next move – most likely, Hariri will simply have to wait out his dilemma until external forces provide him with an escape, Khashan added.
“The Syrians know that he cannot go any farther; he will never renounce the tribunal,” Khashan said.
“This is what happens when the prime minister becomes the employee of another country. He’s not in a position to back off from his new openness toward Syria. He will have to depend on the good offices of Saudi Arabia. There’s nothing he can do.”
The Syrians’ perspective on their relationship with Hariri, on the other hand, is that since they have gained a measure of control over Hariri, they will relentlessly press the premier for greater and greater demands, Khashan said. “Once one capitulates, then there is no end to concession,” he said.
At the same time, Syria remains genuinely worried by the international tribunal and is using all of its levers to defang the court, Khashan added. “The Syrians want [Hariri] to renounce the tribunal,” Khashan said. “They have intrinsic anxiety. They see the tribunal as a rope around their necks. They will not feel at ease until the tribunal disappears.”
Damascus also took the dramatic step of issuing the arrest warrants because it considers the issue of the false witnesses central to the investigation, Solh said. Syria wants to know who gave misleading testimony and why – information which, Damascus believes, could cause the court’s indictment to crumble, he added. Syrian authorities thought they had agreed with Hariri that he would pursue the issue, but his failure to take any real steps drove Damascus to prod Hariri with the arrest warrants, Solh said.
For Syria, “this issue is not a minor issue, a side issue – it is a major issue,” Solh said. “It’s not something that could be overlooked, at least from the Syrian side. There is a basic disagreement on that [with Hariri].”
Syria’s ties with Hizbullah are also shaping the Syria-Hariri dynamic, Hanna said. Hariri cannot forge ties with Syria and simultaneously clash with Hizbullah, Hanna added. Hizbullah plays a crucial role in helping Syria achieve its wider regional aims, so Damascus is also leaning on Hariri in order to protect Hizbullah, which many expect to be a target of the tribunal’s looming indictment, Hanna said.
“Hizbullah is the linchpin of the Iranian-Syrian strategy in the region,” he said. “It’s highly important for the Syrians, and they will not allow anyone to harm the resistance.”
Syria has also gone on the offensive against Hariri out of simple revenge, Khashan said.
The mass popular demonstrations that forced the exit of Syrian troops in April 2005 were fanned by fiery speeches made by many of Hariri’s cohorts in the March 14 camp who had long had difficult relations with Damascus; now that Syria has regained much of its sway here, it wants to punish those who embarrassed it years ago, Khashan added.
“The Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon five years ago was not dignified,” he said. “They want to avenge. They want to dismantle the Hariri team.”
Of course, Syria also deals with Hariri with a view toward the regional dynamic, Hanna said. Syria has regained political momentum and is wielding its influence throughout the Middle East; Damascus sees its play for power in Lebanon as part of its reward for outlasting the era and policies of former US President George W. Bush, who led the drive to ostracize Syria, Hanna said. For example, Syria has backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in his bid to retain his post, so his apparent victory in securing sufficient backing last week to stay in office would represent another victory for Syria, Hanna added.
“It’s the time for Syria to reap the benefits … of standing up to the Americans for five, six years,” he said. “The Syrians can sell and buy in every direction. Everybody needs the Syrians today.”
In that light, the Saudis were essentially ceding control over Lebanon – and Hariri’s government – to Syria when Saudi King Abdallah and Syrian President Bashar Assad visited Lebanon together on July 30 to declare their commitment to maintaining calm here, Hanna said. Riyadh sees itself surrounded by rising Iranian influence and conflict in Iraq, Yemen and Qatar, and the kingdom was willing to give in to Damascus on Lebanon in order to get Syrian help in Iraq, Hanna said.
“It was a formal declaration of Saudi acceptance of the Syrian role over Lebanon again,” he added. “What is important for the Saudis is Iraq, not Lebanon. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is surrounded by hotspots. Maybe making some concessions on the Lebanese level will help the Saudis to balance the Iranians.”
In the end, regional vicissitudes will probably not determine the evolution of the Syrian-Hariri dynamic; Syria can likely count on always having a wealth of partners here to work with it in keeping the upper hand over Hariri, because Lebanese politicians never cease to run to Damascus for partnership when political fortunes turn against them at home, Solh said.
“The lack of consensus of Lebanese politicians on basic issues will always help the Syrians, especially, to have influence in Lebanon,” he said.

Geagea describes Aoun as a liar who has reached 'very low levels'

By The Daily Star
Thursday, October 07, 2010
BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces (LF) chief Samir Geagea lashed out at his Christian rival Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun Tuesday, describing him as a liar.
Geagea’s words come a day after Aoun, addressing reporters Tuesday, said “Christian areas would be spared” if violence erupted in the country as a result of tensions over a potential indictment by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the UN body tasked with probing the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.
“Christian areas would be spared the violence of a potential civil strife in the country if Samir Geagea avoided using schemes or resorting to weapons,” Aoun said.
In a letter sent to Aoun, Geagea said Aoun had reached “very low levels” and accused him of convincing his allies, in reference to Hizbullah, of attacking the LF.
“I did not expect you to make up so many lies … Tell me General [Aoun], is it the LF or your allies that possess weapons?” “Yesterday you justified Syria’s arrest warrants by saying the Lebanese judiciary was too slow in carrying out its duties, does this mean every Lebanese citizen who believes the judiciary is being lax should resort to a foreign judiciary to speed up his demands?” Over the weekend, it was revealed that the Syrian judiciary issued 33 arrest warrants against individuals who allegedly provided false testimony in the Hariri murder. “My dear friend, General [Aoun], I had predicted an unsuccessful political end for you, but nothing like the disgraceful end we are witnessing today,” Geagea’s letter concluded. – The Daily Star

Ahmadinejad may travel by helicopter to south with Sleiman - report

By Carol Rizk /Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 07, 2010
BEIRUT: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be transported by helicopter to South Lebanon along with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Sleiman, a well-informed source told the Central News Agency on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Lebanon on October 13, for a two-day official visit on the invitation of Sleiman. The visit sparked political controversy inside and outside Lebanon but was seen as supportive of “Lebanon’s stability,” by Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Ghazanfar Roknabadi, in comments on Wednesday.
The well-informed source from south Lebanon told the CNA that Iranian president would be transported along with Sleiman by helicopter and would kick off the tour by visiting the village of Qana. He will then move on to Maroun al-Ras, Bint Jbeil and Kfarkala, where he is expected to inaugurate an Iranian funded garden near the Fatima Gate. The president will also have lunch with Sleiman and dinner with Speaker Nabih Berri. He might also visit the Beaufort castle, the Resistance museum in Mlita and a number of Resistance martyrs memorials.
The source added that the tour would be accompanied by intensified security measures from the parts of the Lebanese Army, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Hizbullah, and Ahmadinejad’s own security team. “Iranian security and media teams arrived to South Lebanon and they coordinated the details of the visit with the Army and Hizbullah,” the source said, stressing that only a few places would be visited due to security reasons. The visit will be Ahmadinejad’s first to Lebanon since taking office in 2005 but it has sparked great controversy since being announced and has raised fears of a potential escalation along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Over the past week, Israel has sent warning messages to Lebanese leaders saying the visit should be canceled as it would undermine regional stability and the Middle East peace talks.
Other foreign powers have commented on the matter. US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley voiced his concern on Tuesday because Iran, through its association with Hizbullah, was undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty. British Ambassador to Lebanon Francis Guy reminded Foreign Minister Ali Shami, during a meeting, about the UN’s sanctions against Iran.
The travel plans also received criticism from Lebanese factions, the March 14 alliance deeming it as a symbol of Iranian influence over Lebanon. March 8 factions have refused such criticism, calling for more openness and tolerance. “The message behind Ahmadinejad’s visit is to confirm the importance of national unity on the Lebanese scene and the importance of unity between various political factions, the people, the government and the Resistance,” the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon told As-Safir.
“Solidarity is the key to confronting the occupying Zionist entity that is always seeking trouble on the Lebanese scene,” he added. Roknabadi also denied the existence of any divide between the Lebanese and said, “We didn’t feel such divide but, rather, we felt that officials in this country welcome the visit.” “Iran has always declared that it supports Lebanese consensus and it is against any divide on the Lebanese scene. But this is what Israel is about: it’s always looking for trouble in the region in general and in Lebanon in particular,” he added. The ambassador then revealed a few details of Ahmadinejad’s visit and said the Iranian president would be accompanied by a political and economic delegation, among them 50 of Iran’s leading businessmen in the private sector. Members of the delegation had previously visited Lebanon in preparation for this visit.
As for political companions Roknabadi said no names have been decided, except for Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
About 15 agreements are expected to be signed during the Iranian president’s visit and they will tackle dual taxation, encouraging reciprocal investment in shipment, and banking and political affairs. The visit will include as well the opening of a 45-million euro trust fund by the Iranian Export Development Bank and the launching of reconstruction and infrastructure projects.
Roknabadi revealed he sent an invitation to Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir to visit Tehran, and said the latter promised to accept the invitation and coordinate its details with the Iranian Embassy. Lebanese Iranian diplomatic relations started in 1912 with the opening of the first Iranian consulate in Lebanon. The ties strengthened after the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and economic and trade relations flourished in the 1990s.

UN chief tells Lebanese not to disrupt tribunal

By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, October 07, 2010
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday strongly reaffirmed UN backing for a special international tribunal investigating the assassination of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. “I urge all Lebanese not to interfere in its work – I reaffirm our belief in the importance of the tribunal. It has a mandate, its own role. We will strive so that it can go on with its work,” the UN chief said. His comments came after Syrian judicial authorities issued arrest warrants for 33 Lebanese, Arab and foreign nationals in response to a suit by a former Lebanese general who alleged that they had given “false testimony” to tribunal investigators. Among those targeted by the arrest warrants were individuals close to Saad Hariri, the current prime minister of Lebanon and Rafik Hariri’s son. Tensions also have risen over the possibility that the international court could indict members of Hizbullah, which some fear could rekindle civil strife between Shiites and Sunnis. But in affirming UN support for the tribunal, Ban said, “Nobody can interfere or prejudge.”
“Peace and stability should be one thing but the work of the tribunal must go on,” he said. The probe initially implicated high level Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the assassination, which Syria has denied. Jamil al-Sayyed, who once headed the Lebanese security services, has charged that false testimony was used to fabricate evidence against him during the investigation into Hariri’s assassination on March 14, 2005 in Beirut. He was jailed in 2005 in connection with the murder and then released for lack of evidence with three other former generals in 2009. – AFP

The '73 war drags on in Lebanon

By Jamil K. Mroue
Publisher and editor in chief
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Thirty-seven years after Egyptian and troops Syrian last waged a war against Israel, Lebanon is the sole country in this region where the fear of mayhem and destruction at the hands of Tel Aviv generals remains a daily concern for its people. The 1973 Arab-Israeli war was as devastating as any other war pitting Arabs against Israelis. But, in hindsight, despite its human cost, the conflict might have served a necessary purpose – that of having been a defining moment that raised the awareness of all participants that their survival hinged on their ability to scale down their confrontation. And since then, across the Arab world, frontiers that were once the regular scene of bloodshed and destruction – armistice lines between Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and their arch foe Israel – have seemed immune to war. But the 1973 conflict has had a much less constructive impact on the interests of this country. While countries that clashed in 1973 largely shunned direct confrontations in the decades that followed, their antagonism never really waned. And it is Lebanon – the new battleground where their angst has been re-directed – that has since then nearly exclusively bore the brunt of Israel’s madness.
Still today, even after futilely funding proxies that only succeeded in tearing each other to pieces during this country’s 15 year-long Civil War, countries of this region continue to wrestle each other to bend our will. In the face of such suffering in our homes, the question looms high over the towering sense of insecurity that has since plagued our daily existences: Where have we gone wrong to deserve being chosen as this region’s sacrificial lamb? Have we not, despite a history made of challenges and treasons, despite being pushed to the margins of our own existences, proven that we are a worthier partner in times of peace? Sure, we have stood up to be counted when the enemy came knocking on our door, ousting the Israelis with the guns of our resistance, and bloodying their noses during the 2006 war. But, undoubtedly, we have contributed much more to the prosperity of our politicians and of their Arab masters when reinventing our economy, shining in the field of science, and excelling in technology. Will our decision-makers finally recognize that despite our ability to prosper even in the toughest conditions, our unique strengths are worth more when deployed in the comfort of peace? Amid internal tensions that have threatened Lebanon’s delicate balance over the past few weeks, it seems they have not. Decades after Arab countries first cured themselves from the follies of war, it is us who have finally succumbed to their disease.
Jamil K. Mroue, Editor-in-Chief of THE DAILY STAR, can be reached at jamil.mroue@dailystar.com.lb