LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
DECEMBER 30/2006

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


Free Opinions
Beirut paralysis-By: Lucy Fielding - Al Ahram 30/12/06

Latest news from Miscellaneous sources for December 30/06
Jumblatt remarks spark anger - reconciliation at risk-Monsters and Critics.com
Jumblat: Hizbullah Involved with Syrian Regime in 'Some Assassinations-Naharnet
Assad Asked U.S. Senator to Convey Peace Call to Israel-Naharnet
Iraq on alert as Saddam Hanging Could Happen Saturday-Naharnet
Iranians Held by U.S. Forces in Iraq Released-Naharnet
The year that was in the Middle East-ABC Online
Hezbollah paying "thousands of dollars" for firing rockets at ...Kuwait News Agency
Claim: Iran, Hezbollah pay for attacks-United Press International
Hezbollah after the skins of sacrificed animals-Sabah - Turkey
Hamadeh to sue Hezbollah for 'Inciting' his Assassination-Ya Libnan
Hezbollah Plots Ambitious Overhaul of Shiite Slums-New York Sun

Lebanon sees more than 1,000 war deaths-San Jose Mercury News
Holiday decorations barely conceal political crisis in Beirut-International Herald Tribune
Risks and perils loom large-Gulf News
Govt seeks Lebanon's cooperation on child protection-ABC Online

Review of the year: The Middle East-Independent
An eyewitness view of the new world war-Sydney Morning Herald
Saddam may be hanged within hours, Iraqi officials say- AP
In the name of their children-Sydney Morning Herald
Israeli probe raps army's handling of Lebanon war-Reuters
Two peacekeepers hurt by cluster bomb in Lebanon-Jerusalem Post
Lebanon Leaps into the 'Known'-Naharnet

Jumblat: Hizbullah Involved with Syrian Regime in 'Some Assassinations'
Druze leader Walid Jumblat has accused for the first time publicly Hizbullah of involvement together with the Syrian regime in "some assassinations if not say all."
In an interview with the Al Arabiya television network Thursday evening, Jumblat said the question of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian Lebanese figures became intolerable the day MP-journalist Gebran Tueini was murdered in a massive car bomb December 12, 2005. "I said enough," added Jumblat, a legislator and a key figure in the anti-Syrian majority coalition. "There is a political, security and intelligence linkage (between Hizbullah and the Syrian regime)." "The tools, operations and results are all the same," Jumblat said. "Ever since that time I have been accusing them somewhere of standing behind some assassinations if not say all."Jumblat wondered "why was it then that Hizbullah quit the government on 12/12/2006, tugging behind (Parliament Speaker) Nabih Berri?" The leading daily An Nahar said Jumblat's allegation was an unprecedented move since the beginning of the October 2004 killings and car bombing attacks in Lebanon. His charges came a day after Communications Minister Marwan Hamadeh has vowed to sue Hizbullah and its television mouthpiece, Al-Manar, on charges of "inciting" his assassination. Hamadeh, who was seriously wounded in a booby-trapped car explosion on Oct. 1, 2004, said Wednesday evening that Hizbullah also "covered up" the attempt on his life. Beirut, 29 Dec 06, 09:22

Hamadeh to sue Hezbollah for 'Inciting' his Assassination
Thursday, 28 December, 2006 @ 5:03 PM
Beirut- Lebanon's Communications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, a key member in the anti-Syrian majority coalition, has vowed to sue Hezbollah and its television mouthpiece, Al-Manar, on charges of "inciting" his assassination. Hamadeh, who was seriously wounded in a booby-trapped car explosion on Oct. 1, 2004, said Wednesday evening that Hezbollah also "covered up" the attempt on his life. He said Al-Manar's news broadcast on Wednesday evening targeted him with "allegations and false charges that had been repeatedly spread by Syrian intelligence for months."
Based on that, Hamadeh announced, "I will sue Hezbollah on charges of inciting my assassination and attempting to terrorize me politically and psychologically."
He also said Hezbollah had "covered up those who tried to assassinate me in October 2004. The car which targeted me was booby trapped in an area controlled by Hezbollah and its license plate was forged at a workshop in the same area." Al-Manar's report claimed Hamadeh had "revealed" to U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman the hideout of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during the 34-day war between the Shiite group and Israel last summer.
The war started on July 12 after Hezbollah operatives kidnapped two Israeli soldiers from north Israel. The Jewish state threatened to retaliate by assassinating Nasrallah. Hamadeh said he would respond to Al-Manar's allegations through "the judiciary … I will deliver a recorded video copy of Al-Manar's report to the international investigation committee" which is probing the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes.
Hamadeh's statement was seen as a challenge to Hezbollah's reported rejection of the Special International Tribunal for Lebanon to try suspects in the Hariri murder.  Hamadeh, Defense Minister Elias Murr and TV anchorwoman May Chidiac suffered serious wounds in separate attempts on their lives by booby-trapped car blasts that are believed to be related to the Hariri assassination. Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, MP-Journalist Gebran Tueni, former Lebanese Communist Party Leader George Hawi and journalist Samir Kassir have all been killed in separate attacks that are believed to be linked to the wave of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian figures. Hezbollah, which has been leading an open-ended protest to topple Premier Fouad Siniora's majority government since Dec.1, reportedly wants the international tribunal's bylaws amended to limit its powers to the Hariri assassination, without having the authority to look into the other crimes.
Source: Naharnet, LBC, Ya Libnan

Beirut paralysis
By:
 Lucy Fielding
Al Ahram 29/12/06

Israel lost its war of aggression on Lebanon, but repercussions continued as voices were raised, calling for a change of government in Beirut. Lucy Fielding guages the year's events
In July, Lebanon was once again ablaze with war, in which Israeli brutality left the country in shambles. Before the year's end, people took to the streets amid fears of a renewed civil war that could destroy the country's delicate sectarian balance. It would take some time, and a miracle, for Lebanon to regain its cheerful façade
Lebanon reaped the consequences of its inherent contradictions in 2006. The fragile balance established to end the civil war was only ever meant to be temporary. Sixteen years later, the spoil-sharing system kept various sects engaged in politics, but had done little to ease sectarian divisions or the gap between rich and poor. A resistance movement existed in parallel to the Lebanese army, but the state was ambivalent about its role in the Arab- Israeli conflict. Paralysis and polarisation reigned. And then came the war.
On the night of 13 July, Israel's pounding of the southern suburbs shook Beirutis from their sleep and brought the simmering conflict in South Lebanon to the fore. By then, Israeli jets had pounded the border area for two days following Hizbullah's seizure of two soldiers and killing of eight in a cross-border raid aimed at bringing about a prisoner exchange. Many analysts say the raid was timed to also divert international attention from Iran's nuclear programme.
Instead of limited anticipated border skirmishes, Israel launched an all-out war to destroy Hizbullah, killing 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians. The destruction was unprecedented in scale, including 130,000 housing units, most in the south, schools, hospitals, factories, hundreds of bridges and roads. In the last three days of the war, according to the UN, Israel showered the south with cluster bombs, leaving more than a million "duds" that have killed and injured scores of people since. Nearly a million people were driven from their homes; many found nothing to return to when the UN- brokered cessation of hostilities came into effect 34 days later. Questions about Lebanon's regional role and alignments and how the tiny state of four million should defend itself could no longer be ignored.
Neither side won a decisive victory, though both claimed one. Hizbullah defied expectations by inflicting heavy losses on Israel's army and preventing the Jewish state from achieving its aims -- to destroy Hizbullah's fighting capacity and rescue those taken prisoner. It also brought the war home to Israelis, firing thousands of rockets over the border.
But despite garnering unprecedented respect across the Arab world -- including cult status for Secretary- General Hassan Nasrallah -- Hizbullah was cornered at home. Lebanon's army spread to the far south following the ceasefire agreement for the first time; a step Hizbullah ostensibly welcomed, but which limited its scope for open manoeuvre along the border. Meanwhile, UNIFIL's border force was expanded. Although Hizbullah says it has rearmed and has more rockets now than it did before 12 July, there is little appetite among the devastated Shia community, let alone Lebanon as a whole, for more confrontation. For now, Hizbullah is focusing on rebuilding and gaining the political representation it sees as commensurate with its successes.
Washington's refusal to pressure Israel into a ceasefire left its ally Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in an awkward position, to say the least. Siniora put forward a seven-point plan to end the war, parts of which were eventually incorporated into UN Security Council Resolution 1701. But the damage was done. As 2006 came to an end, Hizbullah and Michel Aoun's opposition stepped up accusations that the government collaborated in a war on its own people, hoping Israel would solve the problem of "Hizbullah's arms". Because of perceptions concerning the US's hand in the war, Hizbullah sees its campaign against the government as a battle against hegemonic US plans for a "new Middle East".
Resolution 1701 called for all weapons to be in the hands of the state but did not stipulate how this should be done. Instead, Hizbullah and the army tacitly agreed to leave the weapons and underground tunnels intact for as long as they remain hidden. Hizbullah's claim of a "strategic victory" reinforced its will to keep its arms; Israel's aggression was cited as further justification.
The resignation of Hizbullah's two cabinet ministers, three allies from the Shia Amal Party and one allied to the president in November 2006, as well as a walk-out at the start of the year, showed the fragility of Lebanon's consensual system. While Saad Al-Hariri, son of Rafik, and the 14 March bloc based their legitimacy on commanding a parliamentary majority won in the 2005 elections, Hizbullah and Shia ally Amal cited the constitutional need for consensus and sectarian representation.
Disputes over an international court to try suspects in Rafik Hariri's killing cropped up at several key junctures. In late 2005, Lebanon's government made a formal request to the UN for a tribunal. Five Shia ministers walked out. They said they had not been consulted on the decision; the anti-Syrians led by Hariri said Syria was trying to block the court. A year later, when consultations broke down over a national unity government and ministers resigned in the run-up to a major opposition push to bring down the government, 14 March again said the aim was to block the court. Controversially -- some said illegitimately -- it rushed through a vote on a UN draft plan to form the court. Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud refused to sign it and the dispute continues.
Earlier in the year, Hizbullah and its allies approved the court in principle in a "national dialogue" of leaders. Amal leader and parliament speaker Nabih Berri convened the talks in March to tackle issues that had polarised Lebanon since Al-Hariri's death. The talks were widely hailed as the first time Lebanon's major leaders had gotten together; some had not met since the civil war. Early agreements were reached on disarming Palestinian groups outside Palestinian camps, the need to establish diplomatic relations with Syria and the Lebanese identity of the Israeli- occupied Shebaa Farms area, which the UN rules as being Syrian, but Syria and Lebanon say are Lebanese.
The dialogue stalled in June, however, without agreement on elections to replace Lahoud , seen as illegitimate by the anti-Syrian camp since his term was extended under Syrian pressure in 2004. The president has defied expectations that he would have to leave office early and may even sit it out until the end of his term in late 2007. On another front, despite talk of a national "defence strategy" that might involve bringing Hizbullah's fighters under the nominal command of the Lebanese army, Hizbullah's arms survived to fight another day.
If the 14 March anti-Syrian movement had hoped that Syria's withdrawal in 2005 would weaken and isolate Hizbullah, 2006 was the year the group jumped to the fore. Help came from an unlikely quarter. In February, Hizbullah signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" with former General Michel Aoun, once Syria's most vocal critics and Lebanon's most popular Christian leader. It was a savvy move that pulled the rug out from under the 14 March bloc, giving presidential hopeful Aoun a more decisive role. It also, many argued after this summer's cataclysm, prevented a descent into civil war.
The war exposed Lebanon's rifts. As the opposition accused the government of corruption and collaboration, the pro-government camp accused Hizbullah of dragging their country into a ruinous war at the bidding of Iran and their archenemy Syria. The assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, grandson of the founder of the far-right Christian Phalange Party, accentuated these splits. The 14 March bloc immediately accused Syria while others said Damascus had little to gain in a killing that wrong-footed its allies in Lebanon.
An opposition campaign of street demonstrations was delayed as a result, but when it started, it was huge. Initially calling for a blocking third in the government, and therefore a veto on its decisions, the opposition upped its demands in December to new parliamentary elections. The Hizbullah- Aoun axis also wants a new electoral law that would be less sectarian and, therefore, the theory goes, favour the true majority on the ground that it says it commands. The year ended with the now familiar sight of flag- waving protesters thronging Beirut's central squares while Siniora and his ministers were holed up in the Grand Serail government building round the clock. The dispute has taken on worrying Sunni-Shia trappings, with the government praying behind Sunni clerics in the government building, and the killing of a Shia protester in a Sunni area.
Desperately needed political and economic reform remains distant. Deadlock, polarisation and stagnation may be Lebanon's headlines for 2007, too, if the government and opposition cannot meet halfway. A new electoral law, analysts say, would be a first step towards abolishing a troubled sectarian political system. Regional efforts to end the crisis stepped up at the end of the year, with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa shuttling to and from Lebanon to meet leaders on both sides. Talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- which backs the Siniora government -- appeared to be in the offing.
Lebanon's battles always have a strong parochial element, but the country undeniably took on its familiar role of a theatre for proxy wars this year. Major regional movements in 2007 will have a knock-on effect in Lebanon -- in particular any push for peace in Israel-Palestine, US pressure on Israel to respond to Syrian calls for renewed talks on the Golan, or warmer Western relations with Iran. A Democratic Party victory in November's US mid-term elections was seen as a bloody nose to President Bush over his foreign policy and the Baker-Hamilton Commission prescribed dialogue with Iran and Syria to extricate Washington from the mess in Iraq. Whether Lebanon continues to suffocate or starts to deal with embedded and difficult issues will in part rest on a changing regional and international context.

Assad Asked U.S. Senator to Convey Peace Call to Israel

Syrian President Bashar Assad is "very interested" in peace talks with Israel, according to a message given to a U.S. senator who visited Damascus last week, Israeli television has reported.  Channel 10 quoted Republican Senator Arlen Specter as saying that Assad asked him "to convey a message that Syria is very interested in peace negotiations with Israel" to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Specter, who met with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, held talks with Olmert on Thursday, his office said. Olmert on Monday called on Assad to stop talking and "do something towards a peace process", saying Syria should stop backing Palestinian militant groups and Hizbullah in Lebanon as a precondition for peace talks. Syria has repeatedly said in recent months that it is ready to strike a peace agreement with the Jewish state in exchange for the strategic Golan Heights plateau, which Israel captured in 1967 and where 15,000 Israelis now live.
Peace talks between the two countries collapsed in 2000.  Four American senators have visited Assad in December after the U.S. bipartisan Iraq Study Group suggested talking with Syria might achieve better results for U.S. forces in Iraq than the current policy of isolation.  The administration of U.S. President George Bush has been outspoken in opposing greater outreach to Damascus, which it accuses of letting extremists into Iraq and undermining what it calls Lebanon's fragile democracy.(AFP) Beirut, 29 Dec 06, 13:46

Iraq on alert as Saddam Hanging Could Happen Saturday
Iraq is nervously awaiting the execution of Saddam Hussein, which the White House thinks could happen as early as Saturday, amid fears it could trigger yet more violence in the blood-soaked country. The head of Iraq's interior ministry command center, Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, said the country's beleaguered security forces would be on high alert for a hanging expected to exacerbate sky-high sectarian tensions. "Certainly, this is a big event, putting into effect the execution of this serial killer," he said. "We will take measures proportionate to this event. We will put all our forces on the streets so that no lives are jeopardized."
On November 5, when Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death, protests erupted in some parts of Iraq and authorities declared a three-day curfew to head off attacks by Sunni insurgents. Khalaf said that such a measure would be decreed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but that his forces stood ready to act once informed of the date of the execution, which has yet to be confirmed.
On December 26, a panel of appeals court judges confirmed Saddam's sentence and ordered that he and two former aides be hanged within 30 days.
Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie refused Friday to put a date on the execution, but told Agence France-Presse that the hanging would be announced in advance and not carried out in secret as some have speculated. Maliki's main backer, U.S. President George Bush's White House, thinks the ousted dictator could go to the gallows as early as Saturday, the first day of the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, the Muslim "Feast of Sacrifice."
"It's the government of Iraq's decision," a senior U.S. official said at the Bush ranch in Texas. "It's not going to be tonight our time, or tomorrow their time, it's going to be maybe another day." Asked whether the execution could spark violence by Saddam loyalists, the official said: "They start violence for any reason they can come up with." In the almost four years since a U.S.-led invasion drove Saddam from office, the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation has been engulfed in a rising tide of violence between warring political and sectarian factions.
Iraq's Shiite Arab majority and breakaway Kurds welcomed Saddam's fall, but many members of the Sunni Arab minority flocked to the banner of Islamist or pro-Saddam insurgent groups fighting his U.S.-backed successors.
The execution, when it comes, can be expected to further deepen the sectarian divide. Shiite hardliners hope that it will knock the heart out of the insurgency, but other observers fear violent reprisals. Meanwhile, Iraq's deadly daily diet of bloodshed continued.
On Friday, gunmen opened fire on a cafe in the town of Hindiya south of the capital and killed an off-duty policeman and a bystander, Captain Muthanna Hassan of the Babil province police told AFP. In a separate attack by unidentified gunmen in nearby Mussayib another policeman was killed and five wounded, he added.
Once the formality of hanging Saddam and his cohorts, who were convicted of killing 148 Shiite villagers, is out of the way, Bush and Maliki still face a major battle to restore peace to a shattered nation. Maliki has promised to put more Iraqi army troops onto the streets of the capital as part of a new Baghdad security plan, but Bush has yet to unveil a promised "new way forward" for the 129,000-strong U.S. force. On Thursday, Bush met his top security officials at his ranch.
"I've got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan," Bush told reporters afterwards. "I'm making good progress toward coming up with a plan that we think will help us achieve our objective." Washington is expected to unveil its new plan early in the New Year.(AFP) Beirut, 29 Dec 06, 10:58

Iranians Held by U.S. Forces in Iraq Released
Two Iranians being held by U.S. forces in Iraq were released early Friday, Iranian state television reported.
"Two of the Iranian diplomats who were detained by the American forces were released this morning in the presence of the Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubai and the Iranian ambassador to Iraq," Hasan Kazemi Qomi, the report said.
It gave no further details.Rubai refused to confirm the releases, telling AFP: "I do not wish to comment on this."
The U.S. military press office in Baghdad referred questions about the Iranians to the office of the secretary of defense in Washington, which did not immediately respond to an inquiry. On Wednesday, military spokesman General William Caldwell said U.S. forces were holding two Iranian nationals detained last week in the Iraqi capital on suspicion of weapons smuggling.  "There was an operation on the morning of December 21 based on intelligence. We conducted a raid on a site in Baghdad," Caldwell told reporters. Ten people were arrested in the raid and "documents, maps, photographs and videos" were seized which, he said, linked them to "illegal activities". After interrogation it was discovered that two of the 10 were Iranians. "Debriefing of the detainees and investigation of the seized materials has yielded intelligence linking some of the individuals being detained to weapons shipments to illegal armed groups in Iraq," said a US military statement.
President Jalal Talabani, who invited the two Iranians to Iraq as part of an agreement between the newly forged allies to improve security, was said earlier this week by his office to be "unhappy with the arrests." (AFP) Beirut, 29 Dec 06, 10:23

Hezbollah paying "thousands of dollars" for firing rockets at Israel --
MIL-MIDEAST-HEZBOLLAH-QASSAM
Hezbollah paying "thousands of dollars" for firing rockets at Israel --
paper GAZA, Dec 28 (KUNA) -- Hezbollah is paying Palestinian armed groups "thousands of dollars" for each Qassam rocket fired at the western Negev, The Jerusalem Post claimed Thursday. The newspaper quoted Israeli intelligence sources as saying that Hezbollah was smuggling cash into Gaza Strip and paying "a number of unknown local splinter groups" for each attack. Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) sources said Hezbollah "paid several thousand dollars for each attack, with the amount dependent on the number of Israelis killed or wounded." "We know that Hezbollah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," a security official told the newspaper. Moreover, it said that while Israeli officials believed Islamic Jihad was behind most recent rocket attacks - including the one on Tuesday night that critically wounded a 14-year-old in Sderot - several armed Palestinian groups were also involved and received direct funding from Hezbollah.(end) zt.

Claim: Iran, Hezbollah pay for attacks
TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Iran is financing Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel through Lebanon's Hezbollah, Israeli intelligence officials say.
Ha'artez, quoting sources with Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, reported Thursday the money is being smuggled to Palestinian groups through Lebanon and Syria in a cash-for-attack scheme.
"We know Hezbollah is involved in funding terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and West Bank," an unidentified Sin Bet official was quoted as saying.
"Palestinian terrorists get thousands of dollars per attack. Sometimes they are paid before the attack and sometimes they submit a bill to Lebanon and the money gets transferred a short while later." According to intelligence officials, Islamic Jihad receives the money from Hezbollah through its headquarters in the Syrian capital. Fatha's Tanzim group and the so-called Popular Resistance Committees get payments through Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The money, the report said, all originates from Iran, which is the major financial backer of Hezbollah, which in addition to its military wing that fought Israel last summer has a number of legislators in the Lebanese parliament. Hezbollah is based in southern Lebanon, which borders Israel.
The report quoted officials as saying Hamas, which dominates the Palestinian Authority legislature, is not involved in the rocket attacks on Israel from the Palestinian territories but is doing nothing to stop them.

Hezbollah after the skins of sacrificed animals
In a report prepared by the army and submitted to General Ergin Saygur, it said that Hezbollah terror organization is making preparations to collect the skins of sacrificed animals in order to record gains. The report, which indicated that radical Islamist organizations in Turkey are in search of new ways for extension also said: "Hezbollah terrorist organization has formed a groundwork through Israel-Lebanon conflict. Organization has started an aid campaign on August 2006 in order to strengthen its constitution. Organization is also motivating its organizational activities by using Israel's aggressive attitude. It uses the "jihad" concept for propaganda as well as religious obligations of people for its own benefit. We have been informed that during the past Ramadan Month, offerings of the community had been collected by Hezbollah partisans. Skins of the sacrificed animals are also being seen as physical resource for many illegal organizations. The skins will not be collected under the name of Hezbollah but for mosques and Qur'an schools. Hezbollah had begun planning this operation about three months ago. The names of the mosques and schools to be used in this operation had already been determined by the organization's members and the lists were submitted to their leaders in prisons.

Hezbollah Plots Ambitious Overhaul of Shiite Slums
By MEGAN K. STACK-Los Angeles Times
December 28, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Mohamed Haidar watches yellow machines chew smashed kitchen appliances like hungry beasts, crumpling the stoves and refrigerators, compressing them into tight-packed wads. Neighbors in the bomb-wrecked streets are glad to scavenge the mangled guts of domesticity; they buy the balls of metal cheap."It's deformed and weak. People take it and remold it," Mr. Haidar says. "They should recycle the whole city."
To stroll through the Dahiyeh, the predominantly Shiite slums of southern Beirut, is to take a tour through the ruins of Hezbollah's past — and prospects for its future. Six months after Israeli airstrikes laid waste to these streets, teams of Hezbollah designers are drawing up grand plans for its rebirth.
This is more than terra sancta for the powerful Shiite political party and militia. In a real sense, the Dahiyeh and its people are Hezbollah: a district and a movement defined by each other.
Thousands of chronicles of displacement, hope, and fighting crisscross the streets of the Dahiyeh. It was in these slums that Hezbollah first began to use the deprivation of Lebanon's Shiites as an instrument of defiance, and to turn neglect into political capital.
In spite of, and in part because of, the destruction of its de facto capital and southern heartland, Hezbollah emerged from last summer's war with heavy political ambitions. No longer willing to remain largely independent of state power, Hezbollah called massive street demonstrations to demand a larger share in the government. The Dahiyeh is the history of the Shiites, the transformation from quietism to activism," the editor of Hezbollah's newspaper and a Dahiyeh native, Ibrahim Moussawi, said. The Dahiyeh was still a swath of sleepy seaside villages and fruit orchards when droves of Palestinian Arabs arrived at makeshift camps here after 1948. For decades after, the neighborhoods kept on growing. At the eve of last summer's war, nearly half a million people were packed into its maze of apartment houses — almost an eighth of Lebanon's total population. They lived in perpetual neglect.
The neighborhoods here are improvised as if the chaotic lives of war refugees had hardened into a tangle of concrete, dented cars, and electrical wires. There have never been enough bridges, traffic circles, or tunnels. The electricity would shudder to a stop for hours at a time. There was nowhere to park the car, no place for children to play, no fresh air to breathe.
"The people were left to their fate," Mr. Moussawi said. "They started to look after themselves."
From its 1982 foundation, Hezbollah's message to the Shiites was revolutionary: Forget the discrimination and neglect you have faced. Never mind the government. We can take care of ourselves. "With the arrival of Hezbollah, there was the creation of Shiite territory," a professor of urban planning at the American University of Beirut, Mona Fawaz, said. The Dahiyeh, she said, "became sanctified." And then it was destroyed. The bombs that crashed down on the Dahiyeh left behind a bewildering, postmodern wilderness of shattered buildings. In 34 agonizing days, thousands of residential apartments were lost.
"The government did not help us at all. The government did not even ask us what we needed," a 33-year-old grocer and father of two children who lost his home and his shop in the bombing, Mohammed el Zein, said. "Where is the state? They haven't done anything."
Many people believe the government is starving the southern suburbs of aid, he said, in hopes that desperation will sour sentiment toward Hezbollah. But instead, he said, the reverse is happening. The Shiite party didn't bother with promises or bureaucracy. It just showed up with stacks of cash.

Lebanon sees more than 1,000 war deaths
SAM F. GHATTAS
Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon - More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and combatants died during the summer war between Israel's army and Hezbollah guerrillas, according to tallies by government agencies, humanitarian groups and The Associated Press. Israeli authorities put the death toll for the Jewish state at 120 military combat deaths and 39 civilians killed by Hezbollah rockets fired into northern Israel during the July 12-Aug. 14 conflict.
Both sides have revised their figures of Lebanon's war dead. The latest Lebanese and AP counts include 250 Hezbollah fighters that the group's leaders now say died during Israel's intense air, ground and sea bombardments in Lebanon - more than triple the 70 they acknowledged during the war. Israel initially said 800 Hezbollah fighters died but later lowered that estimate to 600.
None of the counts of war dead include Lebanese killed since the fighting ended by exploding land mines or Israeli cluster bombs scattered around southern Lebanon. Such blasts have killed 27 people and wounded 167, according to the National Demining Office. No Israelis have been killed by war-related blasts since then. The Lebanese and AP counts of Lebanon's war dead range from 1,035 to 1,191.
Lebanon's top police office, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, says 1,123 Lebanese died in the war - 37 soldiers and police officers and 1,086 other people, including 894 named victims and 192 unidentified ones.
The report lists the 1,086 dead as "martyrs." It does not differentiate between civilians and Hezbollah combatants, because the government considers them all Lebanese citizens. It also can be difficult to tell a Hezbollah fighter because many do not wear military uniforms.
A security official, who agreed to discuss the tally with AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the figure of 1,086 was based on reviews of hospitals, death certificates, village officials, families of the deceased and eyewitness accounts.
In a reflection of the confusion of wartime, the Higher Relief Council, an agency of the Lebanese prime minister's office that deals with calamities, has a higher death toll - 1,191 people, most of them civilians. The council says its number is based on figures from the health ministry, police and other state agencies.
The United Nations Children's Fund, meanwhile, says 1,183 people died, mostly civilians and about a third of them children.
Human Rights Watch is still compiling a final list, said Nadim Houry, Lebanon researcher for the human rights group. So far, he said, the list has 1,119 names, based on the group's own visits to villages, information from mayors and a check of tombstones as well as other lists made by local media and rescue services. The names include civilians, military personnel and guerrillas.
During the war, AP counted 855 killed, tallying only confirmed deaths reported by Lebanese police, security officials, civil defense and hospital authorities. That included 37 military personnel reported in official statements and 70 Hezbollah guerrillas reported killed either by the group or by police.
Adding the additional 180 deaths now conceded by Hezbollah raises the AP tally to 1,035.
The higher Hezbollah figure of 250 killed was disclosed in mid-December during an AP interview with Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of the group's ruling politburo.
Komati dismissed Israeli claims that 800 guerrillas were killed in the war. Asked about the Hezbollah disclosure, Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin revised that estimate, saying: "We think that it's closer to 600."
Some of the discrepancies in numbers result from the fact that three separate agencies were involved in search and rescue efforts in southern Lebanon's hilly and remote terrain: the Lebanese Red Cross, Islamic ambulance services and government civil defense teams.
The Lebanese security official who talked with AP said the lack of a central office to follow up accounts of dead and missing had made it hard to get precise numbers even months after the war's end.
In addition, determining an exact figure has not been a priority during the political strife that has snarled the country since the war. Lebanon is enduring its worst crisis in over a decade, with the pro-Western government in a standoff with Hezbollah and its allies.
Hezbollah has come under fire from critics who blame it for the war, which the guerrillas set off by carrying out a brazen cross-border raid into Israel in which they killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others.
So the disclosure of a higher Hezbollah death toll could bolster the group's standing during the political fight by showing it sacrificed in defending the country. During the war, a higher Hezbollah toll could have hurt morale.
The 192 unidentified victims included in the police count consist of body parts or remains of dismembered bodies, the Lebanese security official said.
The official said it was unclear why relatives had not claimed them, but it could be because some were from whole families that had been killed. The "unidentified" also could include remains of Hezbollah fighters, the official said.

Holiday decorations barely conceal political crisis in Beirut
Both sides prepared for long political fight
By Hassan M. Fattah Published: December 28, 2006
BEIRUT: Sleigh bells jingled, carols blared from loudspeakers and dancing Santa Clauses lent the center of Beirut the feel of a Christmas fair this week, complete with street sellers hawking trinkets.
And there are posters of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. If not for the razor wire and heavily armed soldiers ringing much of the area, one could have forgotten the crisis in the city this week. "We are Muslims and Christians standing together to tell the world this is Lebanon," announced a speaker with the Free Patriotic Movement, an opposition party, shortly before a massive cake was rolled out Monday night. "The future is ours and after the feast we will resume out protest till victory."A month since Hezbollah and Christian opposition parties took over the center of Beirut, seeking to bring down the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, both sides have dug in for a long fight. Fears of imminent ethnic strife have yielded to a sense of stalemate.
Opponents of Islamists take capital of Somalia Holiday decorations barely conceal political crisis in Beirut Saddam's death sentence exposes a rift
In Riyadh al-Solh Square, where protesters have camped out in a tent city, Hezbollah and its allies have continued raising their demands, calling for Siniora to resign and for early parliamentary elections and a trial of Siniora himself.
Siniora, supported by Saudi Arabia and the United States, shows no signs of wavering, insisting that Hezbollah and its allies leave the streets and return to negotiations.
The rallies were more muted this week as opposition leaders urged families to celebrate Christmas and the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice this weekend, promising to increase the political pressure again next week. Pouring rain Tuesday and Wednesday also helped quiet things down.
The business of governing Lebanon has come to a virtual halt, with President Émile Lahoud unwilling to consider any legislation from the cabinet, the cabinet unwilling to speak to Lahoud and the speaker of Parliament, the Shiite Amal leader Nabih Berri, unwilling to call legislators to order.
"Each side is supported by people that don't want them to give up a thing," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. "It's becoming more likely that a very long, drawn-out stalemate will take hold."
Gradually, Salem and others here say, people in Beirut have grown used to the protests in the center of town, easing the urgency of resolving the standoff.
"The easiest thing for people to do now is to postpone, to stall," Salem said.
Hezbollah and its allies, including the Free Patriotic Movement, led by Michel Aoun, and the Marada movement of the former president Suleiman Franjieh, onetime enemies, took to the streets Dec. 1. The action followed the rejection by the governing coalition led by Siniora of their demands for a bigger say in the government, including the ability to veto government actions.
They set upon the center of Beirut with a noisy, peaceful protest, mirroring one held by the governing March 14 coalition last year. That protest forced Syria out of Lebanon and swept the March 14 movement, named for the date of a rally in which more than one million Lebanese were said to have descended on Beirut, into government. Much like the March 14 movement, the opposition has sought to emphasize its sectarian mix, saying it represents the true Lebanese and assailing foreign control of the government. Both Syria and the United States have called on foreign powers to stay out of Lebanon's affairs.
The opposition has promised to step up its protest significantly next week, suggesting, among other steps, that it might establish a shadow government and block highways and access to Beirut's airport.
The protests continued to sap Lebanon's economy, which had already been pummeled by Israel's bombardment of the country last summer. Store owners in central Beirut briefly opened their shops Wednesday but saw almost no customers.
"We will carry on with this campaign until we topple the government," said Nabil Nicola, a member of Parliament with the Free Patriotic Movement led by Aoun. "We still have not used all the peaceful weapons available to us, and it's just the beginning of the road."
On Saturday, Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, said he had been unable to negotiate a solution to the standoff and ended two weeks of shuttle diplomacy with a promise to resume his efforts after the Muslim feast. Moussa, who had traveled through the region to meet with Saudi Arabia's leaders, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and an Iranian envoy in Beirut, said the impasse had been made worse because neither side was communicating with the other.
Nawar Sahili, a member of Parliament with Hezbollah, said: "Unfortunately Amr Moussa was taking a side during his last round of negotiations and unfortunately some Arab countries are taking sides too. But there are talks about a new, less biased Arab initiative. We are hoping it will solve the crisis."
Analysts and officials close to the discussions said the most contentious issue remained legislation to form an international tribunal with sweeping powers to prosecute suspects implicated in the February 2005 assassination of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri and in numerous assassinations that followed. The law was rushed through Parliament days after Hezbollah and its allies resigned from Parliament and withdrew from the cabinet.
The court's sweeping powers and its open-ended establishment have made it a nonstarter for Hezbollah, which supports and is supported by Damascus. But the government comprises friends and associates of Hariri and is backed by his son Saad, all whom assail Syrian interference in Lebanon.
Moussa said in Beirut on Saturday that he had managed to coax both sides to agree on the outlines of a national unity cabinet in which major decisions would be decided by consensus. He also cited growing willingness on the part of the government to discuss the jurisdiction of the Hariri tribunal.
Nada Bakri contributed from Beirut.

Risks and perils loom large
By Patrick Seale, Special to Gulf News
Although peering into the fog of the future is always a hazardous business, it would not be rash to say that, of all the potential man-made catastrophes that might afflict the world this coming year, for sheer destructiveness none would surpass an American/Israeli attack on Iran.
Is such an attack probable or even possible? Regrettably, it is.
In the current confrontation with Iran, the military option remains very much on the table. In the US and Israel, the same military planners, political lobbyists and armchair strategists that pressed America to attack Iraq are now urging it to strike Iran - and for much the same reasons.
These reasons may be briefly summarised as the need to control the Middle East's oil resources and deny them to potential rivals, such as China; the wish to demonstrate to friend and foe alike America's unique ability to project military power across the globe; and, last but not least, Israel's determination to maintain its supremacy over any regional challenger, especially one as recklessly provocative as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
To be effective, an American/Israeli strike against Iran would have to destroy not only its nuclear facilities but also its ability to hit back, that is to say its entire military-industrial complex.
It seems more than likely that, if attacked, Iran will, one way or another, manage to strike back - against US troops in Iraq, against Israel, and against US bases and US allies in the Gulf.
The impact would also be devastating on US-Arab relations, on Israel's long-term security, on the flow of oil from the Gulf, on the oil price, on the economies of the industrial world and on the already highly fragile dollar.
And yet, some influential voices in the US argue that the only way the US can hope to "win" in Iraq is to destroy Iran.
US President George W. Bush is due to make a statement of his Middle East strategy early in the New Year. There is talk of sending more troops to Iraq, of tightening sanctions against Iran and Syria, of mobilising "moderate" Arab states against "extremists", of arming the Fouad Siniora government in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and the Fatah forces of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian National Authority president, against the democratically elected Hamas government.
In the Horn of Africa, the US is lending its "tacit support" to Ethiopia in its war against Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts, all this in the name of the ill-conceived "Global War on Terrorism", which continues to create more "terrorists" than it eliminates.
Instead of calming passions and bringing peace to a deeply troubled region, American policies are feeding the flames of civil war in Iraq, exposing American troops to still greater danger, forcing Iran and Syria to look to their defences, exacerbating conflicts in Lebanon and Palestine and opening a "new front" in Somalia, which risks destabilising much of East Africa.
Insane belligerence
Still in the grip of the neocon cabal which has destroyed his presidency by its insane belligerence, Bush continues to see the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah-Hamas axis as the main enemy to confront and bring down.
The real danger this coming year is that Saudi Arabia, alarmed at the rise of Iran and at the self-assertion of Shiite communities in Lebanon and the Gulf region, will be persuaded to side with the US against Tehran.
It would be wiser for the Kingdom to engage Tehran in a wide-ranging dialogue leading to an agreement on mutual interests, and even to the conclusion of a Saudi-Iranian security pact which alone could stabilise the region without the interference of external powers.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to play cat-and-mouse with the international community, pretending to make concessions to Abbas, while blatantly establishing a new illegal colony in the Jordan valley and pressing ahead with its infamous separation wall.
The message is clear: Israel's land grab on the West Bank will continue whatever Washington or anyone else might say.
Various influential Israelis have stated that if the US does not strike Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities, Israel must do so itself.
If one considers the likely impact of these American and Israeli policies, it is clear that the coming year is likely to be a hot one in the region.
Real problem
The real problem is a world-wide lack of leadership. There is hardly anyone around with the power or the vision to end the current state of international anarchy.
Bush has de-legitimised himself and squandered American authority by his blunders. Russia's Vladimir Putin has managed to hoist his country back into the front rank of international powers, but his focus is still on reasserting Russian state control over oil and gas resources, while keeping neighbours such as Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia firmly within Russia's orbit.
The European Union is a magnificent example of how 27 nations can, by mutual agreement and by means of carefully crafted laws, give 500 million people a life of peace, stability and considerable prosperity.
But in terms of a common foreign policy, the Union has been a failure. Its members have pulled in different directions.
Britain's Tony Blair has marginalised himself and his country by his slavish attachment to the US. He will, in any event, be leaving office in 2007. President Jacques Chirac of France - an experienced and sober Middle East hand - will be out of office by May.
Neither of his potential successors has much foreign affairs experience, and both are committed to mistaken policies.
In the Middle East, three men will bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the coming year. They are King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
They all have great problems at home, but if they were to get together, pool their considerable resources and jointly exert their political influence, they could protect the region from some of the risks, perils and potential catastrophes of the year ahead.
***Patrick Seale is a commentator and author of several books on Middle East affairs.

Govt seeks Lebanon's cooperation on child protection
The Australian Government is negotiating a bilateral agreement with Lebanon on the issue of parental child abduction.
Lebanon is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on child abduction, which includes international arrangements for the return of children wrongfully taken.
Federal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock says Australia already has a bilateral agreement with Egypt to cover the problem of child abduction.
Mr Ruddock says he hopes to develop a similar agreement with Lebanon.
"What we would like to do with Lebanon if it's not prepared to become a party to the Hague Convention is to at least have negotiations on a similar agreement that we have with Egypt, and I hope to be able to finalise those during the course of this year," he said.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1819375.htm
Broadcast: 28/12/2006
The year that was in the Middle East
Reporter: Matt Brown
SCOTT BEVAN: With 2007 fast approaching the Middle East is bracing itself for more uncertainty, after another year of violence and war. Despite a month old cease fire the Israeli Government announced overnight it will resume operations against Palestinian militants who fire rockets from the Gaza Strip. And the so called "road map to peace" appears to be in tatters, with the United States claiming Israel is planning to build a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. Elsewhere in the strife torn region each new day brings more bloodshed in Iraq. Iran continues to be the pariah of the West as it sticks to its nuclear policy, while Lebanon remains on tenterhooks four months after its war with Israel. ABC correspondent Matt Brown looks back at the year that was in the Middle East.
MATT BROWN: This was, in many ways, the year of the pariah. The year in which the ostracised and out of favour made their play for real power and, despite the muscle and might of America, they made important progress.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, BEIRUT: What we're basically talking about here is a strategic axis which extends from Iran to Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas and they are basically partners in confronting the United States and Israel.
MATT BROWN: In the Palestinian territories, the Islamist militant group Hamas won democratic elections and took control of the Palestinian Government. It was a stunning victory all round. Hamas came to power, offering a 10 year truce with Israel if Israel would withdraw from the Palestinian land it conquered in 1967.
AZIZ DWEIK, HAMAS SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT: The two-step solution is something that depends on Israel. If Israel would like to live in peace with the Palestinians and giving them their rights, I think things would be OK.
MATT BROWN: But Hamas was founded on a devout desire to destroy Israel, and the Hamas Government was quickly cut off from the crucial international cash flow to the Palestinians. Then gunmen, including members of Hamas, captured an Israeli soldier patrolling the border with the Gaza Strip. Gilad Shilat disappeared into the streets and allays of Gaza, once of the most densely populated places on earth. Israel struck back with a vengeance. Hundreds of Palestinians, civilians and gunmen alike, were killed in a series of punishing air raids and ground attacks that left Gaza reeling. But Hamas has not been defeated. Iran has stepped into the breach with hundreds of millions of dollars in support.
MICHAEL OREN, MILITARY HISTORIAN, JERUSALEM: They are both Islamic extremists, albeit the Shi'ite-Sunni divide. They're both anti Western. They share a desire to overthrow pro Western moderate regimes in the region. So the interest is not just financial, it exists on far deeper levels of religion and political goals.
MATT BROWN: Hamas is now on the edge of a civil war with the more moderate Fatah party headed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. While the West is backing Abbas, the outcome is far from clear. The democratic Arab Spring heralded by the United States has been decidedly stormy.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: Elections that had been encouraging in Palestine and Egypt ended up with Islamist victories and its last potential success story or showcase, Lebanon, appears to be slipping out of its hands as well, now.
MATT BROWN: It began with another audacious move by an enemy of Israel. Two Israeli soldiers were captured and eight were killed on Israel's border with Lebanon. The Iranian backed Shi'ite militia Hezbollah was behind the raid and it fired thousands of missiles into Israel. Israel responded with even more force than it used in Gaza. Two million people Israelis and Lebanese on either side of the border lived in fear of death from the air at any minute and most were forced to flee their homes.
ISRAELI RESIDENT: Why they shoot me? They don't like the Israeli? You don't like the Israeli? The Hezbollah? Why?
LEBANESE RESIDENT: It's very upsetting, what's happened to this country. It's a very beautiful country.
MATT BROWN: Israel rained tens of thousands of bombs down on Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon and south Beirut.
MICHAEL OREN: On purely military terms Israel won an overwhelming victory. We destroyed Hezbollah's mini state in Lebanon. All that elaborate array of underground bunkers and caches and headquarters, completely destroyed. Not a brick left on a brick.
MATT BROWN: In fact Hezbollah, backed by Iran, managed to transform military defeat into a sort of political victory.
MICHAEL OREN: Two Israeli soldiers remain hostages in Lebanon and, if anything, Hezbollah's political clout in Lebanon has been strengthened rather than diminished.
MATT BROWN: Lebanese killed 119 Israeli soldiers and 44 Israeli civilians. Israel killed 500 Hezbollah fighters and around 600 Lebanese civilians. For weeks the United States refused to call for a cease fire in the war, despite the mounting death toll. Its chief diplomat was remarkably candid about the reasons why.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, US SECRETARY OF STATE: What we're seeing here in a sense is the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one.
MATT BROWN: The contrast between vision and reality could not have been more stark than in Iraq. When Sunni insurgents bombed the Shi'ite mosque at Samarra they unleashed an escalating spiral of sectarian violence, pitting Sunni Muslims against their Shi’ite neighbours. American and Iraqi forces managed to kill Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi - the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was dead. Saddam Hussein was on trial, but the murder toll continued to skyrocket. Iraq this year was, quite simply, more and more out of American control. Iranian backed Shi'ite militias waged a bloody conflict against their Sunni enemies.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: It illustrated that the US was a very, very weak power, especially given that it was occupying that country. It did not achieve any of its strategic aims in Iraq. It just fuelled anger, not only within Iraq but within the entire Arab world.
MATT BROWN: Where does all this lead? It leads, of course, to the rising power across the Persian Gulf, to Iran, America's avowed enemy in the Middle East.
AMAL SAAD-GHORAYEB: What's interesting is a country like Iran, a Shi'ite non Arab country, has become probably the most influential power in the Arab world and really the standard bearer, if you like, of Arabism.
MICHAEL OREN: This is the year of Iran in the Middle East. Iran is on a roll in the Middle East, just about in every quarter of the Middle East. Iran has replaced Egypt as the dominant Muslim State in this region.
MATT BROWN: A state that began the year being warned not to keep up with its controversial nuclear program, but went ahead anyway, even in the face of looming sanctions.
MICHAEL OREN: They're laughing in Tehran. They have the example of Pakistan before them. They have the example of North Korea, more recently, before them. They see how countries can defy the international will.
MATT BROWN: Perhaps the last days of 2006 bore witness to a different future. In Iran the hardliners connected to the radical President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suffered a serious blow in local elections. If there is hope in the ballot box after all, it remains to be seen whether the United States could bring itself to talk to those who might change course in Tehran.
**SCOTT BEVAN: That report from Matt Brown