LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 29/2007
Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10,17-27. As he was
setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him, "Why
do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother.'" He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all
of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in
heaven; then come, follow me." At that statement his face fell, and he went away
sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his
disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of
God!" The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in
reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a
camel to pass through (the) eye of (a) needle than for one who is rich to enter
the kingdom of God." They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
"Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is
impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."
Free Opinion
Analysis: Lebanese infighting could be dangerous for
Israel.Jerusalem Post. May 29/07
Nasrallah's overture deserves
reciprocation, not reproach-Daily Star. May 29/07
Analysis: Why Lebanon Matters.Ya
Libnan. May 29/07
Latest News Reports
From Miscellaneous Sources for May 29/05/07
Syrian Citizen Drives Taxi Cab through
Army Checkpoint, Draws Fire-Naharnet
UN Team to Assess Security of Lebanon-Syria Borders.Naharnet
Lebanese soldiers kill two near Beirut airport.Reuters
Palestinian leaders try to end Lebanon standoff.Reuters
Sfeir: national
reconciliation, support for the army, militia disarmament.AsiaNews.it
Syria accused of stirring trouble.Mail
& Guardian Online
Grenade Hurled at Security Checkpoint in
Barbir-Naharnet
Palestinians Present Plan to End Standoff at Nahr al-Bared-Naharnet
Syria pushes for tourism despite region's image.Reuters
Jumblat Criticizes Nasrallah Over Fatah
al-Islam-Naharnet
March 14 Wins Presidency of Physicians
Association-Naharnet
U.N.: Thousands Still Trapped in Nahr
al-Bared-Naharnet
Lebanon set for long haul in camp siege.Gulf Times
Talks between U.S. and Iran begin. AP
Four Saudis Killed in Lebanon Clashes.Alalam
News Network
France, Sarkozy and the US; Action on Lebanon; In defense of vegan
...International
Herald Tribune
Ehud Barak: A Reality Check.Ynetnews
Lebanon a launch pad for al-Qa'ida's new phase.The
Australian
Iranian-Saudi FMs discuss Lebanon.PRESS TV
Jumblatt
demands that militants face 'justice'
-Daily Star
Beirut
wants Palestinians to settle Nahr al-Bared crisis-Daily
Star
Achille Lauro hijacker plays a new game-Daily
Star
Aoun
heads for book-signing event in Paris-Daily
Star
March
14 dominates Order of Physicians polls-Daily
Star
Hamas official urges army not to make Palestinian civilians pay for Fatah
al-Islam's-Daily Star
History repeats itself as Palestinians flee Nahr al-Bared refugee camp-Daily
Star
Relief
supplies run low as refugees flood Beddawi-Daily
Star
Gemmayzeh business owners refuse to be cowed into
shutting their doors-Daily Star
Bombing fails to break resolve of Aley residents-Daily
Star
Syrian Citizen
Drives Taxi Cab through Army Checkpoint, Draws Fire
Lebanese troops opened fire at a speeding Taxi Cab which drove through their
checkpoint near Beirut Airport Monday, killing a passenger and seriously
wounding the Syrian driver.Security Sources told Naharnet Hamadeh Mahmoud Haj
Ahmad, a Syrian national, was driving the vehicle at high speed, and refused to
slow down upon instructions from soldiers manning a checkpoint near the airport.
"He smashed the obstacles and drove through the checkpoint waving his middle
finger at soldiers," one source told Naharnet.
The troops fired "warning shots, and when the driver failed to pull over they
opened fire at the car. Hussein Karaki, a Lebanese citizen who was sitting next
to the driver, was killed and Haj ahmad was seriously wounded," the source
added. He said Haj ahmad was admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment, while
troops were searching the deserted car, a Mercedes Benz with a red-colored taxi
plate number. The source noted that non-Lebanese are banned by law from driving
taxi cabs "which raises questions as why Haj Ahmad, a Syrian, was driving a
commuting vehicle owned by a Lebanese citizen."
Registration documents show that the car is owned by Lebanese citizen Ali
Mohammed Fares who would be interrogated to find out why his vehicle was being
used by a foreigner, the source told Naharnet.Unidentified assailants hurled a
hand grenade from a speeding car in Beirut's Barbir district late Sunday,
wounding at least four people. Lebanese troops and police officers have erected
hundreds of checkpoints in Beirut and other cities to tighten security following
what appears to be a series of bomb blasts aimed at destabilizing Lebanon. Fatah
al-Islam, a terrorist faction fighting the Lebanese army in the north, has vowed
to strike at other areas. Lebanese authorities say Fatah al-Islam is a
Syrian-sponsored terrorist organization. Syria denies the claim. Beirut, 28 May
07, 19:01
Grenade
Hurled at Security Checkpoint in Barbir
Five people were injured when assailants hurled a grenade at a security
checkpoint in Beirut's Barbir district late Sunday, a senior security official
said.
The grenade was tossed off Barbir bridge and fell near the checkpoint in the
Sunni neighborhood. Police cordoned off the area and closed streets to traffic.
The official said two civilians, two policemen and a soldier were lightly
injured in the incident. The grenade attack comes after a spate of bombings in
Beirut and its environs in the past week in which one woman was killed and
nearly 30 other people were injured. Lebanese troops and Fatah al-Islam
militants are also locked in battles at the northern Palestinian refugee camp of
Nahr al-Bared since Sunday.(Naharnet-AFP) (AP photo shows a policeman standing
guard next to a car damaged by the hand grenade attack)
U.N.: Thousands Still Trapped
in Nahr al-Bared
A majority of families from the besieged northern Palestinian refugee camp of
Nahr al-Bared have fled but thousands remain trapped inside, a U.N. official has
said.
Hoda al-Turk, a spokeswoman for U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian
Refugees, known as UNRWA, said Sunday that more than 5,000 refugee families — or
about 25,000 refugees — have left the camp since fighting began one week ago
between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants. The camp is home to about 30,000
people. A majority of the families have fled to the nearby Beddawi refugee camp,
while others are staying in the port city of Tripoli and other villages, she
said.
Witnesses said around 30 people braved sniper fire to get out on Sunday. The
Lebanese government has vowed to crush the militants. The military has rolled
more troops around the camp, which is already ringed by hundreds of soldiers,
backed by artillery and tanks. As darkness fell Sunday, Fatah al-Islam militants
fired off bursts of automatic gunfire which was met with anti-tank fire from
Lebanese troops. Sporadic gunbattles between the fighters and the army have
broken out every night since Fatah al-Islam declared a unilateral truce on
Tuesday following three days of heavy fighting. Palestinian factions, meanwhile,
have been scrambling to find a negotiated solution to end the siege and avert
what many fear would be a bloody battle between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam.(AP-AFP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 28 May 07, 08:14
Palestinians Present Plan to
End Standoff at Nahr al-Bared
With the Lebanese government demanding the surrender of Islamist militants holed
up inside the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp or face an all-out onslaught,
Palestinian factions pressed for a negotiated solution to end the week-long
standoff between Lebanese troops and Fatah al-Islam extremists.
Meanwhile, a brief but violent firefight flared early Monday in Nahr al-Bared
after militants tried to attack a Lebanese army position outside the camp,
state-run National News Agency said.
It said several Fatah al-Islam fighters were injured in the clash which broke
out at 7:30 a.m.
Army troops deployed around Nahr al-Bared fired four shells toward the northern
entrance to the camp where the Islamists are besieged.
The four-point plan presented by the Palestinian factions to the Lebanese
government aimed at a peaceful resolution to the camp fight, Abu Imad Rifai, a
representative of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, told the
Associated Press on Sunday. The plan calls for a cease-fire, the creation of a
Palestinian security force to maintain law and order in the camp, the barring of
other armed groups in the camp and the creation of "a mechanism for the
departure" of Fatah al-Islam from the camp, Rifai said. There was no immediate
reaction from the government to the plan, which falls short of its demands for
the handover of the militants. Rifai said the government found "some positive
elements" in the plan but that details on how to deal with the departure of the
fighters had to be worked out. "A final plan will be presented to the government
in the next few days," he said.
It is not known where the militants would go. Syria is one option – Fatah
al-Islam's leader Shaker Absi spent years in the country, part of them in
prison, before arriving in Nahr al-Bared last year. That has raised accusations
among Lebanese security forces that Damascus is using the group to stir up
trouble in Lebanon, and they may be reluctant to allow Fatah al-Islam to return
there. Damascus denies the accusations and says Absi and other Fatah al-Islam
leaders are wanted in Syria for suspected terrorist activities. Absi is also
wanted in Jordan, where he has been sentenced to death in absentia for
involvement in the 2002 killing of an American diplomat in Amman. But Rifai
insisted that "a political solution is the only option."
"The repercussions of a military solution are much more serious than a political
solution," Rifai said, in a clear warning that a military assault on Nahr
al-Bared would trigger violence in Lebanon's 11 other Palestinian refugee camps.
Absi insisted his fighters would not surrender.
"We wish to die for the sake of God," Absi said in a video shown on Al-Jazeera
television on Saturday. "Sunni people are the spearhead against the Zionist
Americans."
Absi, a Palestinian, has said he is inspired by Osama bin Laden and has been
linked to al-Qaida in Iraq. Mainstream Palestinian factions have distanced
themselves from him. The Lebanese government was in a bind over its campaign to
uproot Fatah al-Islam militants barricaded inside Nahr al-Bared. An attack to
crush the fighters could be bloody -- for both troops and the thousands of
Palestinian civilians still trapped inside. The military demands the fighters be
handed over for prosecution for attacking Lebanese troops last week. Despite
sporadic exchanges of gunfire, a fragile truce has held at the camp in northern
Lebanon for five days, with hundreds of Lebanese troops surrounding the camp and
building up their forces to prepare for an attack. The truce followed three days
of heavy fighting at the camp in which 20 civilians, 30 Lebanese soldiers and up
to 60 militants were killed.(AP-Naharnet) Beirut, 28 May 07, 07:19
March 14 Wins Presidency of
Physicians Association
The majority March 14 coalition has scored a prestigious triumph in winning the
presidency of Lebanon's Association of Physicians.
Voters turned out in the thousands on Sunday at the order's headquarters in
Tahwita. March 14 candidate Dr. George Aftimos grabbed the post of the
presidency of the Association of Physicians by an overwhelming majority of 2,125
votes against 1,048 for his main rival Dr. Jad Aqqis.
Jumblat Criticizes Nasrallah
Over Fatah al-Islam
Druze leader Walid Jumblat accused Syria of sponsoring the militant Fatah
al-Islam to destabilize Lebanon as Premier Fouad Saniora's government gave
Palestinian mediators until the middle of the week to find a peaceful solution
to the bloody conflict. "The authorities have given Palestinian organizations
until the middle of the week" to try to negotiate a settlement to end the deadly
showdown at a squalid Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, a government
source told Agence France Presse. For a week, soldiers have been besieging the
Nahr al-Bared camp where entrenched militants from the Fatah al-Islam militia
have been fighting the army since last Sunday. A total of 78 people have been
killed in the fighting, which has also forced thousands to flee and trapped
thousands more in deteriorating conditions in the camp, where residents are
suffering a lack of water and electricity.
The negotiations involve handing over wanted fighters from the Fatah al-Islam
extremist group for trial over attacks against the Lebanese armed forces since
last Sunday, the source said. Only foreign militants not wanted by the Lebanese
authorities could be repatriated to their home countries, the source added.
"The government remains very determined to see those who are guilty handed
over," the source said, adding that Lebanon was also keen on ending the ordeal
of thousands of Palestinians who remain trapped in Nahr al-Bared. Saniora said
on Saturday that the government was giving Palestinian factions a chance to find
a solution. "This problem is being resolved through the Palestinian factions,
and we are giving them time, as they have requested, but this does not mean that
we are backing off," he said. Saniora on Saturday discussed the situation with
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas during a telephone contact, according to the
prime minister's office.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who heads Lebanon's Syrian-backed opposition,
has warned the Saniora government against an army assault on the camp to avoid
turning Lebanon into a new front in the U.S.-led "war on terror." The 12
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon remain off-limits to the army and under the
control of armed Palestinian factions despite a U.N. resolution calling for the
disarmament of all militias in the country. "Nobody has talked about a military
solution, but we want the criminals to give themselves up," Jumblat, a prominent
leader of the ruling majority, said at a press conference on Sunday. Jumblat
again accused former powerbroker and neighboring Syria of being behind the
fighting in Nahr al-Bared and three bombings on shopping areas in and around
Beirut since Sunday. "They want to distract the army from watching the arms
smuggled (from Syria) and to obstruct the tribunal," he said referring to U.N.
plans to create a court to try suspects in the killing of ex-premier Rafik
Hariri which has been widely blamed on Syria. He criticized Nasrallah for not
condemning Fatah al-Islam, saying the Hizbullah leader has become a "mere tool"
of the Syrian regime. The parties negotiating a possible solution to the Fatah
al-Islam issue are the main Palestinian factions in Lebanon including Fatah, the
Islamic group Hamas and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
Led by a Palestinian from Jordan, Fatah Al-Islam is made up of a few hundred
Islamist extremists of various Arab nationalities and is said to be inspired by
the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 27 May 07, 14:58
Four Saudis Killed in Lebanon
Clashes
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 27--Four Saudi nationals of the Fatah Al-Islam
militant group are among those killed in clashes with Lebanese troops in a
Palestinian camp of north Lebanon, an Arab newspaper reported on Sunday. The
Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Abdul Aziz Khoja, told Al-Hayat that up to now four
Saudis have been killed in the ongoing clashes between the Lebanese army and the
Fatah Al-Islam group, but they have yet to be identified.
Lebanese troops have encircled Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp since May 20 when
fighting broke out with the tiny Fatah Al-Islam militia that has now killed 78
people, forced thousands to flee and trapped thousands more civilians. Almost 25
Fatah Al-Islam members, including two of its leaders, have been killed and
dozens taken prisoner in the confrontation. "We have learnt there are Saudis,
Syrians, Lebanese, Algerians and people from other Arab nationals amongst Fatah
Al-Islam, and they follow Al-Qaeda's ideology," he said. Fifteen of the 19
airline hijackers in the September 11 attacks against American civilians were
from the Arab kingdom.
Security forces in Saudi Arabia are waging a campaign against suspected
sympathizers of Al-Qaeda, which has claimed responsibility for a spate of deadly
attacks in the oil-rich kingdom since 2003. The absolute monarchy, which was at
first reluctant to admit Saudis had part in the September 11 attacks, has
launched a media war against militants despite once backing Saudis who left to
fight foreigners in places like Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Over the past week state media have carried a series of "confessions" by jailed
suspects claimed to be involved in some of the prominent attacks stretching over
the last four years.
You can't play nice with
Syria
Barry Rubin, Citizen Special
Published: Monday, May 28, 2007
In the Middle East, violence is not the result of poor communication but a tool
for political gain. Nothing proves that point better than Syria's successful use
of violence and terrorism to promote its interests. No amount of dialogue is
going to change that reality.
Now Syria is using a Palestinian front group to start a war inside Lebanon, just
as it employed another Lebanese client organization, Hezbollah, to battle Israel
last year. The Syrian government's message is simple: Lebanon will know no peace
until it again becomes our satellite.
In two years, 15 major terrorist attacks targeted Lebanon's independent-minded
leaders. Most notorious was the assassination of popular former prime minister
Rafik Hariri in February 2005, which also killed 21 bystanders.
In response the United Nations set up an international investigation whose
interim reports pointed the finger at Syria and even, in unpublished drafts, at
president Bashar al-Assad's closest relatives for the killing. Last week, the
United States, Britain, and France introduced a resolution in the UN to set up a
tribunal to try the murderers.
Since the tribunal is in co-operation with Lebanon, Syria must ensure that
country's parliament vetoes the plan. Suddenly, bombs start exploding in Beirut
and a Syrian-backed Islamist group stages an uprising against the government.
People get the hint. Cross Syria and you get hurt. To hold the tribunal given
events in Lebanon, says South African diplomat Dumisani Kumalo, "We would need
to have our heads examined. We were for going very slow to start with. Now we
are even slower."
What is less understood is how the regime's radical strategy is used at home and
why this makes it impossible to gain anything from engaging with Syria. Like
other Middle Eastern dictatorships, Syria's rulers face a paradox. How to stay
in power after failing so completely? The economy is a mess, there is little
freedom, and the regime is dominated by a small Alawite minority which is
historically secular.
Since taking power in 2000 on his father's death, Bashar has met this challenge.
He sends terrorists against Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and even the U.S. military,
but nobody retaliates in kind against him. At home, the regime sounds
increasingly Islamist; abroad it is the biggest sponsor of radical Islamist
groups in the region.
As a result of their interests and as a matter of survival, Syria's rulers need
anti-Americanism and the Arab-Israeli conflict to mobilize support and distract
from their failings. For example, when Syrians demanded reforms after Bashar
took power, then vice-president Abd Halim Khaddam told the people that nothing
could change as long as Israel controlled the Golan Heights. But actually
getting back this land would be disastrous for the regime since making peace
with Israel would dissolve that excuse, but also because it would open massive
demands by its own citizens for democracy, prosperity, and reform.
Bashar has even declared a new doctrine he calls "Resistance," which combines
Arab nationalism and Islamism. The West's goal, he claims, is to enslave the
Arabs. The mistake made by other Arabs was to abandon war. "The world will not
be concerned with us and our interests, feelings, and rights unless we are
powerful," and victory requires "adventure and recklessness." Any who disagree
are mere "political mercenaries" and "parasites."
This mandatory radicalism ensures that Syria interprets western concessions and
confidence-building measures as acts of surrender, proving its strategy is
working. Years of dialogue and numerous visits by secretaries of state could not
even get Syria to close the terrorist offices in Damascus, much less make any
policy changes.
Anwar al-Bunni, a democratic dissident, explained in 2003 that the only thing
that held back the regime was fear of America. It was only due to "the fright it
gave our rulers, that we reformers stand a chance here."
But once U.S. members of Congress flocked to Damascus, offering words of praise
and advocating detente, Bunni was proven right. He was sentenced on trumped-up
charges to five years' imprisonment.
Font: ****Being nice to Syria will lead nowhere because the regime thrives on
conflict and its demands -- including a recolonized Lebanon -- are too contrary
to western interests to meet. U.S. and Canadian policy should treat Syria's
regime as a determined adversary whose interests are diametrically opposed to
their own because that regime leaves them no real choice.
***Barry Rubin is author of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan), director
of the Global Research in International Affairs (Gloria) Center and editor of
the Middle East Review of International Affairs (Meria).
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007
Sfeir:
national reconciliation, support for the army, militia disarmament
by Youssef Hourani
The Maronite Patriarch describes the soldiers killed in clashes with Fatah al
Islam as “martyrs”. Al Qaeda threatens the cardinal: a blood bath if the
Christian commander of the army does not stop the attack on Nahr el Bared
refugee camp.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – National reconciliation, support for the army, disarmament
of all militias, including Hezbollah: AsiaNews has learned that those were the
demands of the Maronite Patriarch following his meeting with 10 Maronite
deputies, members of the parliamentary group “Reform and Change” headed by
general Michel Aoun.
According to the same sources, the Patriarch also reaffirmed “his position in
favour of national unity, based on consensus between all of the political
parties and on the disarmament of all non governmental forces, starting with the
Palestinians through to the warriors of God’s Party”.
In Sunday mass in Bkerke the cardinal also expressed his concerns regarding the
country’s development and his support for the Lebanese army. The patriarch
appealed that the current ceasefire between the army and Fatah al Islam rebels
holed up in the camp of Nahr el Bared, northern Lebanon, be respected. Moreover
he spoke of his hopes for a return to order, asking authorities to support the
military’s decisions, adding that the people of Lebanon are untied with the army
and the families of the 33 “military martyrs, who died so that the nation may
live”.
He made no mention, however, of the latest threats to arrive from yet another
group claiming to have links with Al Qaeda. In a statement posted on the
internet and addressed directly to the patriarch, a man who says he is the
representative of Al Qaeda in Cham (Lebanon, Palestine, Syria) demanded the
patriarch order the army commander, who is a Christian, to withdraw troops from
the besieged camp, threatening otherwise a “blood bath”.
At a political level, today in Paris Aoun is due to meet with the French foreign
minister Bernard Kouchner, who during his visit to Beirut last week met with
members of Lebanon’s other political factions, from religious leaders to heads
of government, Fouad Siniora, and Speaker Nabih Berri. His trip concluded with
talks with the President of the Republic Emile Lahoud, on the basis, confirmed
Kouchner, of a common accord with EU member states.
Analysis: Why Lebanon Matters
Monday, 28 May, 2007 @ 5:54 PM
By: Paul Ibrahim
Beirut - Americans across the country turned on their televisions last week to
be met with stories coming out of Lebanon about gunfire, militants and bombs.
What else is new, right? This sort of thing happens all the time in the Middle
East, so why have a few hundred militants in northern Lebanon received so much
attention, and why should Americans care? Despite the seemingly routine set of
events emanating out of the Arab world, there are important answers to these
questions.
Like Iraq, Lebanon is one of the most diverse countries in the Middle East. It
has roughly equal populations of Christians, Sunnis and Shiites, and is also
home to a significant Druze minority. A peaceful coexistence among these
religious constituencies, and the survival of a democratic political system that
can fairly accommodate such diverse groups, would make Lebanon a model for the
rest of the Arab world to follow.
The real reason Lebanon matters is that this dream of peace and democracy is not
merely a dream. Lebanon is one of a handful of Middle Eastern countries that
today boasts a political system that can legitimately claim to be democratic.
Though in theory Lebanon has been a democracy for decades, the withdrawal of
Syrian troops from its soil in 2005 allowed for much more fair elections than
could be claimed in years prior. The country today is headed by an elected
government that is friendly toward the West and the United States, although a
strong opposition is led by the decidedly anti-American Hezbollah.
Lebanon is not only valuable as a rare Arab democracy. Its geographic location
bordering on Israel and Syria, its hosting of 350,000 Palestinian refugees and
its role as a gateway for Western culture into the Arab world further add to its
importance in the region. Exceptionally, it is an Arab state where Christians
not only are largely free from oppression, but one in which they hold
significant power as well. On the whole, it is a country in which the United
States and Europe certainly have had good reasons to invest.
But as we were again reminded last week, Lebanon is far from problem-free. In
fact, the relative peace and stability distracts from the fact that the
situation in the country is vulnerable to deterioration at any point. The
country is split down the middle between two mega-rival political camps, each of
which still contains clashing sub-factions. Virtually all of these groups in
some way, shape or form participated in the long Lebanese civil war that ended
about 17 years ago – and would carry arms again if need be.
Aside from serious internal difficulties, Lebanon also faces trouble from the
outside. Although Syria was forced to end its devastating decades-long military
occupation of Lebanon in 2005, it remains relentlessly involved in Lebanese
affairs as a destabilizing force. The early Palestinian-Israeli conflicts have
resulted in the introduction of 350,000 Palestinian refugees into camps that
today host terrorists from around the world, all the while presenting a growing
humanitarian crisis across the land. Also exacerbating the situation last summer
was Israel’s unnecessarily severe destruction of much of Lebanon’s
infrastructure and the weakening of Lebanon’s already delicate
government.Lebanon thus forms a truly fascinating case. On the one hand, it
holds enormous promise as an archetypal democracy that could lead the way for
modernization in the Middle East. Yet at the same time, its stability is among
the most fragile and vulnerable in the Arab world. This is why the upcoming
weeks and months are so crucial. The potential outcomes are quite extreme.
If all goes well, Lebanon could become a magnificent model of peace, democracy
and modernity in the Middle East. The very possible alternative could see
Lebanon turn into a host for a civil war that reflects a regional struggle – one
pitting Iranian Shiites against Arab Sunnis, with the West alternating support
for the two while simultaneously backing the Christians. Inserting the wild
cards of the Palestinian refugees, international terrorists and Israel would
lead to a scenario far beyond any clairvoyant expert’s prediction.
Both the West and the radicals fully understand each of these possibilities.
Since democracy and the prosperity it carries with it form the best antidote to
terrorism, radicals recognize that a scenario of peace for Lebanon would be
unfavorable for them. A free-for-all war, however, represents the ideal
opportunity for terrorist recruitment and growth. This is why we should fight
for a democratic Lebanon with the same intensity of the radicals who are
fighting for instability. This is the reason why the stakes are high. And it is
the reason we should care.
Picture: Paul Ibrahim
Sources: northstarwriters.com